Open data bill passes City Council

Baltimore’s City Council signed off on a bill focused on the city’s open data program.
The bill, sponsored by Councilman Brandon Scott, takes steps to make the open data program permanent.
Until now, the program has been governed by an executive order issued by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake in 2011. The legislation helps many of the provisions in that executive order stay in place, and gives the City Council a place in the governance of the program, Scott said in an interview earlier this year.
Along with keeping the city’s Chief Data Officer and calling for continued publishing and maintenance on the OpenBaltimore portal, the bill calls for the following, among other provisions:

• A public timeline for publication of datasets
• Each city agency must designate a point person for open data
• The city must produce an annual report on open data
• Regular opportunities for “feedback and collaboration”

Though there were a couple of recommendations from the legal department, the bill mostly sailed through a committee hearing earlier this month. Mayor Rawlings-Blake must sign off before it can take effect.