Review the City of Philadelphia’s internal Open Data Guidebook

Melanie Harris, School District of Philadelphia’s Chief Information Officer, at TechCamp this weekend. The School District is one government organization that recently released several datasets. Photo from TechCamp Global.

The City of Philadelphia recently released its internal Open Data Guidebook, a how-to for city departments who are interested in releasing data, and city officials want to hear what you think.

The guidebook, developed by the  city’s Open Data Working Group, has been in the works since late last year. It provides answers to questions like, “Why release open data?” and “What data should my department release?” The guidebook is a work in progress, wrote Chief Data Officer Mark Headd on the Managing Director’s Office’s blog.

Read it on Google Docs at ph.ly/OpenDataGuide.

This isn’t the first time the city has shared its open data work with the public (read the city’s open government plan here), but this release feels especially forward-thinking, since it’s an internal document (on the popular cloud-based, collaborative workspace Google Docs no less.)

It’s also another example of how the city is attempting to engage the public with new channels. Releasing a document like this and soliciting input shows a commitment to getting Philadelphians involved. We hope it becomes the norm.

We last checked in on the city’s open data policy progress in December.