This report was prepared for the City of Syracuse by a Masters of Public Administration class at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. The team consisted of Jinsol Park, Dan Petrick, Krishna Kesari, Sarah Baumunk, and was overseen by Jesse Lecy.

1. ANALYSIS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
FOR CITY OF
SYRACUSE OPEN
DATA PORTAL
June 2017
Sarah Baumunk, Bala Krishna
Reddy Kesari, Jinsol Park, Dan
Petrick
Syracuse University, Maxwell School

2. 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive Summary..................................................................................................................2
Introduction...............................................................................................................................4
Project Background .................................................................................................................4
Benefits of Open Data .............................................................................................................4
Open Data Success Stories.....................................................................................................5
Methodology............................................................................................................................8
Strategies for Efficient Internal Operations ..........................................................................10
Create a Mission Statement ..................................................................................................10
Procedures for Creating Buy-In ............................................................................................11
Launch Data Inventory Initiative.............................................................................................12
Create Iterative Systems .......................................................................................................17
Strategies for Dynamic External Stakeholder Engagement ................................................21
Create Problem Statements ..................................................................................................22
Identify and Engage Community Stakeholders ......................................................................23
Identify Data Champions and Publicize their Work ................................................................27
Create a Feedback Mechanism.............................................................................................31
Features for a Robust Open Data Portal ...............................................................................32
Organize Datasets based on City Priorities............................................................................32
Implement Tools to Track Data Use.......................................................................................34
Give Staff Ownership of Datasets..........................................................................................35
Ensure Data Quality ..............................................................................................................36
Conclusion ..............................................................................................................................45
Appendix A............................................................................................................................46
Appendix B............................................................................................................................47
References............................................................................................................................61

3. 2
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The goal of this project is to provide the City of Syracuse’s Chief Data Officer with the
information and tools necessary to evaluate the access, use, and impact of the City’s open data
portal, garner internal political support for the open data program, and engage external
stakeholders and advocates to amplify the impacts of the open data program throughout the
Syracuse community.
Open data programs have become an increasingly popular and important tool for many cities to
make the government’s work simpler, and increase civic involvement in government processes
and decisions. In general, open data programs can help cities by increasing government
transparency, enhancing public engagement, fostering economic growth, and improving
government efficiency. Several cities across the United States have seen direct, measurable
outcomes due to the information provided by their open data portals. Through specific examples
in Louisville, New Orleans, and New York City, we illustrate how open data can directly increase
civic engagement, help governments prioritize, and empower citizens to hold government
accountable.
Our findings and recommendations in this report are informed by a combination of a thorough
literature review and a series of interviews and surveys. The literature review is composed of a
combination of academic literature, annual reports from several U.S. cities, case studies, and
manuals from non-profit organizations and advocacy groups. We conducted interviews with
Chief Data Officers and Data Mangers (referred to here as data team members) from seven
U.S. cities. In these interviews, we discussed the successes and challenges each city’s data
program has faced, as well as their best practices for internal and external engagement and
metrics. Additionally, we interviewed a representative from each of the community stakeholder
groups we identified - academics, entrepreneurs, NGOs, and community groups - to discuss
how the Syracuse data portal could best fit the needs of the community.
Based on our strategy above, we collected a series of findings and recommendations, which we
divided into three broad categories: strategies for efficient internal operations, strategy for
dynamic external stakeholder engagement, and features for a robust open data portal. We
divided our information into these categories because we consistently heard throughout our
interviews that these three themes are issues that open data programs across the country are
focusing on. Data teams are consistently wrestling with how they can create buy-in within their
local government, ensure their portal is serving the needs of their local community, and produce
a data portal that is high-quality and well-organized. For each of these categories, we developed
an action plan, which will provide the Chief Data Officer with specific, achievable steps to work
toward its goals. These action plans are informed by best practices of other cities, our literature
review, and ideas generated from within our team. Each step of the action plan supported by
additional information, concrete examples, and tools to provide context and resources to
achieve the ultimate goals set out.
Open data programs can have powerful impact within the government itself by increasing the
efficiency within a singular department, enhancing the ability of departments to share
information with one another, and reducing the time it takes to serve the needs of
citizens. However, the City of Syracuse faces the potential challenge that internal government
staff do not understand the value of open data and pushback on the extra workload it requires.

4. 3
To address this challenge, we developed an action plan with the ultimate goal of garnering
internal support and establishing standardized data policies and procedures, which should
reduce the workload required of department employees in the long-run. To achieve this goal,
the City of Syracuse should:
1) Develop a clear mission statement, priorities, and timeline,
2) Create buy-in for the open data program within the internal government staff,
3) Launch an initiative to inventory all potential datasets, and
4) Create a framework that establishes uniform policies and procedures, including technical
and legal compliance, to ensure a standardized and sustainable program.
An engaged community is essential to a successful open data program, as it allows the City to
publicize the positive impacts of open data and ensure datasets are relevant to the community -
which in turn amplifies the program’s impact. If the City of Syracuse does not create a plan to
engage with advocates and stakeholders and receive meaningful, measurable feedback from
these groups, it risks relevant community members being unwilling or unable to use the open
data, thus reducing the impact of the entire program. Through our action plan, we anticipate the
City of Syracuse will be able to build valuable partners in the community, broadly communicate
the value of open data to the community, and receive and respond to in-depth feedback from
advocates and stakeholders. To achieve this goal, the City of Syracuse should:
1) Frame opportunities for collaboration,
2) Identify and engage community stakeholders,
3) Identify data champions and advocates who are invested in the program, and publicize
their work, and
4) Create a dynamic feedback mechanism that allows the Chief Data Officer to receive and
respond to feedback from relevant groups.
To inform the Chief Data Officer's work in this action plan, we have included a detailed strategy
to engage the community, as well as a preliminary analysis of the stakeholders relevant to the
open data program.
Finally, the City of Syracuse needs to consider the quality and accessibility of the data portal
itself. If the data portal does not have information that is high-quality, usable, and relevant, then
community support will suffer and the data portal will not be able to have its full potential impact
on the community. We developed an action plan with the ultimate goal of creating a data portal
that is easily navigable by users, with high-quality information, and which provides a mechanism
by which users can easily provide feedback and input. To achieve this, the City of Syracuse
should:
1) Decide how to organize its data sets to reflect its priorities,
2) Create technical mechanisms to prompt user feedback and track data usage,
3) Give staff ownership of datasets, and
4) Ensure the data is published at a high quality.
To aid the Chief Data Officer in these efforts, we have provided a list of potential metrics to
monitor how the data portal access and use, as well as a bank of sample survey questions to
assess the portal’s impact in the future.

5. 4
INTRODUCTION
Project Background
The Office of Innovation in the City of Syracuse, which was launched in 2015 to tackle urban
issues and improve public services through data, plans to release city-held data to the public via
an Open Data Portal. Open data programs have become an increasingly popular and important
tool of many cities to make the government’s work simpler and increase civic involvement in
government processes and decisions. Although the benefits of an Open Data Program are well
documented, there currently are no universally accepted metrics to measure the success of
these programs. This makes it difficult to justify the needs of releasing data to the public.
Through this project, we aim to provide the City with the information and tools necessary to
evaluate the access, use, and impact of its open data portal, garner internal political support for
the open data program, and engage external stakeholders and advocates to amplify the impacts
of the open data program throughout the Syracuse community.
Benefits of Open Data
It is important first to consider why open data matters. Investing in an open data program
requires a significant amount of time and resources, but a successful program promises benefits
within the government, within the community, and in the relationship between these two parties.
Throughout our literature review of academic literature and other cities’ annual reports, we
found four major ‘theories of change’ for how open data can benefit a city.
Increased Transparency
Allowing citizens increased access to government data can equip them with a better
understanding of government performance, which in turn builds their trust of the government. As
a way to increase government transparency, cities such as Chattanooga, Austin, and Las Vegas
built a performance dashboard on their data portal, which allows both the government and the
public to track the progress of various city initiatives, based on their city’s priorities.
Enhanced Public Engagement
Open data programs can enhance public engagement by allowing citizens to participate more
actively in their government’s decision-making processes and policy creation. The government
also benefits from the ‘collective intelligence’ that is created when researchers and citizen
advocacy groups are able to analyze data and provide insights on important government policy
issues such as public safety, public finance, and education.
Economic Growth
Open data can foster regional economic growth because new businesses can use open data to
develop new products and services. For example, Yelp built an application based on open data
in San Francisco to help people find local businesses, and Zillow operates their business based
on open real estate data. Additionally, when local businesses have access to better information
about economic trends or the characteristics of their environment (demographics, building
permits, etc.), they are able to make better business decisions.

6. 5
Improved Government Efficiency
Finally, open data can greatly benefit internal employees by increasing operational efficiency.
By providing data upfront, open data reduces the number of citizen requests for government
data through the Freedom of Information Act. This reduces the labor and physical costs of
providing the same information each time a citizen requests that information. In addition, open
data is a critical step to toward big data and allowing the government to make more data-driven
decisions.
Open Data Success Stories
While there are many ongoing attempts to measure the value of open data quantitatively, it still
seems the most popular and powerful way to express open data’s value is through stories of
cities where open data has been used to improve government services and the lives of citizens.
Based on our literature review and conversations with data teams from around the country, we
have compiled a collection of stories that reflect the kinds of impacts we believe open data could
have on the city of Syracuse.
Informing Citizens and Government to Improve Quality of Life:
AirLouisville
The City of Louisville, KY, had such poor air quality it was affecting the quality of life of its
citizens. The city was ranked #4 in the country for cases of adult asthma, and was rated one of
the worst places in the country to live for people with asthma. To address this, the City of
Louisville collaborated with Propeller Health, a healthcare company, in a program called
AirLouisville, which implanted GPS trackers in the inhalers of 300 participants. These GPS
trackers could log where and when the inhalers were used. After tracking this information for
one year, the city mapped this information to see which parts of the city had the worst air
quality. This was an effective program because it informed both the citizens and the
government1
. The participants received the information from their own inhaler use, and therefore
were able to track what kind of environmental factors (such as temperature, weather conditions,
etc.) affected their asthma the most2
. Additionally, the government used this information to
prioritize and concentrate their clean air efforts. In one example, the city noted one heavily
polluted road where the inhaler use was three times that of other areas in the city. By planting a
row of trees between that road and a nearby residential area, they were able to reduce the
amount of particulates in the air by 60%3
.
1 “Is Louisville, Kentucky, the new face of asthma healthography?” Propeller Health. 16 November 2014.
Web.
2 Booker, Christopher. “How data is helping asthmatics breathe easier” PBS News Hour. 27 September
2015. Web.
3 Totty, Michael. “Why your city is spying on you – and that might be a good thing” MarketWatch. 26 April
2017. Web.

7. 6
Image 1: Map Generated from AirLouisville Project4
Helping Governments Prioritize:
New Orleans’ BlightSTAT
The City of New Orleans’ problem with blight was exacerbated by Hurricane Katrina. In 2010,
New Orleans faced the worst blight problem in the country – with almost 44,000 residential
properties affected. These vacant and dilapidated properties “suppress property values,
threaten public safety, chase away investment and hurt quality of life.”5
To address this, the City
created BlightStatus using data from multiple city departments, which shows the blight status of
specific properties for both government officials and the public. This web app is part of
BlightSTAT – a program that pulls together 5 city departments to coordinate blight reduction
efforts. The departments meet with the public monthly for resident input. As a result of the
increase in coordination and information, the City is able to streamline enforcement procedures
and target areas that residents consider high-priority. In less than four years, the City reduced
the number of blighted properties by 13,000, and has since been considered a leader in the field
of blight reduction6
.
4 Misra, Tanvi. “3 Cities Using Open Data in Creative Ways to Solve Problems” CityLab, The Atlantic. 22
April 2015. Web.
5 Chieppo, Charles. “New Orleans’ Winning Strategy in the War on Blight” Governing Magazine. 18 March
2014. Web.
6 Misra, Tanvi.

8. 7
Image 2: Dashboard of New Orleans’ BlightStatus7
Empowering Citizens to Hold Government Accountable:
New York City’s I Quant NY
Sam Wellington, a data blogger in New York City, used NYC’s data portal to analyze which
parking spots in the city collected the most parking tickets. His analysis revealed that two spots
alone were costing drivers $55,000 in parking tickets annually. Under further inspection, he
realized this was due to two poorly-marked fire hydrants. After posting on his blog, the
community became engaged in the issue by discussing it on online forums such as Reddit. The
NYC media took notice and began to report on the analysis, putting pressure on the Department
of Transportation to comment. As a result, DOT responded to public pressure by publically
stating they were unaware of the issue and would make changes. The road markings were
changed shortly thereafter to more clearly mark the illegal spot (see picture below), saving NYC
drivers from tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of parking tickets8
.
Image 3a: Before Open Data Image 3b: After Open Data9
7 Ibid.
8 Wellington, Ben. “Success: How NYC Open Data and Reddit Saved New Yorkers Over $55,000 a Year.”
I Quant NY Blog. 2 June 2014.
9 Ibid.

9. 8
Methodology
We divided our research into two categories: literature review, and interviews and surveys. We
selected these categories in order to combine the best practices and case studies outlined in
open data literature, with interviews with experts in the field and community stakeholders. Given
the time constraints of this project, we needed to be realistic about the number of people with
which we could speak. This section outlines our research process. We aim to be as transparent
as possible about our process, so the Chief Data Officer can understand our narrative structure
and follow up with any of the sources we consulted.
Literature Reviews
In our literature review, we focused on establishing best practices for evaluating open data
portals and community engagement strategies, and we examined several different source types
for this information. The first type was academic articles from open data advocacy
organizations. These organizations work with cities across the United States on open data
projects, providing grants and expertise. The organizations we looked at included the Sunlight
Foundation, Results for America, What Works Cities, John Hopkins Center for Government
Excellence, and Harvard University’s Center for Data-Smart City Solutions. In addition, we
looked at reports from McKinsey, which has in-depth recommendations containing guidelines for
cities that starting open data projects.
We spent a considerable amount of time exploring existing open data portals, taking an in-depth
look at more than 20 cities. Given Syracuse’s demographics, we thought it would be prudent to
look both at large cities, who generally have more established open portals, as well as smaller
cities, many of which have similar economic constraints to Syracuse. We combined cost-
effective innovative methods used by larger cities with best practices from smaller cities. Many
of our recommended metrics come from quarterly and annual reports published by these cities.
Third, we looked at case studies of open data successes and challenges. We pulled information
from newspaper articles, academic journals, and advocacy organizations. It is our hope that the
best practices stories can serve as both examples for Syracuse and inspire new ways to think
about how open data can engage the community. By discussing some of the open data
challenges cities face – particularly smaller cities strapped for cash – we aim to provide
recommendations for overcoming common problem areas.
Interviews
We reached out to 19 U.S. cities with open data portals from all around the country. While our
original goal was to speak to ten cities, we received only eight responses. Due to the condensed
timeline and summer vacation season, we planned for about a 50% response rate. While we
found that people were eager to help and discuss their programs, many simply did not have the
time to speak with us. We structured the interviews into five key areas: access to data, data
usage, data quality, stakeholder engagement, and successes and failures. The questions we
used in the interviews can found in Appendix B2 at the end of this document. Given that Chief
Data Officers are working on the front lines of the industry, we leveraged their experiences into
creating a strategic framework for both internal and external action plans.
Second, we reached out to data experts working at open data advocacy organizations. We
spoke to experts from the Sunlight Foundation, What Works Cities, Hack Upstate, and the
federal government. We also reached out to Syracuse University faculty in the Maxwell School,
Whitman School, and the Information Studies School, as well as SUNY-ESF. Our interest was
receiving feedback from university professors who frequently use data in both their classes and

10. 9
their own research. We administered a survey via Google Forms. The survey can be found in
Appendix B2. We asked faculty what data sets they were currently using in their courses, if they
had heard about Syracuse’s open data portal project, how Syracuse open data could be
incorporated into their courses, and their willingness to offer feedback to the city. Information
from the surveys were used to inform our community engagement and feedback
recommendations.
Finally, we spoke to individuals from NGO’s and community organizations. We sought input
from community-based advocacy groups to evaluate how open data might be useful to groups
fighting against issues such as adult literacy, job training, lead poisoning, and access to healthy
foods. We spoke to representatives from the Central New York Community Foundation, Greater
Syracuse HOPE Project, and the Eastwood Neighborhood Association. We also spoke to
CenterState CEO and Syracuse University’s Blackstone LaunchPad about the positive impacts
open data can have on small businesses in the community. These interviews were critical to
informing our external engagement action plan, as well as our community engagement strategy.

11. 10
STRATEGIES FOR EFFICIENT
INTERNAL OPERATIONS
Overview
For the City of Syracuse’s open data portal to achieve any kind of success in improving internal
efficiency or quality public service, it is vital to gain the support and participation of internal
government staff. Open data can impact internal government practices in a number of ways: by
increasing data sharing within and between government departments, reducing the amount of
time required to respond to citizens’ information requests, and creating a culture of data-driven
decision making in the workplace.
The City of Syracuse faces the potential challenge that internal government staff do not
understand the value of open data and push back on the extra workload it requires. To address
this challenge, we developed an action plan with the ultimate goal of garnering internal support
and establishing standardized data policies and procedures, which should reduce the workload
required of department employees in the long-run. To achieve this goal, we have developed an
action plan for the Chief Data Officer, which has been informed by our conversations with data
team members from across the country, in-depth literature review, and creative ideas developed
from discussions among our team.
Step 1: Develop a Mission Statement
The Chief Data Officer, along with his open data team, should take the time to generate a
mission statement, along with the vision and values of the open data project. This is an
important step to establishing the ultimate goals of the project, which will ultimately influence
decisions such as what datasets to publish. During this discussion, the open data team should
also establish priorities and a clear timeline. These will be important when evaluating the
success of the data portal, because it will allow the CDO to measure the timeliness and priority
level of datasets published.
A well-crafted mission statement is an effective tool for understanding, developing, and
communicating the essence of your organization. It guides the internal decision-making process
and should make users want to learn more about the Syracuse Open Data Portal. Mission
statements should be no more than two sentences and take no more than 30 seconds to read.
A strong mission statement should have three key components
 Why your organization exists
 Who it serves
 How it serves them10
10 Hull, Patrick. “Answer 4 Questions to Get a Great Mission Statement” Forbes Magazine. 10 January
2013. Web.

12. 11
A mission statement must cover all three points in a succinct, clear, and memorable way. Bad
mission statements are vague, wordy, and full of jargon. Some examples of excellent mission
statements from other cities’ open data programs are listed below:
 San Francisco: “Our mission is to enable use of the City’s data to support a broad range
of outcomes - from increasing government transparency and efficiency to unlocking new
realms of economic value.”
 Philadelphia: “OpenDataPhilly is based on the idea that providing free and easy access
to data information encourages better and more transparent government and a more
engaged and knowledgeable citizenry.”
 South Bend: “The Open Data platform enables the city to better understand captured
data and develop data-based solutions to challenging problems. With features that allow
government officials and citizens alike to view more information than ever before, South
Bend is on the cutting edge of municipal technology, promoting innovative solutions and
transparency.”
Step 2: Create Internal Buy-in
The next step for the Chief Data Officer is to turn the previously-determined mission, vision, and
values into a cohesive story to be expressed to internal staff. Many cities with open data
programs have found this to be an important element of gaining buy-in from government
employees. Open data is not a one-and-done project, but rather a continual effort. Therefore, it
is vital to have the continued support of elected officials, leadership, and data coordinators.
There is a variety of stories that can be told to express why open data is important. In our
discussions with various data team members, we found some cities emphasize the value of
transparency and democracy, while others emphasize internal efficiency or data-driven
management.
Improving Internal Efficiency
Louisville, Kentucky began work on their Open Data Portal in 2013 under the leadership of
Deputy Director of Technology Tim Welsh. Welsh noted that he faced opposition from city
agencies over concerns that the public might misinterpret the data sets and concerns regarding
data inconsistencies across departments. To remedy these concerns, Welsh mandated that
data sets are not made public until the contributing agency approves their content and metadata
quality. Once the agency approval process was in place, agencies have been able to surpass
expectations. As Welsh noted, “agencies spent days on some data tasks which only take
minutes.” Louisville went on to release over 400 data sets over the first two years of operation.
Additionally, Louisville has seen a considerable reduction in Freedom of Information requests,
which has significantly reduced workload across multiple agencies.11
Albuquerque Application Development Manager Mark Leech, who is in charge of managing of
the city’s open data portal, sought to maximize the city’s return on investment by identifying
ways to allow city employees to be more productive. In an interview with Code for America,
Leech noted that the one of the major ways open data could be useful is by reducing the
number of 311 calls. For example, Leech notes that citizens would routinely call while waiting for
a bus, inquiring about expected arrival times. Making bus datasets publicly available saved the
city about $180,000 in calls to their 311 center in 2012 alone. Open data has the power to free
11 Code for America interview with Tim Welsh, June 2014
http://archive.codeforamerica.org/projects/louisville-open-data/

13. 12
up city employees so they can work on on more sustainable projects while helping cities save
money.12
Mark Headd, the former Chief Data Officer for the City of Philadelphia, brought up an excellent
example in our interview of how open data can benefit cities across departments. Before open
data, one city department issued building permits while another collected property taxes.
However, the departments didn’t communicate well with one another. When the data was via
the open data portal, the city permit office became aware that the city was offering business
permits to companies with delinquent taxes. The city permit office communicated their findings
to the taxation department, who in turn were able to step up their enforcement efforts in curbing
tax delinquency throughout the city.
Incentivizing and Recognizing Staff
One excellent way to incentivize employee participation is through recognition programs. For
example, San Francisco has launched an employee recognition program that highlights city
officials who are using open data in innovative ways. In each quarterly report, San Francisco
recognizes city employees who have gone above and beyond to use data to solve city
problems. They even have an annual awards show to recognize star employees. While we do
not recommend that Syracuse should have a reward show, we believe recognizing the work city
agencies are doing with open data can help achieve buy in.
One of the more novel recognition programs that we have come across is the City of Austin’s
Open Data Initiative Contests. These are 90-day annual contests that are fast paced and highly
competitive. The purpose of the project is to increase the amount of open data sets published
from every city department. Departments were asked to designate an open data liaison, conduct
a data inventory, submit an open data participation plan, and publish at least three data sets to
Austin’s open data portal. Once the Syracuse portal is up and running, the city should
encourage all city departments to participate in a similar program. Starting with a target of one
dataset in 90 days (rather than three) might be more feasible given Syracuse’s size and its
stage in development of the open data portal.
Cost-effective employee workshops can educate city employees on how best to engage with the
open data portal. The city of Raleigh, NC held monthly workshops for employees, educated
them about data literacy and provided them with some basic technical training. In these monthly
workshops, Raleigh created a subgroup of data stewards, who acted as the instructors. To
replicate this model in Syracuse, the data stewards should be selected from departments whose
data is most valuable to the Chief Data Officer. The CDO would train these stewards on
technical skills as well as how to shape the narrative around the data they plan to release. By
increasing the data skills of city employees, Syracuse can increase internal efficiency and
reduce the workload down the line.
Step 3: Launch Data Inventory
Once the data portal has been established, the City of Syracuse should move toward
establishing a data inventory initiative. This involves working with departments to create an
inventory list of all existing datasets that could potentially be published, and the state of the
quality of each dataset. The inventory is a valuable tool to measure how many datasets have
been published of the total possible, and it helps to set expectations of how long it will take to
12
Dyson, Lauren. “Spotlight: Mark Leech, City of Albuquerque” Code for America Blog. 26 November
2013. Web.

14. 13
clean and publish particular datasets. While the process is certainly time-consuming, many
cities with highly successful data programs have found it to be an important part of their
program. While we became most familiar with the New Orleans inventory process during our
research, other cities such as Austin, Philadelphia, and San Francisco also have gone through
similar initiatives.
Data Inventories – What are they and what are they good for?
While creating a robust data inventory is not an endeavor all cities we interviewed have chosen
to take on, those cities who have done so speak highly of its promise. Developing a data
inventory requires the commitment of all departments to identify all of the datasets currently
existing in the department and assess the quality of these datasets. This list of possible
datasets can then be published publically for citizens to comment on. Having a data inventory is
valuable for internal processes, as it allows the Chief Data Officer to measure how many data
sets have been cleaned and published out of the total amount of existing datasets. Additionally,
the process of developing a data inventory creates an opportunity for all departments to become
more familiar with the concept of open data – including what data is, and what data the
department has. The dialogue prompted by data inventory can also help inform the Chief Data
Officer of what information the public are interested in, and what they use the data for.
Process of Creating a Data Inventory
In our interviews, we spoke extensively with Whitney Soenksen, the data inventory specialist for
the City of New Orleans, about the data inventory initiative their city has recently undertaken.
Their data team relied on information provided by the City and County of San Francisco to
initiate the process.
San Francisco provides a wealth of information on how to initiate a data inventory, including
instructions and templates. In sum, the DataSF information suggests data coordinators first
send out an excel sheet with instructions regarding who should fill out the chart (SF divides the
departments into low, medium, and high complexity of data processing). Within the excel
document, data coordinators are prompted to list all the data sources their department uses,
and then are asked to brainstorm all the datasets that could be created from these sources. The
rows from the brainstorm sheet are automatically entered into a following sheet, which is labeled
“data inventory.” On this sheet, data coordinators are then asked to complete information about
each data set – including who manages the data, how frequently it is updated, the geographic
granularity, and its value (among other categories). Once completed, the excel file is emailed
back to the data team for processing.
When talking with Whitney, she followed this procedure of sending an excel file to all
departments in order to collect information. However, she found that only one department was
able to fill out the document properly on their own. She then set up one-on-one meetings with
the data coordinators of each department to walk them through the excel document, and talk to
them about how to improve their first attempt. With us, she discussed how these meetings were
incredibly valuable throughout the inventory process, as they increased both understanding and
comradery between the departments and the data team. Similarly, during our conversation with
Stephen Larrick of the Sunlight Foundation, he discussed how the data team of Glendale,
Arizona, met with the individual data coordinators of each team. In this process, the data team
asked the data coordinators what kind of information people were requesting and what they
were using it for. Because department data coordinators have the most intimate knowledge of
their datasets, this proved to be a valuable source of information for the data team.

15. 14
One final element of creating a data inventory is the scoring of individual datasets. In New
Orleans, the data team asks the data coordinators of each department to score each of their
data sets on a rating of 0-3 in three categories – Data Quality, Open Data and Data Costs. They
provide the department with an excel document which automatically calculates the total scores
in each of the categories. In our conversation, Whitney discussed how, in her experience, the
data managers in each department take great pride in the quality of their data, and therefore are
eager to spend time scoring it. These scores inform both the departments and the data team
about the quality status of the data sets, which in turn helps them prioritize when to publish
certain data sets and where to spend time cleaning the data.
Image 4: City of New Orleans, Data Scoring
Publishing Inventories
Once the work has gone into creating a data inventory, it can be published online for the public
to view. In the case of New Orleans, they have created a separate website, dedicated to their
published inventory and reporting analytics of their open data program. The website allows the
public to view what datasets currently exist, and if they see a dataset of interest, they are able to
leave a comment requesting the release of this information and are asked to provide a ‘use
case’ explaining for what purpose they would use the data. This helps the data team identify
data sets are of most interest to the public, so they can prioritize which datasets to clean and
incentivize the department to release the information for a specific purpose.
However, the New Orleans team admitted that, while they have received some feedback
through this mechanism, it has been relatively small amount. In our conversation with the
Sunlight Foundation, they discussed that the City of Philadelphia ran into a similar problem of
receiving little feedback on their public inventory. In order to increase user interaction, the City
of Philadelphia created a competition offering a small cash prize to the individual who could
invent the best use of a potentially-releasable data set.
Below, we have provided examples of published inventories from New Orleans, Philadelphia,
and San Francisco, for reference.

16. 15
Image 5: City of New Orleans Data Inventory
Image 6: City of Philadelphia Data Inventory

17. 16
Image 7: Feedback Section City of Philadelphia Inventory
Image 8: San Francisco Open Data Inventory

18. 17
Step 4: Create Iterative Systems
Finally, the City of Syracuse should work toward established policies and procedures that will
allow the open data program to become as standardized, automated, and sustainable as
possible. This involves establishing technical and legal protocols that each department will need
to uphold. The Chief Data Officer should also provide guidance and encourage all departments
to establish their own goals regarding the creation, cleaning, and publishing of open datasets. In
our literature review, we found that The Sunlight Foundation and other advocacy groups
promoted this as an important element of establishing a sustainable open data program.
In the 21st
century, data is considered as if it were a form of public infrastructure. This
infrastructure requires sustainable funding, strong social, economic and political structures,
skills training, and both data collection and usage. With a ‘systems map’, comprised of the
processes involved from data collection to distribution, the City of Syracuse can enable
targeted, coordinated, and collaborative development.
An open data charter can help foster greater coherence and collaboration to instill best practices
in data format, timeliness of data updates, and the comprehensiveness, accessibility, usability,
and compatibility of the data. The City of Syracuse needs to train employees to build up their
skills and capacity in data collection, cleaning, and standardization in order to ensure high-
quality data is being released. This is important both within the agencies and organizations
releasing data (to ensure the quality of data), and to the extent possible, within the community of
users. Presenting open data as a public good promotes citizen participation. For the success of
the initiative the city need to work closely with various stakeholders.
Metrics for Internal Efficiency
The City of Syracuse needs to establish ways to measure how open data has improved the
internal efficiency of the government. The table below serves as a directory of proposed metrics
to measure internal efficiency. To collect some of these indicators, we recommend conducting a
formal survey of government staff to gauge some of the more nuanced aspects of internal
efficiency.
Indicator Source of indicator
Number of datasets requests
- Number of internal or intra-departmental datasets
requests
- Number of datasets requests from public
World Wide Web Foundation’s
open data common assessment
framework & Our Team
Number of respondents indicating that Syracuse
OpenData has made their analytical work easier, faster,
more accurate
San Francisco Open Data Portal
Percent of respondents indicating that they use
Syracuse Open Data Portal to access data internally
and from other departments
San Francisco Open Data Portal

19. 18
Respondents indicating that the following are medium
or major barriers
- Knowledge/awareness of datasets (inter and intra
departmental)
- Getting data out of information systems (inter and
intra
departmental)
- Not knowing who to contact
- No standard process
- Data not available in digital form
San Francisco Open Data Portal
Respondents indicating that the following would be
helpful or very helpful
- Better access to data produced or collected by other
departments
San Francisco Open Data Portal
Number of staff hours responding to data requests Our team
Table 1: Directory of Metrics to Evaluate Internal Efficiency
Technical and Legal Compliance
Open data portals should enable access to information, civic participation, and public
accountability. In order to do so, open data is subject to various technical and legal obligations.
Based on a group of recommendations from a common assessment framework for open data,
the datasets need to follow a specific criterion in terms of data format, big data & data template,
data directory and open data research community.
Collaboration among the data providers is important to ensure information presented to the
citizens through open data portal is up-to-date.
Data Quality and Content management systems
To ensure effective collaboration between the various departments in the City of Syracuse, the
City needs to develop the capacity to both building and manage a content management system,
and the analytics involved. The two major areas of focus should be content management and
content distribution.
To ensure data is high quality, the City of Syracuse needs to ensure data is complete and
properly categorized. A complete data set is denoted by many factors – but it is particularly
important to ensure the data in the open data portal is updated frequently. 'Data Inventory' tools
can be used to categorize the data based on the City's priorities and available data sets.

20. 19
One key criteria for ensuring data quality is the timeliness with which data is updated. The Chief
Data Officer should continue to develop metrics to improve timeliness, by periodically evaluating
metrics such as the median number of days taken to update data and the percentage of the
data sets that are currently up to date. To ensure a positive experience for data users, the open
data portal must provide the metadata necessary for users to understand the data. Along with
the availability, the City of Syracuse should additionally measure the percentage of broken links,
and the number of fields in metadata that are currently populated.
Another crucial element to ensuring data quality is the source of data. The primary source of
available data is generated from the interaction between the supplier of information and user
groups. This interaction can be measured through demand-use impact value chain analysis.
Crowdsourcing is an effective and efficient process to collect data from multiple sources
including civil society, academic, and business communities, among other groups.
Considering the wide range of open data portal users, published data should be made available
in multiple formats. The most commonly used formats include csv, xml and APIs. A data code
book is crucial to providing users with the information required to evaluate the usage of the data
sets as well as geospatial data. Along with the data sets, geospatial data is important to improve
the internal processes within the government and the external processes for the citizens.
Another important aspect of building a successful open data portal is the proper allocation of
resources – both human and financial. Periodically training government officials on categorizing
and updating data will enhance both transparency and accountability in the policy decision
process. Departments are required to release technical standards for publishing raw data online
and adopt APIs that permit apps to request public data sets directly from the portal. Using
Google Analytics will provide the City of Syracuse with statistics on user interaction – especially
information related to page views and percentage of users.
Seamless coordination and collaboration among the departments can be achieved by
integrating multiple data streams, and linking with local jurisdictions will provide citizens with real
time updates. Each department should take the ownership of the data set created, and allow
user groups to provide feedback on the data quality and other improvements.
Legal Compliance
Open Data law mandates that the city framework should follow certain legislation regarding the
usage and distribution of the data. One of the statutory mandates includes a data licensing
provision. Under this provision, when distributing data, the City of Syracuse should give
licensing to the users to both download and use the data. This provision also includes a textual
analysis and a list of compatible licenses. Open data law also mandates that all public data
should be freely available on a single web portal, maintained on a computer system on behalf of
the city agency.
Retaining and archiving the data is also a mandate for the city during the creation of open data
portal. This provides the public with the data from previous and internal processes of
governance for better data-driven decision making. For each data set released, the City of
Syracuse is responsible for providing a plain language data dictionary for each data set.
Maintaining geospatial standards is crucial to datasets containing street addresses, coordinates,
and political boundaries. Handling public requests is yet another legal mandate. This can be
achieved through two processes: through direct feedback on datasets in the open data portal, or
by linking the data portal with freedom of information law (FOIL) requests.

21. 20
Timely updates to the data and periodic examination and validation is a mandate, and provides
the public with the most recent information on the various data sets. Each year, a committee
under the guidance of Mayor needs to examine the data sets released by various agencies.
Public Sector Information (PSI) reuse policy mandates that the city government collect
information on the reuse of the data sets released, as well as the user interaction with each data
set. For example, if an entity chooses to transform data by aggregation or transcoding for use
on an Internet site built for end users, it still has an obligation to make the full-resolution
information available in bulk for others to build their own sites and preserve the data for
posterity.
Long Term Recommendations
Metrics Bank
One long-term recommendation for the City of Syracuse is creating a “Metrics Bank” that is
comprised of important indicators, with input from local stakeholders, researchers and experts in
the field. It could be organized around the variety of categories that open data impacts, such as
economic concerns (like return on investment or private sector economic revenues generated),
public problem solutions (lives saved, increases in the efficiency of service delivery), and others.
In line with the previous suggestion, the Metrics Bank should be reviewed on a regular basis by
a citizens’ group or panel created specifically for that purpose.
Data Research Communities
Data research communities are an effective way of engaging a community to assess data
quality and unlock possible applications of data through visualization and mobile applications.
This research community can be formed as a user group association to propose feedback on
the data sets available in the open data portal.

22. 21
STRATEGY FOR DYNAMIC
EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDER
ENGAGEMENT
Overview
The City of Syracuse needs to design an external strategy that allows them to engage open
data stakeholders such as entrepreneurs, academics, NGOs, and community groups, and
receive meaningful, measurable feedback, so they can provide an open data portal that best
reflects the interests of stakeholders and broadens community buy-in. Our goal is to build a
framework that allows the City of Syracuse to identify data champions and amplify the impact of
open data through partnerships with community stakeholders. We recognize the importance in-
depth feedback plays as part of the communications process, so we have produced
recommendations that provide guidance for how to engage community stakeholders and grow
interest beyond the initial core supporters.
Background on Community Engagement Strategies
While open data is undeniably important to government efforts to promote transparency and
accountability, the benefits of an open data portal cannot be maximized without engaging
important stakeholders in the community. Our team focused on developing a comprehensive
strategy to encourage productive conversations between the Chief Data Officer and key
stakeholders in the community. We explored literature from leading advocacy groups including
the Sunlight Foundation, Harvard Data-Smart City Solutions, What Works Cities, and the John
Hopkins Center for Government Excellence. We also included information from our
conversations with Chief Data Officers and Non-Governmental Organizations.
While we were able to find pertinent information from these sources, it is clear that community
engagement strategies are new to the field of open data and a significant amount of research
remains ongoing. Nevertheless, we found the Sunlight Foundation’s Tactical Engagement
Strategy to be the most useful. Released in March of 2017, the Tactical Engagement Strategy
puts forth a guide to unite city open data professionals with people and processes in order to
address local needs. The report illustrates how to leverage stakeholder expertise alongside key
subject areas of focus that are of greatest importance to local entrepreneurs and community
residents. We believe community members are the best experts in determining organizational
and civic needs. Our community engagement strategy requires the city to work with external
partners, Syracuse University, community advocates, and neighborhood associations. By
harnessing residents’ experiences to drive the direction of the open data initiative, the City of
Syracuse can make data-driven decisions to accomplish shared goals.
Much of the recent focus on open data has centered on the technological aspects of data, and
thus has overlooked the community members and data users themselves. Two primary goals of
open data are to have stakeholders use data productively, and to ensure that data helps

23. 22
organizations achieve their goals. One major challenge is finding a way to measure data use in
the community beyond the scope of access to data. While an open data portal is necessary and
important part of the process, it alone will not ensure that stakeholders meet their goals. Cities
must adopt comprehensive strategies to empower community organizations, residents, and data
users to engage with open data.
As the Sunlight Foundation report notes, “open data is a project done with, not for, community
stakeholders.” Given that Syracuse has not yet made the portal operational, it is essential that
the Chief Data Officer commits some of his time to community outreach. This will ensure that,
once the portal is fully functional, community stakeholders are aware of what data is available.
We anticipate that, because of this engagement, data will serve as a catalyst for stakeholder
projects and initiatives, and can provide a missing link toward achieving community goals.
Step 1: Framing Opportunities for Collaboration
The Chief Data Officer needs to work in conjunction with the mayor’s office to identify
programmatic goals for adopting a collaborative problem statement. The Sunlight Foundation
Tactical Data Engagement Guide provides a model for the strategy of creating a problem
statement. Syracuse should formalize internal interests by determining what resources and
capacities the city is willing to contribute to a collaborative project with stakeholders. Syracuse
will need to formulate a hypothesis for each individual problem statement around a specific
problem area. Our report includes a series of questions to inform conversations among city
employees and to provide a framework for thinking about what relevant city departments,
community stakeholders, and data sets should be included in the problem statement.
It is important that the city formalize internal interests when determining what resources the City
of Syracuse is willing to commit to projects that include working with stakeholders. This process
must be thorough and open-minded. All members of the Innovation Team should be involved,
along with any city employees that the team feels will add essential input. An important first step
in beginning the community engagement process is formulating a hypothesis for what the
problem statement might look like. The Innovation Team will later rewrite the initial hypothesis
based on feedback from stakeholders. The following questions, taken from the Sunlight
Foundation report, serve as guidelines for thinking about what community issues, stakeholders,
and data sets are relevant.
 What is the problem area?
 Who are the relevant city departments and staff?
 Who are the relevant community stakeholders?
 Those with subject matter expertise?
 Those with tech/data expertise?
 Those with local context expertise? (those who will be most impacted)
 What are the relevant datasets from the city perspective?
 To understanding the problem?
 To measuring the problem?
 What will success or progress in this work look like?
When it comes to crafting problem statements, FOIL requests are often an effective way to think
about different priorities. Departments can identify the information that is most requested or
relevant to the most frequent requests made. Another framing technique that can be used is
thinking about the existing relationships Syracuse has with community partners. When we

24. 23
interview the City of Austin’s data team, they mentioned it is commonplace for cities to have
information that could be of use to partner organizations. However, these partner organizations
are often unaware that such data sets exists. By framing open data as a collaborative
opportunity for enhancing relationships with community groups, the city will be more successful
in its efforts to promote community buy-in.
Step 2: Identify and Engage Community Stakeholders
City of Syracuse Stakeholder Analysis
To help the Office of Innovation jumpstart its engagement with the community, we identified four
major stakeholder groups in the Syracuse community and conducted interviews with a
representative of each group. We identified these stakeholder groups through a combination of
suggestions from open data advocacy groups, as well as conversations with the Office of
Innovation, and our own knowledge of the community. The stakeholders we identified are
organized groups unique to the Syracuse area, who we believe will be either the primary users
of the data, or the primary groups interested in the results of data analyses. From this
framework, we identified the following groups: Entrepreneurs/Business Community,
Academics/University Faculty, Non-profit Organizations, and Community Groups.
Based on the conversations we had with representatives from these groups, we have compiled
information about their opinions of open data and how they believe open data can best serve
the needs of their organization. This information is intended to serve as a preliminary window
into the kind of information that could be found through an in-depth community stakeholder
analysis. We believe the Office of Innovation should use this model to conduct a more thorough
stakeholder analysis to have the most complete information possible. To assist in this effort, we
have included examples of our interview/survey questions in Appendix B2.
Entrepreneurs and Business Community
Entrepreneurs are crucial to the improvement of local economy. Open data portals can provide
an opportunity to the local business to utilize the information as a means to target specific
categories of the public. In our interaction with Braden, the program manager of Blackstone
LaunchPad, an initiative by Syracuse University to promote entrepreneurship, he believed that
the release of open data sets could stimulate economic opportunity through its incorporation into
data-driven companies and businesses. However, currently there is not a high demand for open
data, because the business community is not fully aware of what kind of information can be
attained through open government data. He estimated it would take 2-3 years before they could
properly evaluate the business community’s demand for open data.
Developing datasets customized to target consumer interests is crucial to the startup
community. The influence of open data on this community will increase with time, once they are
aware of the variety of data sets are available. Maintaining up-to-date data is important for
building a public relations campaign to promote data sources. The city of Syracuse can engage
entrepreneurs through forums, tech meetups, and data innovation forums. Entrepreneurs can
contribute to the open data portal by incorporating Syracuse data into their research, and
participating in efforts to receive feedback and develop more usable datasets.
Academics
Academics from universities in Syracuse could potentially be the primary consumers of
Syracuse’s open data. To understand the variety and views on the utility of the data, we
conducted a survey of faculty from Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies,

25. 24
Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Whitman School of Management, and SUNY’s
College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF). More than half of the respondents
are not currently using data sets related to Syracuse. Respondents indicated a broad range of
dataset topics they would be interested in, including public safety data, infrastructure data, and
geospatial data – among others. Currently, most of the academics are using CSV format from
other cities, however there is a high demand for APIs.
The respondents expressed a particular need for data that is highly convenient to use. The data
should be searchable, labelled correctly, and specific to their areas of research. A few examples
of the area of research are: social media use in higher education marketing, energy and
environmental policy, urban geography, urban history, data science, social welfare policy, and
public finance management. Overall, academics believe open data will have a positive impact
on their jobs, and they are eager to use Syracuse data in their regular university-level research.
Non-Profit Organizations
Another key community stakeholder in Syracuse is the city’s non-profit and non-governmental
organizations. These organizations work to address pressing social and economic issues facing
the Syracuse community, and many have intimate ties with marginalized communities within the
city. For these reasons, non-profit organizations are likely to be key consumers of open data d
when it pertains to the issues they cover. Additionally, these organizations are in the best
position to carry out policy changes, if the open data is used to identify ways in which social
policies can be better implemented.
To gain insight into the non-profit community in Syracuse, we talked with Frank Ridzi of CNY
Community Foundation and Ocesa Keaton of Greater Syracuse H.O.P.E. One of the major
takeaways of these conversations is, for open data to be useful to the non-profit community, it
needs to be information the community can rally behind. Frank emphasized that the role of non-
profit organizations is to leverage open data to inform and incite enthusiasm in the community
around specific issues, rather than keep the government accountable. For example, information
about bed bugs or domestic violence calls would be more relevant to the non-profit community
than information about potholes. Other topics of data interest mentioned by this group included:
lead paint, adult literacy (at a more granular level), business code violations, property
availability, building permits, and crime data.
During our conversation, Frank discussed the role of Syracuse’s coalitions, which are groups of
community leaders which focus on particular social issues. Frank identified these groups as
primary consumers of open data, because they are focused on social issues, have technical
skills, and have a broad influence across multiple non-profit organizations. These coalitions also
meet regularly, which presents an opportunity for the Chief Data Officer to meet with these
groups to receive feedback on the data portal and datasets.
Community Groups
Community groups are a stakeholder in Syracuse’s Open Data program because they closely
represent the needs of citizens. These groups are likely to have strong opinions about the kind
of government information released, although many do not have the technical skills to
manipulate the data on their own.
To represent this group, we interviewed Minch Lewis, the current president of the Eastwood
Neighborhood Association. Minch believed the most important kind of information was that
which directly affects the everyday lives of citizens. This includes information like: crime data,
building permits, code violations, transportation, recreational programs and events hosted by
city parks, and infrastructure information such as water leaks. While this information would all be

26. 25
highly relevant to members of his group, their members do not have the time or technical
expertise to manipulate the data. Therefore, they hope others – either in the Office of Innovation
or through partnerships with the universities – will be able to put the information on an easily
navigable map. He stressed the importance of releasing the most pertinent information at the
onset of the data program, in order to gain the enthusiasm of individuals in community groups.
Community Engagement Strategy
Construct a Meaningful Dialogue
After identifying the most relevant stakeholders in the Syracuse community, the Chief Data
Officer needs to pursue collaboration with these groups. Given that this is still early in the
community engagement process, the focus should be more on building conversation through
constructive dialogue than on collecting information from these organizations. Organizations are
best suited to identify local needs and suggest any changes/modifications to data sets,
depending on the technical skills of these organizations. The Chief Data Officer will benefit from
the subject matter expertise, knowledge of local issues, and successes and failures of these
organizations.
Driving conversation around a specific topic or theme can help the City of Syracuse to gain
specific insights on areas they can focus while homing in on a problem area, as defined in the
Problem Statement Phase. Feedback from stakeholders will inform the formal processes that
will later be defined. Revisiting the questions from step one can be helpful to this process. The
City of Syracuse must go beyond simply adding feedback from stakeholders to the engagement
strategy. It must redesign the strategy of what a successful collaboration with stakeholders
would look like.
Oftentimes, feedback may indicate that data sets not currently shared as open data could
enable community residents to use data to advance their mission. In other cases, redesign may
be expensive or beyond the organizational capacity of the City of Syracuse. The Chief Data
Officer should consider whether investment in data reorganization in is critical to the internal
goals of the organization. If not, the city should pursue collaborative relationships in other areas.
The goal should be to have an in-depth understanding of the issue facing your community,
recognition of key metrics for a given issue, and identify the next steps to carry out the mission.
Construct a final problem statement. Opening the problem statement for public comment can
enlist additional feedback from residents.
Implement the Community Engagement Strategy
The next step is to address the city’s challenge as identified in the problem statement phase.
Sometimes the city may need to develop a new resource when putting the plan into action.
Other times it may mean utilizing existing resources in new way. The goal is to employ the
action tactic into the City of Syracuse’s available human, data and technical resources. The
following key questions should serve as a guide.
1. Who will be the city (internal) champion to lead this project?
2. What funding avenues exist? How can additional funding be secured?
3. Who are my internal stakeholders who can make this work?
4. How can I document my successful processes for iteration/replication on future
projects?

27. 26
A tool that the Chief Data Officer could use to engage stakeholders is the use of Action Tactics.
It is worth noting that Action tactics tend to involve a lot of time and financial investment. Action
Tactics were developed based on case studies conducted by What Works Cities and the
Sunlight Foundation over the last two years. The following chart details some of the Action
Tactic Strategies.
Tactic Description
Guerilla Data
Strategy
City uses low-tech solutions to improve residents’ experiences at physical
places where they interact with government services and drive positive
outcomes.
Ex: King County Public Health posting new physical signage with user
tested visuals and increased access to data
Applied
Problem
Solving
City works consistently with engaged group of stakeholders to address
specific problems raised through shared examination and conversations
around city data.
Ex: Chicago PD using community meetings to discuss neighborhood data in
effort to find resident-led solutions for crime.
Trusted
Partnerships
City identifies external partners with advanced data capacity and ties to
community partners to process existing city open data and connect it
community members or organizations.
Ex: Cleveland data intermediary parsing and matching data across
city/county levels and reaching out to local housing advocacy groups to
encourage better landlord eviction practices and neighborhood development
Table 2: Action Tactic Guide, Sunlight Foundation13
It is our recommendation that Syracuse begin employing the Guerrilla Data Strategy for short
term projects related to infrastructure and code violations to increase public awareness as to the
benefits of open data. In the long run, tactics such as Applied Problem Solving and Trusted
Partnerships can be leveraged once strong relationships between the city and key community
stakeholders have been established.
Step 2: Create Problem Statements
It is essential that the City of Syracuse works in conjunction with the mayor’s office to craft
problem statements based on the city’s priorities and capacities. The Sunlight Foundation
Tactical Data Engagement Guide provides a model for the strategy of creating a problem
statement. Syracuse should formalize internal interests by determining what resources and
capacities the city is willing to contribute to a collaborative project with stakeholders. Syracuse
will then need to formulate a hypothesis for each individual problem statement. Our report
includes a series of questions to help inform conversations among city employees and provide a
13 Source: Action Tactic Guide

28. 27
framework for thinking about what relevant city departments, community stakeholders, and data
sets can be included in the problem statement.
It is important that the city formalize internal interests when determining what resources the City
of Syracuse is willing to commit to projects that include working with stakeholders. It is integral
that process is thorough and open-minded. All members of the Innovation Team should be
involved, along with any city employees in which the team feels that their input is essential.
Formulating a hypothesis for what the problem statement might look like is an important to step
in beginning the community engagement process. The initial hypothesis will be rewritten
following feedback from stakeholders. The following questions, taken from the Sunlight
Foundation report, serve as guidelines for thinking about what community issues the Chief Data
Officer is trying address, which stakeholders are most pertinent to the specific problem area,
and what are the relevant data sets that could inform both the city and stakeholders as to the
nature of the problem.
 What is the problem area?
 Who are the relevant city departments and staff?
 Who are the relevant community stakeholders?
 Those with subject matter expertise?
 Those with tech/data expertise?
 Those with local context expertise? (those who will be most impacted)
 What are the relevant datasets from the city perspective?
 To understanding the problem?
 To measuring the problem?
 What will success or progress in this work look like?
Step 3: Identify Data Champions/Advocates and Publicize
Work Done by Advocates
From talking to many Chief Data Officers from across the U.S., one common theme across
cities of all sizes was the importance of identifying individuals and groups in the community who
are invested in open data and willing to tell interesting stories about their city. Open data
champions can be identified by tapping into existing neighborhood groups, professional
associations, and community organizations interested in priority subject areas. The City of
Louisville focused on taking advantage of existing relationships with stakeholder groups to
narrow down their list of stakeholders who would be most helpful in filling gaps in their open
date inventories. Louisville engaged a local GIS consortium, neighborhood organizations, and a
listserv of real estate developers to develop a list of potential stakeholders they knew would
have interest in real estate datasets. Syracuse needs to establish a method of communication
with the data champions and other data users - such as a listserv can be used to notify open
data users of upcoming events and data set releases. The Chief Data Officer should identify
and leverage the communication preferences of different stakeholder groups to showcase
successful open data projects. The goal is for open data champions to assist the Chief Data
Officer in promoting, initiating, and sustaining open data projects. Appointing multiple open data
champions will show stakeholders in Syracuse that the city is taking open data engagement
seriously.
Creating a blog, or providing data users access to an existing blog, can be an effective way to
showcase the work that data users have done using Syracuse data. In San Francisco and
Philadelphia, user blogs have highlighted city infrastructure successes and provided data

29. 28
visualization tutorials for interested parties that are new to data. Using social media to advertise
these projects, such as Twitter or Facebook, as well as data-relevant events happening in the
Syracuse community, can amplify support. Creating data contests (ex. Boston Open Data
Challenge: https://data.boston.gov/pages/opendatachallenge) and data projects (ex. Austin
Github: https://www.open-austin.org/projects/) can promote dialogue across community
organizations. The key is to be as proactive as time and resources allow, as determined in the
problem statement.
Image 9: San Francisco, DataSF Open Data Blog
The Chief Data Officer should work to identify public data sets with the intention of
tracking and sharing progress with stakeholders, news media, and the public. Using
social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook can help to promote awareness of
the various ongoing projects within the Innovation Department. For example, the City of
San Francisco has used social media to advertise city accomplishments and promote
overall awareness. Publicizing successes can build both political goodwill and
recognition from the community. And finally, the importance of iteration processes
cannot be stated, as it the process for engaging new community members becomes
easier once a formal procedure has been established.

30. 29
Image 10: San Francisco “DataSF” Twitter Account
One of the best practices we found was posting a list of data-related public events on the open
data portal home pages. Public event listings are beneficial because they can bring attention to
events outside to audiences outside out of their core constituencies. As Harvard Data-Start
Solutions noted in their study in their study on improving open data collaborations, community
event calendars and running blogs are inexpensive and timely. Allowing users access to blogs
can even further reduce the time commitment of innovation team members.
One notable example of a free listing of open data events in the community is Austin, Texas.
The City displays a monthly hack events calendar offers links to open data advocacy as well as
tutorials for new users. Austin has a particularly robust calendar that details Civic Hack Nights,
which are monthly project-specific meet-ups whose subject matter changes monthly. Based on
our conversation with the Austin data team, participation in these events has grown
considerably and organically. The events have grown to the point in which they market
themselves.

31. 30
Image 11: Austin Open Data Portal
Open Data blogs are another cost-effective way to spur innovation. Los Angeles has a running
data blog that focus on user developed applications with tutorials for the replication of
completed projects. Blogs can highlight exciting ways technologists are interacting with data
sets, and provide a forum for sharing projects with the data community.

32. 31
Image 12: Los Angeles Open Data Blog
Step 4: Build a Feedback Mechanism
The Chief Data Officer needs to maintain key relationships with partners in the community. Data
members should attend community meetings with coalition groups, in order to target the right
people, and then leverage those relationships to inform areas of interest for future open data
relationships. If Syracuse articulates adoption strategies and blueprints for communicating with
key stakeholders early on, this will set up a pathway of success for external partners to follow.
Collecting feedback is something of an imperfect science. Based on our conversations with
chief data offers and data experts, a lot of work is being done to develop better feedback
strategies. Both the Sunlight Foundation and What Works Cities have dedicated resources to
build frameworks to provide the open data community with better guidelines for how to gather
feedback. Nevertheless, we were able to catalogue some best practices based on our user
experiences. The City of Boston has a link to its feedback survey at the bottom of its webpage.
The questions focus on the areas of bugs/technical issues with the site, frequency of use, and
contact information. Las Vegas has developed a similar questionnaire, but its advantage is that
the link to the feedback survey is located at the top of the portal, which has the benefit of sitting
at eye level. Philadelphia has a pop-up box appears immediately upon site visitation. We realize
that these avenues can be ignored. Therefore, we emphasize the community engagement
strategy described earlier in this section.

33. 32
FEATURES FOR ROBUST
OPEN DATA PORTAL
Overview
For the City of Syracuse to promote the use of city datasets as possible, it is critical for the City
to make the datasets accurate, easily accessible, high-quality with proper metadata that are
easy to understand, and make it easy for data users to communicate with department staff who
produced and updated the datasets when they want to give feedback and ask any questions
about the datasets.
If datasets do not meet the requirements described above, the City could face a potential
challenge that community support would suffer and the data portal will not be able to have its full
potential impact on the community. To address this issue, we developed a series of action plans
that the City could take to maximize the impact with existing datasets, utilize open data portal to
collect feedbacks from portal visitors, and ensure the quality of datasets. In addition, we will
provide a set of indicators that the Chief Data Officer can select and use to measure the access,
use of the datasets as well as sample survey questions to serve as a guideline for the Chief
Data Officer to measure a broader impact on the economic, social, and political realms of the
community in the long run.
Step 1: Organize Datasets Based on City Priorities
It is essential for the Chief Data Officer to ensure the user interface of the open data portal is
intuitive enough for data users to navigate it easily, as well as organize the datasets strategically
to maximize public trust of the public in government. As one way to achieve these goals, we
recommend the City of Syracuse to organize the data sets by city’s priorities. For example, on
the ‘Results Vegas’ in the Las Vegas’ open data portal, datasets are presented by the mayor’s
priorities to emphasize the vision of the city. In addition, the City of Austin tracks their
performances through a performance dashboard they have posted in the open data portal
based on open data. By organizing the data sets this way, citizens have the view that the city is
holding government accountable and putting in serious effort toward the city’s priorities.

34. 33
Image 13: Las Vegas Open Data Portal
Image 14: City of Austin Open Data Portal, Front Page

35. 34
Image 15: City of Austin Open Data Portal, Citywide Dashboard
Step 2: Implement Tools to Collect Feedback and Track
Data Use
The users of city datasets are the ones who provide the most valuable and practical feedback
about particular datasets and the open data portal itself. To hear the voice of users as much as
possible about the open data program, the Chief Data Officer should strategically place their
feedback section in the open data portal. Many open data portals we have browsed placed their
feedback section in the bottom of the page, which makes users hard to provide feedback unless
they really look for it. On the other hand, the City of Philadelphia embedded a pop-up window
with the messages like “What did you come to this site to do today?” or “If you could change
anything on this website, what would you have us do?” Likewise, we recommend the City of
Syracuse build in an outstanding yet simple pop-up window in the open data portal to get
feedback from data users as many as possible. Also, the City of Syracuse can track its data use

36. 35
if they request that all users provide a pre-established hashtag when posting work in social
network services using Syracuse data.
Image 16: Philadelphia Open Data Portal
Step 3: Give Staff Ownership of Datasets
When users access the city datasets, they should be provided with sufficient information about
the datasets, and be able to easily contact person in charge of the datasets with any concerns
about modifications or updates. By displaying the contact information of the person who created
and updates the datasets along with each dataset, the City of Syracuse can give individual
departments the tasks of managing and measuring the performance of their department’s
datasets. San Francisco’s open data portal is an excellent model of this strategy. San Francisco
displays a variety of information for each dataset, including: dataset owner; date data last
updated; date metadata last updated; date data created; number of views; number of
downloads; publishing department; geographic unit; data change frequency; publishing
frequency; category of datasets; tags of datasets; number of rows and columns; and table
preview.

37. 36
Image 17: Datasets in the San Francisco Open Data Portal
Step 4: Ensure data quality through an upstate
collaboration and internal standards
Having high-quality of datasets is especially crucial for a small city like the City of
Syracuse. Many larger cities, such as New York City or Los Angeles, have a built-in attraction
because they are big cities and people are eager to tell compelling stories with their data - even
if the data quality is not the best. Because smaller cities like Syracuse do not have this natural
attraction, the City of Syracuse needs to be high-quality, easy to use, and compatible with
datasets in other cities. In order to ensure high quality of the datasets, the Chief Data Officer
could collaborate with other open data teams in upstate New York cities such as Albany,
Rochester, and Buffalo to have a uniform format of the datasets. Finally, we recommend the
City of Syracuse establishes its dataset quality standards upfront and communicates these
standards to other departments from the very beginning of the open data program.

38. 37
Sunlight Foundation Suggestions: MVPs
It is also worth noting a different perspective for approaching data quality made in the Sunlight
Foundation Tactical Engagement Strategy. In this dcoument, they outline the approach of
releasing data sets that are minimum viable products (MVP), or just meet the threshold of
quality. The point of this strategy is to generate as much content as possible up front, which
means it focuses heavily on impacts that are tangible in the here and now. They view that it is
not in the interest of the City, nor the community, to hold onto data that is an incremental or
even a temporary improvement upon existing information. In this regard, MVP’s can serve as
temporary placeholders until fully clean data sets are ready to be released.
The upside of this approach is that it makes more data available sooner, and allows community
stakeholders to start using the data for their own projects. In addition, it allows users time to
present feedback to the Chief Data Officer before a more “perfect” set of data is released. The
downside is that the less tech-savvy users may not find much use for the MVP’s because it
would require users additional time and effort to make the datasets usable. Our team thought
this strategy might be more useful for the larger cities like NYC and ensuring the data quality
upfront is more critical for the small city like Syracuse.
Metrics for Access to Data
One of the essential elements of ensuring data portal quality is having a good idea of the
access, use, and impact of the data published. In order to do so, we have provided a series
tables with metrics that should help the Chief Data Officer to measure this in a standardized
way. The metrics we provide are compiled from a variety of sources, including other cities’
annual reports and open data portals, academic literature, manuals from GovEx, as well as our
own creation. These tables should be used as a directory of possible metrics, from which the
Chief Data Officer should select which metrics would be most useful and feasible, given
resource constraints.
The first table includes metrics to evaluate the access to data based on key stakeholders
involved.
Key
Stakeholder
Indicator Description
Source of Indicator
(with hyperlink to
original source)
Departments Percent/number of
departments that have
completed the dataset
inventory
Percent/number of departments that
have completed to upload their
datasets in the datasets inventory
San Francisco Open
Data Portal
Departments Percent/number of
departments that have
completed publishing
plans
Percent/number of departments that
have completed publishing plans
which include the list of eligible
datasets, timeline of publishing
datasets, and data coordinators
San Francisco Open
Data Portal

39. 38
Departments Percent/number of
inventoried datasets
published
Percent/number of datasets
published in the open data portal out
of the datasets in the inventory
San Francisco Open
Data Portal
Departments Percent/number of
datasets with metadata
Percent/number of datasets that
have metadata
San Francisco Open
Data Portal
Departments Percent of datasets
updated on time
Percent of datasets updated on time GovEx
Chief Data
Officer
Number of datasets
available on the portal
Number of datasets that could be
downloaded in the portal
World Wide Web
Foundation’s open
data common
assessment
framework
Chief Data
Officer
- Datasets by topics Number of datasets produced per
each topic
World Wide Web
Foundation’s open
data common
assessment
framework
Chief Data
Officer
- Datasets by
departments
Number of datasets produced per
each department
World Wide Web
Foundation’s open
data common
assessment
framework
Chief Data
Officer
- Number of maps and
charts
Number of maps and charts created
based on open data
Iowa Open Data
Status Report
Chief Data
Officer
- Number of new
datasets
Number of new datasets uploaded in
the portal
Our team
Chief Data
Officer
- Number of automated
datasets
Number of datasets that can be
updated automatically
World Wide Web
Foundation’s open
data common
assessment
framework

40. 39
Chief Data
Officer
Number of datasets that
can be accessed using
APIs
Number of datasets that can be
accessed using open APIs
Open Government
Data, Ubaldi, 2013
Chief Data
Officer
Number of rows and
columns
Number of rows and columns of the
total datasets
Austin’s Open Data
Portal & Our team
Data User Number of page views The total number of pages viewed.
Repeated views of a single page are
counted.
Iowa Open Data
Status Report
Data User Number of downloads Number of datasets downloaded Open Government
Data, Ubaldi, 2013
Data User Number of data portal
accounts
Number of people who signed up the
open data portal
Open Government
Data, Ubaldi, 2013
Data User Number of API hits Total number of API hits used to
download datasets
GovEx
Data User Number of API token
holders
Number of people signed up for API
tokens
GovEx
Data User Number of portal
visitors
Number of people who visited the
open data portal
Open Government
Data, Ubaldi, 2013
Data User Percent of returning
visitors
Number of people who visited the
portal more than two times out of
total number of visitors
San Francisco Open
Data Portal

41. 40
Data User Sessions Number of times a user was actively
engaged with the website
Iowa Open Data
Status Report
Data User - Sessions > 60 sec Number of sessions where the
duration exceeded 60 seconds
Iowa Open Data
Status Report
Data User - Sessions > 2 Pages Number of sessions where the user
visited more than two pages
Iowa Open Data
Status Report
Data User - Sessions in Syracuse % of our user sessions that
originated somewhere in the City of
Syracuse
Iowa Open Data
Status Report
Data User - Average session
duration
Average number of minutes spent
on the portal
San Francisco Open
Data Portal
Data User - Pages per session Average number of pages per
session
San Francisco Open
Data Portal
Table 3: Directory of Metrics to Evaluate Data Access
Metrics for Data Usage
This second table provides metrics to evaluate how the data is being used.
Indicator Description Source
Number of subscribers of open data
newspaper
Number of subscribers of newspaper
published by the Chief Data Officer
Our team
Number of targeted stakeholders for
data sets usage
Number of individuals/organizations that the
Chief Data Officer targets to publicize open
datasets
Our team

42. 41
Number of academic partnerships
for the purpose of using city datasets
for teaching or researching
Number of partnership between the City and
school departments for the purpose of using
city datasets for teaching or researching
Our team
Number of NGO partnerships for the
purpose of using city datasets to
accomplish their goals
Number of partnership between the City and
nonprofit organizations for the purpose of
using city datasets to accomplish their goals
Our team
Number of partnerships with
entrepreneurs and business entities
for the purpose of using city datasets
to accomplish their goals
Number of partnership between the City and
entrepreneurs and business entities for the
purpose of using city datasets to accomplish
their goals
Our team
Number of cases where the
accomplishments of the open data
programs are covered by local or
national media
Number of cases where success stories of
open data program in the City of Syracuse
are covered by local or national media
Our team
Number of open data presence in
social media
Number of posts in social media that were
published by using open data or the posts
about open data program itself
GovEx
Number of datasets leveraged for
applications or software
Number of datasets used to develop
applications or software
Chattanooga
Open Data
Portal
Table 4: Directory of Metrics to Evaluate Data Usage
Long-Term Recommendations
Integrating citizen and mayoral priorities
Based on the evidence from literature review from other cities and case studies, it is crucial to
classify data by focus area and the intended solutions. Therefore, the open data portal for the
city of Syracuse should focus on the possibilities of providing the solutions based on the
problem inventory designed based on the user’s contribution towards the problem through
crowdsourcing and other areas resolving public and social problems. To provide better service,
the open data sets need to be integrated with the freedom of information requests, which in turn
focus on problem classification and data definition toolkits. This process should be comprised of
data streams based on public issues.

43. 42
City of Syracuse needs to collaborate with stakeholders from multiple sectors and disciplinary to
better assess supply and demand of the open data. These collaborations define boundaries and
require a variety of expertise, knowledge and data to be successfully addressed. Collaborative
nature of the departments in the government with inter-departmental coordination is crucial to
the effectiveness of the open data portal. The result of this collaborations will be a collection of
diverse pool of talent with innovation. To match the both demand and supply sides of the data
sets, we need to emphasize on demand-use-impact value chain tools into governance
protocols.
Sample survey questions to measure data impact
This final table provides potential survey questions to evaluate the impact of the data portal in
the future. The questions are compiled from surveys conducted by the World Wide Web
Foundation’s Open Data Barometer, Pew Research, and GovEx regarding open data. The
questions are intended to be used as a directory of relevant and quality questions, which the
Office of Innovation can be select from and expand upon, depending on the specific research
question or stakeholder group they wish to target.
Impact Area
Survey
Target
Survey Questions
Source of
Survey
Questions
Economic
Business,
Academics
To what extent has open data had a
noticeable positive impact on the
economy?
Open Data
Barometer,
Research
Handbook
Economic
Business,
Academics,
NGOs
To what extent are entrepreneurs
successfully using open data to build new
businesses?
Open Data
Barometer,
Research
Handbook
Economic Business
How essential was open data in creating
your product?
GovEx
Social/Economic
NGOs,
Community
groups
To what extent are civil society and/or
information technology professionals
engaging with the government regarding
open data?
Open Data
Barometer,
Research
Handbook
Social
Community
groups,
Academics,
NGOs
To what extent has open data had a
noticeable impact on increasing the
inclusion of marginalized groups in policy
making and accessing government
services?
Open Data
Barometer,
Research
Handbook

44. 43
Social Public
Open government data allows journalists
to cover gov't activities more thoroughly
(Yes/No)
Pew Research
Social/Political
Community
groups,
Academics,
NGOs
To what extent has open data had a
noticeable impact on increasing
transparency and accountability?
Open Data
Barometer,
Research
Handbook
Social/Economic
Gov’t,
Community
groups
To what extent is government directly
supporting a culture of innovation with
open data through competitions, grants or
other support actions?
Open Data
Barometer,
Research
Handbook
Social/Political Public
Open government data allows citizens
such as yourself to have more impact on
gov't affairs (Y/N)
Pew Research
Social/Political Public
The government has been _______
effective in sharing open government
data. (very, somewhat, not very, not at all)
Pew Research
Social/Political Public
Can you think of an example where
government has done a good job
providing information to the public about
the data it collects? (Y/N, then open-
ended response option if Yes)
Pew Research
Social/Political Public
Can you think of an example where
government does not provide enough
useful data and information about the data
it collects? (Y/N, then open-ended
response option if Yes)
Pew Research
Political
Community
groups,
Academics,
NGOs
To what extent has open data had a
noticeable impact on increasing
government efficiency and effectiveness?
Pew Research
Political Public
Open government data makes gov't
officials more accountable to the public
(Y/N)
Pew Research

45. 44
Political Public
Open government data improves the
quality of gov't services
Pew Research
Political Public
Open government data results in better
decisions by gov't officials (Y/N)
Pew Research
Table 5: Directory of Metrics to Evaluate Data Impact

46. 45
CONCLUSION
The Chief Data Officer faces a number of critical challenges when it comes to ensuring
Syracuse’s Open Data People is a successful program. As governments at all levels face
increased scrutiny, open data serves as a means to promote increased transparency, civic
engagement, innovative ideas, and increased government efficiency. We developed three
action plans centered on three key areas of focus: internal operations, external stakeholder
engagement, and procedures for ensuring successful operations of the open data portal.
Internally, the Chief Data Officer must first gain the support and participation of city employees
by making sure they understand how open data can provide value to their jobs. By creating a
data-driven culture and establishing standardized data policies and procedures, open data will
increase the sharing of information across departments while reducing workload in the long-run.
Launching a data inventory is a valuable step, which allows the Chief Data Officer to measure
the percentage of total data sets that have been published and set schedules for cleaning and
publishing new data sets. Finally, creating iterative systems ensures the open data program is
as standardized, automated, and sustainable as possible.
The design of a success external engagement strategy depends on the ability of the Chief Data
Officer to be as proactive as time allows. As the Sunlight Foundation notes, “open data is a
project done with, not for, community stakeholders.” While the Chief Data Officer may have
some ideas about how community organizations may use open data, it is difficult to estimate the
innovative ways that organizations can use data to achieve their goals. Creating problem
statements is a useful way to identify relevant stakeholders with varying levels of technical
expertise. Pursuing collaborative relationships is an effective way for the city to receive
feedback. Identifying data champions in the local communities can help drive cities toward
prioritized subject areas while simultaneously spreading awareness about data projects in the
community.
The most successful open data portals have datasets that are accurate, easily accessible, high-
quality, and can be communicated easily between city departments. By organizing datasets
based on priorities, the Chief Data Officer can highlight impactful city projects while showing
citizens that the city is serious about its commitment to open data. Collecting feedback through
surveys and pop-ups on the open data interface provides data users with an opportunity to
make their voices heard. Providing users with sufficient information about the individual data
sets, including the contact information of the creator, gives users the ability to provide
recommendations and feedback directly to city departments. Creating internal standards in both
a technical and legal sense ensures that data is meeting all the necessary internal requirements
prior to publication.
We greatly hope that our recommendations will be of service to the City of Syracuse.
After spending the last four weeks immersed in open data literature and interviews, we could not
be more hopeful about the potential open data has to spur development and innovation in
Syracuse. While this project will require hard work, we believe the return on investment will be a
significant gain for the City of Syracuse, and equally beneficial for the community stakeholders
the city serves.

47. 46
APPENDIX A
Images, Charts and Tables
Images
Image 1 Map Generated from AirLouisville Project
Image 2 Dashboard of New Orleans’ BlightStatus
Image 3 NYC Before and After Open Data
Image 4 City of New Orleans, Data Scoring
Image 5 City of New Orleans Data Inventory
Image 6 City of Philadelphia Data Inventory
Image 7 Feedback Section City of Philadelphia Inventory
Image 8 San Francisco Open Data Inventory
Image 9 San Francisco, DataSF Open Data Blog
Image 10 San Francisco “DataSF” Twitter Account
Image 11 Austin Open Data Portal
Image 12a Los Angeles Open Data Blog
Image 12b Las Vegas Open Data Portal
Image 13 City of Austin Open Data Portal, Front Page
Image 14 City of Austin Open Data Portal, Citywide Dashboard
Image 15 Philadelphia Open Data Portal
Image 16 Datasets in the San Francisco Open Data Portal
Tables
Table 1 Directory of Metrics to evaluate internal efficiency
Table 2 Action Tactic Guide, Sunlight Foundation
Table 3 Directory of Metrics to Evaluate Data Access
Table 4 Directory of Metrics to Evaluate Data Usage
Table 5 Directory of Metrics to Evaluate Data Impact