The document outlines an analysis and recommendations for the City of Syracuse's open data portal aimed at enhancing transparency, public engagement, and economic growth. It includes strategies for efficient internal operations, community engagement, and features for a robust open data portal, emphasizing the importance of data quality and collaboration. Long-term recommendations are provided to align citizen and government priorities, with metrics suggested to measure the program's success.

1. 1
Open Data
By Sarah Baumunk, Krishna Kesari, Jinsol Park, Dan Petrick
Analysis and Recommendations
for City of Syracuse Open Data Portal

2. 2
• Project Background
• Benefits of Open Data
• Open Data Success Stories
• Methodology
1. Introduction
4. Features for Robust Open Data
Portal
• Organize Datasets based on City
Priorities
• Implement Tools to Collect Feedback and
Track Data Use
• Give Staff Ownership of Datasets
• Ensure data quality through an upstate
collaboration and internal standards
2. Strategies for Efficient Internal
Operations
• Create a Mission Statement
• Procedures for Creating Buy-In
• Launch Data Inventory
• Create Iterative Systems
Table of Contents
3. Strategy for Dynamic External
Stakeholder Engagement
• Frame Opportunities for Collaboration
• Identify and Engage Community
Stakeholders
• Identify Data Champions and Publicize
their Work
• Create a Feedback Mechanism

3. 3
Project Background
Developing performance metrics and benchmarking best practices
Current Status Goal of Our Project
 Provide the city with tools and
metrics to measure the Open
Data Program’s success
 Provide recommendations to
the city on how to successfully
implement the Open Data
Program
 There are no metrics
universally available that
measure open data
performance
 The City’s Office of Innovation
plans to release city-held data
to the public via an Open Data
Portal

4. 4
Benefits of Open Data Program
By releasing data to the public, Syracuse can…
Increase Transparency
Enhance Public
Engagement
Foster Economic Growth
Improve Government
Efficiency

5. 5
Open Data Success Stories (1/2)
Informing citizens and government to improve quality of life
AirLouisville
Identifying the Problem
Using Data to Inform
Citizens & the gov’t
OutcomeIdentifying the Problem

6. 6
Open Data Success Stories (2/2)
Helping governments prioritize
New Orleans’s BlightSTAT
Identifying the Problem Engaging the Community Outcome
Source: City Lab, The Atlantic Source: BlightStatus

7. 7
Methodology of Our Project
Literature Review Interview & Survey
Chief Data Officers &
Data Managers
Data Experts
Academics
NGO’s &
Community Orgs.
Entrepreneur
& Business Group
Academic Literature
City Annual Reports
Case Studies
Manuals
Open Data Portals

8. 8
Strategies for Efficient Internal Operations
1
Create a Mission
Statement
Procedures for
Creating Buy-In
Launch Data
Inventory
Initiative
Create Integrative
Systems
2 3 41

9. 9
1. Create a Mission Statement
During this discussion, the Office should also establish priorities and a
clear timeline.
“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.”
“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
“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.”
San
Francisco
Philadelphia
South Bend

10. 10
2. Procedures for Creating Buy-In
Expressing the value of open data to internal staff
Raleigh
Philadelphia
 Strategic vision to increase technical skills and data-driven management
 Held monthly workshops on basic technical training and data visualization
 Different departments issuing building permits and collecting property taxes
 Sharing data keeps the gov’t from offering permits to businesses with
delinquent taxes

11. 11
3. Launch Data Inventory Initiative
Creating Data
Inventory
Scoring Data
Feedback on
Inventory

12. 12
4. Create Integrative Systems
Open data is subject to various technical and legal obligations
Data Format
Big Data & Data Template
Data Directory
Content Management System
Technical Aspect
FOIL
Retention Archiving
Public Sector Information Reuse
Policy
Legal Disclaimer
Legal Compliance

13. 13
Long-Term Recommendations
Considering the impact of open data on local economy and public
requests for datasets, City of Syracuse may consider these
recommendations.
Metrics Bank
Open Data Research
Community

14. 14
Metrics for Internal Operations
Indicator for Internal Operations 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
Percent of respondents indicating that they use
Syracuse Open Data Portal to access data internally
and from other departments
San Francisco Open Data
Portal
Sample Indicators

15. 15
Strategy for Dynamic External Stakeholder Engagement
1
Frame
Opportunities for
Collaboration
Identify and
Engage
Community
Stakeholders
Identify Data
Champions and
Publicize their
Work
Create a
Feedback
Mechanism
2 3 41

16. 16
1. Frame Opportunities for Collaboration
It is essential that the Chief Data Officer identify programmatic goals
for adopting a collaborative problem statement.
Source: The Sunlight Foundation Tactical Data Engagement
Questions for Developing Problem Statements
 What is the problem area the city is trying to solve?
 Who are the relevant city departments and staff?
 Who are the relevant community stakeholders?
Stakeholder Description
Information Demand
City or city department identifies the information that is most
requested or relevant to the most frequently made requests and
frames an impact opportunity around the use cases driving the
data requests.
Use Who You’ve Got
City starts in framing a collaborative opportunity for open data
impact by engaging with existing external partners by focusing on
new or previously unexplored data opportunities.

17. 17
2. Identify and Engage Community Stakeholders (1/2)
Entrepreneurs
Non-Profit Organizations
• Generate demand through events,
initiatives, and meet-ups
• Primarily interested in economic data
• Link with data community
• Interested in data community can
rally behind
• Use coalition with primary audience
Academics
Community Groups
• Require data to be clean, searchable,
& varied formats
• Wide variety of dataset topics
• Interested in datasets that affect their
daily lives
• Lack of technical capacity
Open Data Stakeholders

18. 18
2. Identify and Engage Community Stakeholders (2/2)
Construct a Meaningful Dialogue
Implement the Community
Engagement Strategy
Tactic Examples
Guerilla Data
Strategy
King County Public Health
posting new physical signage with
user tested visuals and increased
access to data
Applied
Problem
Solving
Chicago PD using community
meetings to discuss
neighborhood data in effort to find
resident-led solutions for crime.
Trusted
Partnerships
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
 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

19. 19
3. Identify Data Champions and Publicize their Work
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.
Source: Austin Open Data PortalSource: San Francisco Open Data Blog Source: San Francisco “DataSF” Twitter
Account
Blog Social Network Services Posting Events
Tools

20. 20
4. Create a Feedback Mechanism
Data members should attend community meetings with coalition
groups.
Boston Las Vegas Philadelphia

21. 21
Features for Robust Open Data Portal
1
Organize Datasets
based on City
Priorities
Implement Tools
to Collect
Feedback and
Track Data Use
Give Staff
Ownership of
Datasets
Ensure Data
Quality through
an Upstate
Collaboration and
Internal Standards
2 3 41

22. 22
1. Organize Datasets based on City Priorities
Organize datasets strategically to maximize public trust in government
and make data users to navigate the portal easily.
Source: Las Vegas Open Data Portal
Las Vegas Open Data Portal Austin Open Data Portal
Source: Austin Open Data Portal

23. 23
2. Implement Tools to Collect Feedback and Track Data Use
Strategically place a feedback section in the open data portal and
provide a pre-established hashtag for tracking.
Philadelphia Open Data Portal Pre-Established Hashtag
Source: Philadelphia Open Data Portal Source: San Francisco Twitter

24. 24
3. Give Staff Ownership of Datasets
Display the contact information of the person who created and updated
the datasets.
Source: San Francisco Open Data Portal
Datasets in San Francisco Open Data Portal

25. 25
4. Ensure data quality through an upstate collaboration and
internal standards
Collaborate with upstate New York cities to ensure high quality of the
datasets and establish internal standards upfront.
Syracuse
Buffalo
Albany
Rochester
Upstate Collaboration Minimum Viable Products (MVPs)*
*Source: Sunlight Foundation

26. 26
Long-Term Recommendations
Integrate citizen and mayoral priorities in the long term.
Citizen
Priorities
Government
Priorities

27. 27
Indicators for Access to Data
Stakeholder Indicator Source of Indicator
Departments Percent/number of departments that have
completed the dataset inventory
San Francisco Open
Data Portal
CDO Number of datasets available on the portal
− Datasets by topics
− Datasets by departments
− Number of maps and charts
− Number of new datasets
− Number of automated datasets
World Wide Web
Foundation’s open data
common assessment
framework
Data User Number of downloads Open Government Data,
Ubaldi, 2013
Sample Indicators

28. 28
Indicators for Data Use
Indicator Source of Indicator
Number of academic partnerships 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
Our team
Number of partnerships with entrepreneurs and business
entities for the purpose of using city datasets to accomplish
their goals
Our team
Sample Indicators

29. 29
Survey Questions for Data Impact
Impact Area
Survey
Target
Survey Question
Source of
Indicator
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
Sample Survey Question

30. 30
Q & A