Signal 3: Open Data for everyone

Public data is becoming widely available through Open Data portals built by cities and national governments around the globe. The NYC Open Data Portal alone has 2,177 datasets, and Data.gov — the US Federal Open Data Portal — has over 300 thousand. More data means more transparency, accountability, and public innovation, but how is all this data accessible and helpful for non-data scientists? Is it really public and open data?

In response to this issue, Datawheel has partnered with different organizations to provide “open, easy-to-use platforms that turn data into knowledge”. They are the masterminds behind DataUSA, DataChile, and DataAfrica, which present vast amounts of public data through beautiful visualizations, making it simple for people to explore the data and answer their own questions.

Efforts like this help bring the promises of the Open Data movement closer to reality. The increasing availability of public data is a step forward but the next step should be about turning all this public data into public knowledge. Specially in a world where information is so abundant, and where it is becoming difficult to recognize facts from fake information, Open Data can help if we make it useful and accessible for everyone.