City of Buffalo Open Data Policy
WHEREAS, the City of Buffalo (the
"City") is committed to fostering an open, efficient, accountable,
and accessible government; and
WHEREAS, timely
and consistent publication of open data is an essential component of
such governance; and
WHEREAS, the adoption of an Open
Data Policy will improve the provision of citizen
services, enhance coordination and efficiency among and between
City departments, divisions, and partner organizations, and increase
opportunities for civic engagement and economic development; and
WHEREAS, making open data
available online for reuse and consumption creates value for residents, government leaders, businesses, researchers, and the media, and facilitates the
proactive provision of information currently sought through Freedom of
Information Law requests; and
WHEREAS, an Open Data Program is
crucial to providing opportunity for all and improving the City's relationship
within the various communities; and
WHEREAS, information technologies,
including web-based and other internet applications and services, are an
essential means for open government, and good governance generally; and
WHEREAS, the protection of privacy,
confidentiality and security will be maintained as a paramount priority while also advancing the
government's transparency and accountability through open data.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, Byron W. Brown, Mayor of the City of Buffalo, New York, by
virtue of the executive and administrative authority vested in me by the
Charter and Code of the City of Buffalo and the statutes and laws of the State
of New York, do hereby direct and order as follows:
DEFINITIONS
"Data" means statistical, factual, quantitative, or qualitative
information that is maintained or created
by or on behalf of a City department.
"Open data" means
publishable City data and datasets that are available online, in a freely
accessible format. Open data is provided
in machine-readable format via Application
Programming Interfaces (API)
"Open format"
means any widely accepted, nonproprietary,
platform-independent, machine-readable method for formatting data, which
permits automated processing of open data and facilitates search capabilities.
"Data portal"
means the internet site established and maintained by or on behalf of the City
for the collection and dissemination of publishable City data and datasets.
"Dataset" means a
named collection of related records, with the collection containing data
organized or formatted in a specific or prescribed way, often in tabular form and which does not contain
any protected or sensitive information and which has been prepared
for release on the Open Data Portal.
"Protected
information" means any dataset or portion thereof to which a City
department, office, administrative unit, commission, board, advisory committee
or other division/department of the City government including third-party
agency contractors that create or acquire information, records, or data on
behalf of a City division/department, may deny
access pursuant to applicable privileges or confidentiality
doctrines and/or any applicable federal laws and/or the laws of the State of
New York.
"Publishable City
data" means data which does not contain any protected or
sensitive information and which has been prepared for release on the Open Data
Portal.
"Sensitive
information" means any data that is subject to applicable exceptions or
exemptions from disclosure pursuant to federal or state law or under such
circumstances where, if such data were published on the Open Data Portal, its
disclosure could raise privacy, confidentiality, privilege or security concerns
or have the potential to jeopardize public health, safety or welfare to an
extent that is greater than the potential public benefit of publishing that
data.
OPEN DATA PROGRAM
The City is subject to New
York State Public Officers Law Article 6 Sections 84-90 more commonly cited as
the Freedom of Information Law. The
Freedom of Information Law pertains to the people's right to know the process
of governmental decision-making and to review the documents and statistics
leading to determinations is basic to our society. The State Legislature declares
that government is the public's business and that the public, individually and
collectively and represented by a free press, should have access to the records
of government in accordance with the provisions of the law.
The City will build on this
existing principle by developing and implementing practices that allow it to:
1. Proactively release all open
data through a central location, making it freely available and fully
accessible to the broadest range of users in readily accessible formats without any licensing fees or restrictions on use or reuse;
2. Publish
high quality, updated open data with documentation (metadata) to encourage maximal use;
3. Minimize limitations on the disclosure of public information while appropriately safeguarding protected and sensitive
information;
4. Encourage
innovative uses of open data by the City’s departments/divisions, agencies,
boards, commissions, the public, and other partners;
5. Provide
a space for showcasing the innovative ways in which open data is used by these various
stakeholders;
6. Promote
active participation by the community, including civic technologists, civic
activists, programmers, and database specialists to develop tools and
applications that turn open data into insight;
7. Promote
open data that informs increases in government efficiency, improvements in the
quality of life of its citizens, and more equal opportunities for all
residents;
8. Commit
to data-driven decision making by utilizing open data to measure and manage
performance; and
9. Create
and explore potential partnerships that bolster efforts related to open data
release, such as: increasing the availability of open data; identifying citizen
priorities for open data release; and connecting government information to open
data held by nonprofits, community organizations, academic institutions, think
tanks, public benefit corporations, neighboring governments, and other public
entities.
The development and
implementation of these practices will be overseen by the Open Data Governance Committee, which will report to
the Mayor, or the Mayor's designee.
This policy will apply to
any City department, office, administrative unit, commission, board, advisory
committee or other division/department of the City government.
GOVERNANCE
The Open Data Program will
be overseen by the Open Data Governance Committee,
comprised of representatives from the Mayor's Office and City departments.
The head of each City
Department will designate, from within the department, an open data liaison,
who will: be responsible for managing that department's participation in the
Open Data Program; identify potential publishable City data or datasets for inclusion
in the Open Data Portal; contextualize publishable City data or datasets;
explain or cite how the data was created; periodically
update the publishable City data or datasets
based on internal and external needs; serve on the Open Data Governance
Committee; upon request, meet with the Open Data Governance Committee to
discuss any matter pertaining to implementation of this policy; and assist in
the preparation of the annual Open Data Compliance Report.
The Open Data Governance
Committee will:
1. Oversee the creation of a
comprehensive inventory of publishable City data and datasets held by each City
department. The inventory will be published to the Open Data Portal and
regularly updated when new publishable City data or datasets are created or
identified;
2. Develop and implement a
process for guarding against the publishing of potentially sensitive,
protected, privileged and/or confidential information;
3. Develop
and implement a process for prioritizing the publishable City data and
datasets to the Open Data Portal which takes into
account new and existing signals of interest from the public (such as the
frequency of FOIL requests), the City's programmatic priorities, existing
opportunities for publishable City data and
datasets use in the public interest, and cost;
4. Establish processes for dissemination
of publishable City data and datasets to the Open Data Portal, including
processes for ensuring that datasets are reviewed for
use-appropriate formats, quality, timeliness, and exclusion of protected and
sensitive information;
5. Develop
and oversee a routinely updated, publicly accessible timeline for new dissemination of
publishable City data and datasets;
6. Ensure
that access to protected and/or sensitive information is blocked, but make it possible to
extract non-protected information from restricted sources and remove any data that represents policy concerns for
publication, where feasible;
7. Ensure
that publishable
City data and datasets are available for bulk download on the Open Data Portal;
8. Provide
for a future means of digitizing archived material that was in existence prior
to the development of the Open Data Program;
9. Actively encourage
department and public participation by providing
regular opportunities for feedback and collaboration;
10. Ensure
sufficient funding for implementation and support of an open data ecosystem
by identifying funding sources for potential expenses, such as new staff, new
software, training, and server
maintenance;
11. Set
appropriately ambitious, clear and firm timelines for implementation to provide motivation
for action with benchmarks that can be used as metrics to quantify compliance
with this policy;
12. Develop contract provisions
to promote open data policies in procurements. These provisions will
promote the City's Open Data Program, including, when appropriate, requirements
to post publishable City data and datasets to the City's Open Data Portal or to
make publishable City data and/or datasets data available through other means;
and
13. Create a data governance
standards document that defines: the vision and daily operation of the Open
Data Program; the detailed roles and responsibilities of leadership and data
liaisons within the program; a method for the identification and prioritization
of datasets for publication and continuous updating; and a means for evaluating
successes and failures of the Open Data Program.
ANNUAL OPEN DATA COMPLIANCE
REPORT
Within 365 days of the
effective date of this policy, the Open Data Governance Committee shall submit
an Annual Open Data Compliance Report to the Mayor. The report shall include an assessment of
progress toward achievement of the goals of
the City's Open Data Program, a list of datasets and publishable City data currently
available on the Open Data Portal, and a description and publication timeline
for any new datasets and publishable City data envisioned to be published on
the portal in the following year. Where possible, the report should include but
not be limited to, metrics on each category of the publishable City data and datasets that are being
used, by whom, and the manner in which the information is being used. The
report should also include suggestions for improving the City's open data
management processes in order to ensure that the City continues to move toward
the achievement of the policy's goals.
Following the submission of
its initial report, the Governance Committee will submit an updated report
annually. The annual open data
compliance report will be made available on the City's Open Data Portal.