City’s Open Data Policy up for review, residents called to comment
01 July 2020
The City has initiated a review of its current Open Data Policy and is encouraging members of the public to submit comments and recommendations between 1 July and 31 July 2020. The policy aims to make the City’s data available to all, free of charge and in a useable format. Since instituting the Open Data Policy in 2016, a web-based open data portal has been established through which the City of Cape Town’s institutional data can be published. This is to enhance transparency and promote the use of the City’s data for broader social and economic benefit
The City’s Open Data Policy currently being reviewed, is used to govern the process of releasing data on the online open data portal. The portal shares raw City of Cape Town data for users to reuse in various ways. The open data portal promotes citizen engagement with the City in general by making it easier for the public to access data.
‘City data can be used by citizens, academia, business and non-governmental organisations. By sharing this data, the City aims to increase transparency in its processes and actively involve residents and other stakeholders in local government. This policy allows the City to make data available to the market which could possibly drive the creation of new technologies and services. We would like to encourage residents, professionals, researchers and entrepreneurs to explore the open data portal online and to use this opportunity to review the Open Data Policy. We welcome all inputs and recommendations,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Corporate Services, Councillor Sharon Cottle.
The user profile of the portal includes various professionals such as planners, development practitioners, GIS practitioners and data scientists, as well as researchers, students and application developers. Planning developers especially source data related to roads, parks, the natural environment and town survey marks to assist in their plans.
Individuals and companies looking to build various applications or tools have also found many of the data sets helpful in terms of providing insight to the city’s societal behavioural trends.
The most popular datasets on the portal to date mostly relates to water consumption, energy consumption, budgets and tender data. Other examples of data available include aerial photography of Cape Town, City planning data and various datasets related to City facilities such as parks, buildings and City owned property.
‘The data made available helps researchers and analysts do more informed analysis, as the data aids in a deeper understanding of the city. Personally, I think one of the most important aspects of having these comprehensive datasets available to academia is that it enables research in urban challenges that could have the potential to create public goods and improve services.
‘Aspiring entrepreneurs could also explore the data available to assist with their overall business plan as they would be able to study the record of business licences issued in Cape Town, to possibly find a gap in the market, or use geographical data to determine the most promising location for their business,’ said Councillor Cottle.
The City’s Open Data Steering Committee as per the present Open Data Policy oversees the online data portal.
To visit the Open Data portal, users can visit the City’s home page at https://www.capetown.gov.za/ or go to https://www.capetown.gov.za/City-Connect, then select open data portal which will take you to the portal page at https://odp-cctegis.opendata.arcgis.com/.
The reviewed Open Data Policy will be available for viewing on the City’s website at www.capetown.gov.za/haveyoursay.
Comments may be submitted by email to open.data@capetown.gov.za; via SMS by sending ‘open data’ followed by the comment to 31766, or directly on the City’s website.
For more information on the policy please contact Neil Hoorn at neil.hoorn@capetown.gov.za.
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Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office
