This January, the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Innovation and Technology surveyed residents in order to learn more about what they find valuable about the City’s open data sets.

The City hosts more than 250 datasets on OpenDataPhilly.org, a portal developed by geospacial software company Azavea. Various City departments collaborate with OIT to release the public data sets, allowing residents to find information on topics like land use, building footprints or election results. By putting out the 2020 PHL Open Data Survey, OIT wanted to know: What’s successful, difficult or lacking when it comes to data sharing in Philly?

Of the hundreds of residents who responded — including those who hold positions in the nonprofit, business, academic research, community advocacy, journalism, education, urban planning and data spaces, as well as from people who are homeowners and renters — 90% said that open data is “important” to their work, and 92% thought that the office’s data visualizations are “helpful,” the office said this week.

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