More data may be coming to Miami-Dade County residents.
The county commission will take a look at a resolution Tuesday that would try to make county numbers and information more accessible to the public.
Right now, if someone wants information on county housing inventory or wages, that person has to make a request, go record by record and make their own spreadsheet. But Miami-Dade County is trying to make it so that more data is stored online in a format that is easy to use and understand.
It’s a concept called “open-data,” and at the heart of it is the hope that by making more numbers easy to get, it adds a certain transparency to governmental functions.
This may not be exciting for everyone, but as Miami fosters a growing tech industry, that kind of easy-to-find information could be put to use in what’s called “civic technology,” which can help create projects such the building of a real-time pothole mapper or a county alert system by an entrepreneur.
Sponsored by District 8 Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava, the ordinance references the Sunlight Foundation’s guidelines for open-data policies. The non-partisan, open-government advocacy group makes recommendations on what kind of data should be online and how to go about doing it. The ordinance calls on the mayor’s office to make a report on how the county could put the plan in motion.
The resolution would still have to approved on second reading, but is expected to pass.
