Open Data Day in Upstate New York
Tomorrow — Saturday, March 3rd — is International Open Data Day.
With events happening around the world this weekend, there will be lots and lots of people working with (and for) open data. And while there isn’t a dedicated event in Upstate New York [Corrected Below], there has really never been a better time for Upstate developers, data geeks and civic tech enthusiasts to explore the possibilities of open data.
With the recent unveiling of the City of Buffalo’s new open data portal and civic innovation contest, there are now four major Upstate cities publishing open data to the public: Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Albany. These municipal data portals compliment the open data sites currently managed by the State of New York — the main NY State open data portal, and the NY State health data portal.
In addition, the State of New York maintains a GIS Clearinghouse and a 511 Developer Center full of good stuff for data scientists, software developers and just people interested in how governments works and how they might help make it work better.
If you’ve ever wanted to start using data published by the State of New York or one of the major Upstate cities, there has never been a better time to do it.
This weekend is for you.
UPDATE
Turns out there is an Open Data Day event scheduled for this weekend in Albany. If you are in the Capital Region you should check it out.
