New York City’s Office of Technology and Innovation (OTI) announced the release of the 2024 Open Data Report, as well as the launch of the annual call for submissions for Open Data Week 2025.
OTI said the latest report outlines important new datasets, as well as improvements to existing datasets. Specifically, this year’s report showcases new datasets on algorithmic tools, capital projects, and flood mapping, and outlines efforts to consolidate existing datasets to help New Yorkers find the information they are looking for.
As for the call for submissions for Open Data Week 2025, the call for proposed events, workshops, and artistic expressions is now ongoing through Nov. 1.
OTI also shared details of and invited comments on planned updates to the Technical Standards Manual, which sets standards, processes, and guidelines that city agencies use when making their data publicly available.
“Technology is central to this administration’s efforts to improve service delivery and daily interactions between New Yorkers and their government,” said NYC Chief Technology Officer Matthew Fraser. “As this year’s Open Data Progress Report demonstrates, we’re focused on making the information our residents care about more easily accessible to them through this unparalleled public resource.”
In addition to highlighting new datasets, the Open Data Report also details significant efforts to enhance data accessibility, including the consolidation of overlapping datasets to reduce the time, effort, and clicks necessary for users to track down information and make the underlying concepts coherent to regular New Yorkers and subject matter experts alike.
Looking to the future, OTI said that as part of upcoming guidance in the Technical Standards Manual, dataset consolidation will be institutionalized. This consolidation means that future datasets about the same concept will not be split across multiple years or geographies.
“NYC Open Data is bigger, better, and more accessible than ever because of the people inside and outside government who are continually working to improve it,” said NYC Chief Analytics Officer Martha Norrick. “Our team believes that truly opening data means more than just making information available, and to that end we have spent this year improving our help desk, updating guidance for city staff, and consolidating 524 separate datasets into just 34 containing the all the same information.”
Additionally, proposals are now being accepted for Open Data Week 2025, the 9th annual weeklong festival organized by OTI, civic tech group BetaNYC, and art collective Data Through Design. Open Data Week is a celebration of all things public data including presentations, art exhibits, and other events centered around public data. New Yorkers interested in contributing to Open Data Week 2025 can submit their proposals via open-data.nyc by Friday, Nov. 1.
