Cape Town has launched its very own Open Data portal to leverage transparency and accountability in the Government system. The new portal promises to perk up the competitiveness of the Cape Town’s broader economy besides fostering innovation by empowering entrepreneurs to use the data to create new applications.
The Open Data Portal makes public sector data available to the public in usable formats free of cost. The portal is accessible to the general masses through variety of devices including mobile phones with internet connectivity. Till now, 25 data sets including the City’s budget data; the location of all community parks, district parks, cemeteries, clinics, fire stations, libraries, resorts; information on MyCiTi bus stations and routes and details about awarded tenders have been uploaded on the portal. The data sets on the portal are first approved by a steering committee comprising of the representatives from various City directorates before uploading on the portal.
The general public is invited to request data they would like to see on the portal, besides sharing their thoughts and experiences while using the portal. On the launch of portal, the City Mayor Patricia de Lille said “This is a historic day as we join cities such as New York, London and Helsinki that have forged the way for cities to make their data sets available to the public. In today’s knowledge economy, access to data is instrumental in becoming competitive.”
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: https://web1.capetown.gov.za/web1/opendataportal/