On Tuesday evening, I led an interesting discussion with Morrisville citizen and Raleigh Open Data Manager, Jason Hare, on Smarter Cities and Open Data.   Smarter cities are those cities, who use and analyze data to make better informed decision in all of the areas, of running a city or town.

Open Data iniatives involve publishing data to the citizens, in machine readable, usable format, so citizens can use this information, to develop applications, which can help the town run better, can present data to elected officials, and promote even more transparency and lead to better decisions by elected officials.

Raleigh, and Wake County are leading successful efforts in this area and I am reccomending to Council that we move forward with a pilot for our own Open Data Portal, as I see many benefits to the Town, particularily in getting citizens more engaged, and leveraging the highly skilled IT community to develop innovative applications, cool stuff for our Town.   (See my presentation on this on my Town of Morrisville site. (www.townofmorrisville.org)

This morning, I am attending City Camp Raleigh, a continued discussion on the Open Data movement, at the Jim Hunt Library at NC State.    Thanks to Counclimen Bonner Gaylord for his invitation and I look forward to learning more