The City Council of Portland, Oregon unanimously approved a resolution today that directs the city government to open data to outside developers and encourages adoption of open source solutions in technology procurement. Like the creation of railroads and highways fostered economic development in the past, giving software developers access to a landscape of municipal data could be the beginning of a foundation for a new era of innovation. Sponsor "This [resolution] will increase efficiency in local government... democratize public data itself... and it will foster innovation among Portland's world class software community," said Skip Newberry with the Mayor's Office in his testimony according to a report on the local tech blog Silicon Florist. The full text of the resolution has been posted as text (from a PDF) on the same blog. Portland joins San Francisco, Chicago and Vancouver, British Columbia as cities with major initiatives to offer municipal data in formats that will enable...

The City Council of Portland, Oregon unanimously approved a resolution today that directs the city government to open data to outside developers and encourages adoption of open source solutions in technology procurement. Like the creation of railroads and highways fostered economic development in the past, giving software developers access to a landscape of municipal data could be the beginning of a foundation for a new era of innovation. "This [resolution] will increase efficiency in local government... democratize public data itself... and it will foster innovation among Portland's world class software community," said Skip Newberry with the Mayor's Office in his testimony according to a report on the local tech blog Silicon Florist. Sponsor The full text of the resolution has been posted as text (from a PDF) on the same blog. Portland joins San Francisco, Chicago and Vancouver, British Columbia as cities with major initiatives to offer municipal data in formats that will enable... - Kol Tregaskes