Pilot Program To Add Local Data To State Search Site

Governor Pat Quinn last week announced a major accountability and transparency initiative  to help local governments expand the data available to the public. The Illinois Open Technology Challenge is a pilot initiative that will make Illinois’ open data platform available to municipal governments statewide.

“The Illinois Open Technology Challenge will not only increase transparency at the local level by giving the public access to government data," the Governor said, "it will give entrepreneurs the chance to develop new, innovative applications for the data that will create jobs and make a positive impact.”

ILOpenTech ( www.illinoisopentech.org ) will include at least $75,000 in prize funding to be awarded to Illinois’ most innovative developers who solve a digital problem in one of the four pilot communities.

ILOpenTech is supposed to transform currently available data into usable applications as well as produce new datasets that will be uploaded to the state site. “We have collected a lot of data on economic development, housing, infrastructure, planning, and natural resources, which is a powerful tool for our region,” said Edward Paesel, executive director of the South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association, one of the pilot sites.

ILOpenTech will be part of the State of Illinois Open Data site, a searchable clearinghouse of info from state agencies about the operation of state government. The site, https://data.illinois.gov/, launched in June, 2011, now contains more than 6,500 data sets. The Challenge to add to it will launch in Belleville, Champaign, Rockford, and Chicago’s South Suburbs