Based on the success of the November 21st Open Data Town Hall at the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center, the Montgomery County Innovation Program will be hosting another Open Data Town Hall on January 28th, 2014 at the Upcounty Regional Services Center (12900 Middlebrook Road, Germantown, MD 20874). The event will be from 7 to 8:30 p.m.
The Open Data Town Hall in November was the first event of its kind in the county and the country. Montgomery County continued to position itself as a leader in open data policy and received input from residents on the types of datasets they would like to see on our Open Data portal, dataMontgomery (http://data.montgomerycountymd.gov/). The event gathered 40 participants and their suggestions on Open Data. Check out this feedback from resident Kurt Raschke.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62mmXtG_-QM&feature=youtu.be
The upcoming Open Data Town Hall will also include Montgomery County Public School (MCPS) students from eight upcounty high schools. The Innovation Program in collaboration with MCPS and Superintendent Josh Starr are organizing outreach presentations for students enrolled in government and technology courses prior to the town hall. Students will learn about the role of open data in good governance and the potential technical applications. Students will also be encouraged to attend and participate in the town hall.
The event will also include presentations from Chief Innovation Officer Dan Hoffman and Chief Information Officer Sonny Segal. Other guests include representatives from the Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit organization specializing in improving government transparency, and Socrata, the industry leader in open data software. Following presentations participants will be able to suggest datasets for publication. The feedback received will be an input to the Open Data Implementation Plan being developed by the County.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7d7XAZFzuI&feature=youtu.be
If you are unable to attend the event, it will be tweeted live using the hashtag #opendataMC. Also, some residents will be recorded on the Innovation Program Vine account with their dataset suggestions. The Vine username is Montgomery County Innovation. Hope to see you there!