Launching OpenCity.in – a data portal for Indian cities

Oorvani Foundation and Datameet are happy to announce the launch of OpenCity.in – an urban public data portal.

In cities across India, there is a lack of accessible and robust public data. Citizens often do not have access to quantitative information that helps them understand the state of their neighborhood and their city, as well as support their demands of the local government. Data when available is often lost within the hard disks of government or non-governmental organisations, documents hard disks or in individual silos.

OpenCity.in is a repository of city-related public data from government sources, via RTI or open data processes. All data will be free of charge and free to download; data will be in open data format, and licensed under ODbL and Creative Commons Share Alike.

We invite individuals and organisations to support, collaborate and provide feedback of all kinds that will make this a major source of information useful for as many people as possible!

Civil society organisations, NGOs and RWAs can share the public data they collect on topics like civic, health, environment etc. Data can be local or city level, like budgets, programme of works, expenditure reports, DPRs etc.  

Citizens and citizen groups can share the data on OpenCity.in so that it can become useful beyond any single entity’s reach and impact.

The data portal is a voluntary initiative by Oorvani Foundation and Data Meet. The site is currently in alpha (Read:it will have bugs!)  and volunteers from across cities will be adding more data. For more information, contact opencity@oorvani.in

About us

Oorvani Foundation

Oorvani Foundation functions as an independent, non-profit newsroom; develops journalism characterised by depth, perspective and proportion, with a special focus on governance, data and citizen empowerment, publishing through Citizen Matters and India Together platforms and other media partners.

Datameet

DataMeet is a community of data enthusiasts who believe data can serve a civic purpose. Supported by a large network of members, the core team has the experience in data technology and data science to provide technology support for Ooen Data. DataMeet also provides data skills training and consultations on how to use and open up data.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Similar Story

The Why of Citizen Activism

In an earlier post, I wrote about the rise of the citizen entrepreneurs. Thought I’ll share why these active citizens do what they do. I am including myself in this club because I still volunteer occasionally. Many of our team members are engaged in their own local issues (but we ensure that is independent of our work at Citizen Matters!).  Satisfaction First of course, is the immediate sense of empowerment — that we get when we start doing something. Whether or not there are results to show. Sometimes there is a feeling of being better than the rest, because hey,…

Similar Story

Partnering with Canadian varsity to report on urban resilience

It's yet another milestone in the journey of Oorvani Foundation. You may have read about our joint initiative with Radio Active Community Radio 90.8 MHz - Co Media Lab. The community media lab serves as a resource centre, newsroom and a space for dialogues and discussions for community collaborations. The past few months now, Co Media Lab has been organising workshops for public and for students. Co Media Lab is hosted at Jain University, and supported by the University. (More details here.) We are happy to share news of an exciting new project of the lab - a partnership with…