City of Boston Will Release Big Data

05:47

April 08, 2014

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh delivers his inaugural address in Conte Forum at Boston College. (Michael Dwyer/AP)

The city of Boston is taking a big step forward into big data. Mayor Walsh signed an executive order Monday night requiring that all city departments make data from public records open to the public. That means information such as restaurant inspections, emergency response times and crime statistics will be publicly available on the web. What can be drawn from Boston's data and what concerns are there that this data might infringe on citizens' privacy?

Guest

Stephen Goldsmith, Daniel Paul Professor of the Practice of Government at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University and director of the Data-Smart City Solutions project at Harvard. He tweets at @GoldsmithOnGov.

WBUR: Mayor Walsh Opens Up More Of Boston’s Data

"In a move to increase transparency and spur innovation, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh on Monday ordered that vast amounts of city data be placed in an open, online database that can be accessed by the public, researchers and software developers."

Beta Boston: Mayor Walsh Opens Up Boston’s Online Data

"Mayor Martin J. Walsh signed an executive order Monday night to make the city’s data — information such as restaurant inspections, crime statistics, emergency response times, and liquor licenses — accessible to the public and published online for software developers to create web pages and mobile applications."

This segment aired on April 8, 2014.