From Catalyst, the blog of the Washington Business Alliance, an exclusive peek into the next generation of open data at King County, from Assessor Lloyd Hara.
….many of the portals provide mapped visualization of one variable, but rarely integrate multiple information sources such as property values, education outcomes, crime, and census data. This problem occurs at the federal, county, state and local levels. The result is missed connections between related data trends, which can contribute to governance shortcomings. Billions of dollars could be wasted on ineffective programs because of the lack of correlation of key data among various government agencies. Communities are less informed and engaged because of data silos.
Hara then details a new open data strategy and tool set that his office expects to unveil next year.