The City of Salinas Launches its Open Data Portal

July 31, 2018 – BOSTON – Today, the City of Salinas (CA) and Opendatasoft announce the launch of a new data portal to address the city’s accountability goals. The data portal, developed on the Opendatasoft platform, will provide a one-stop source for data about the many projects and initiatives launched throughout the city.

This cloud-based data portal offers a user-friendly interface that is accessible by all, regardless of technical knowledge or background. The Salinas open data portal will feature data-driven stories in both English and Spanish, underscoring the city’s emphasis on opening the data to as many citizens as possible. Six specific sections have been created on the home page to guide citizens quickly and easily to the information they need. For instance, on the Traffic and Transportation page, the city shares bicycle-related issues and provides detailed information on bicycle programs and projects to enhance bicycle safety throughout Salinas.

The city has also prioritized breaking down data silos by crossing different datasets that address similar issues. As a result, users can directly visualize different information related to their neighborhood. If the user wants to dig into the data in more detail, the “Explore the data” section provides access to the underlying datasets.

“Open data makes it easier for anyone to find and share information,” said the City’s GIS Administrator, Eric Sandoval. “That’s the most exciting part about this portal for us: that so much value becomes accessible to everyone. The staff of our libraries know a lot about that, and working with them made this all the better.”

The City of Salinas is the largest municipality of Monterey County in California. The city works towards increasing government transparency and accountability by providing public access to local government information. This data portal provides information in a way that will be welcomed by users of all levels of technical experience. This web-based service allows community members, as well as groups and individuals world-wide, access to an ever-growing catalog of datasets from various departments. Users can choose a dataset and create their own graphs, charts and maps as well as download and reuse the data. By releasing public information, the City of Salinas hopes to increase efficiency across private and public sectors, unveil accountability in order to encourage data driven decisions and increase public engagement in local government.

Opendatasoft offers its clients market-leading data sharing solutions that allow users to easily publish, manage, combine, analyze, visualize, and share data in a variety of formats on a single platform. Opendatasoft operates in 17 countries with clients ranging from small companies and towns (including the City and County of Durham, Town of Cary, NC Commerce, the City of Paris, Bristol, Eindhoven, etc) to large international companies (Schneider Electric, Indigo, Energias de Portugal (EDP), Veolia, Total, Air Liquide, Enedis, Saint-Gobain). For more information, visit our website opendatasoft.com or follow company news on Twitter via @Opendatasoft