Urging The Office Of Enterprise Technology Services To Improve The State Of Hawaii's Open Data Portal By Increasing And Expanding The Data Sets Available On The Open Data Portal, Centralizing All Open Data Sets Of All State Departments Onto The Open Data Portal, And Continually Updating The Data Sets For Accuracy And Recency Of Publicly Accessible Data.
This concurrent resolution is a response to existing challenges with the current Open Data Portal, which has been criticized for not providing data sets in user-friendly formats and requiring requests for certain information from individual departments. By addressing these inefficiencies, SCR83 aims to streamline access to public data, thereby enhancing transparency in government operations and enabling more informed citizen engagement and civil innovation, which could lead to better public policies and governmental accountability.
SCR83 urges the Office of Enterprise Technology Services to enhance the State of Hawaii's Open Data Portal. The resolution recommends increasing and expanding the available data sets, centralizing these data sets from all state departments, and ensuring they are continually updated for accuracy and recency. The initiative is grounded in the state's goal of improving service quality and satisfaction among its residents, fostering transparency, and facilitating better decision-making through increased access to public data.
While the bill appears to be a technical improvement, it underscores the broader importance of open data initiatives in governance. The resolution references successful models from other states, like Chicago’s Data Portal, to advocate for similar measures in Hawaii. However, there might be concerns regarding the resources required for implementing these improvements and ensuring that all stakeholders—from state departments to the public—fully engage in and benefit from the upgraded Open Data Portal.