A new study puts the Beehive State near the top when it comes to making government data accessible.
The Center for Data Innovation gave Utah a score of 8, which is the highest possible, for its open data policies.
Here’s why the report thinks having both a detailed open data policy and open data portals that provide data in machine-readable formats and through a single location are important:
The purpose of open data portals is to provide government accountability and data that can be used for socially and economically beneficial purposes, and they are more likely to continue to be updated and maintained if they are backed up by state policies, just as policies are more likely to be effective if there is a place to publish the data they require.
The other states that scored at the top of the study were Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, New York and Oklahoma.
The bottom scoring states are Alabama, Alaska, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Nevada, South Dakota and Wyoming.
