The Chapel Hill Public Library will host an introduction to an online portal for public data on January 14 from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

According to Susan Brown, the director of the library, the portal was created at the behest of the Chapel Hill Town Council to foster civic engagement and promote government transparency.

“The council has long had an interest in more civic engagement, so we did this open data portal,” stated Brown.

She noted that open data expertise during the development of the portal was provided by Scott Clark, the town’s executive director for technology and former contributor to a similar project in Cary.

“His department is technology solutions,” cited Brown. “Each town department has a liaison, so we all work on getting data up there.”

With every department in the Chapel Hill municipal government making data available through the portal, Brown explained that residents can make use of this tool in a variety of ways.

“[The data] might go into a research paper; it might go into a solution for a common problem,” mused Brown.

The event will feature a keynote address from Chris Blue, the chief of the Chapel Hill Police Department, on open data and how it applies to modern policing. Attendees will also have the opportunity to request data sets.

The portal is currently accessible online at chapelhillopendata.org.

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