Case Study: City of Boston achieves a modern, user-friendly, real-time open data portal with OpenGov

Boston Delivers Cutting-Edge Next Generation Open Data Portal with OpenGov

Boston, Massachusetts needed to transform an aging open data portal that had become a static repository—hard to navigate, not mobile-friendly, and updated only sporadically—into a platform that made data useful and accessible to residents, developers, and city staff. The city wanted to move beyond measuring success by dataset quantity to providing quality, timely information and real-world examples that would drive engagement.

Using a Knight Foundation grant and OpenGov’s CKAN-powered solution, Boston launched Analyze Boston with an intuitive landing page, strong search, curated showcases (WOW Boston, Beantown Solar, Boston Garbage Atlas), APIs for near-real-time updates, and librarian-led outreach. The result is a scalable, user-centered portal with 100+ maintained datasets, improved public and developer engagement, better backend data practices, and room for continued growth and new data-driven initiatives.

City of Boston

Andrew Therriault

Chief Data Officer