Case Study: City of Chicago achieves a thriving open-data economy and civic developer ecosystem with Socrata

How Chicago Is Growing Its Open Data Economy

Socrata partnered with the City of Chicago to scale its open data portal (data.cityofchicago.org) and turn public datasets into tools for transparency, innovation, and economic growth. The challenge was to increase the quantity, quality, and timeliness of city data while driving developer engagement and agency participation so the data could be used to build useful services and businesses.

The solution combined Socrata’s platform with strong city leadership (a mayoral executive order requiring agency contributions and coordinators), a focus on high‑value, frequently updated datasets (traffic, 10‑year crime history, expanded 311), and active investment in the civic hacker community through hack nights and partnerships. The result: nearly 600 datasets, 15.6 million portal pageviews, a 200% increase in downloads (2 TB to 6.4 TB), and the emergence of local startups and apps (e.g., DataMade, Purple Binder, Cartografika) that use open data to create jobs and practical services.

City of Chicago

Rahm Emanuel

Mayor