Case Study: City of Boston achieves open-data transformation and greater transparency with Socrata

Useful Data for Everyone: The City of Boston and Open Data Strategy

The City of Boston faced an underperforming open data program characterized by inconsistent data requests, manual reporting processes, departmental resistance, and a D- financial transparency rating from U.S. PIRG. City leaders, led by Principal Data Scientist Curt Savoie and supported by the CIO and mayor, sought a more user-friendly, secure way to publish datasets and improve public access to municipal information.

Boston adopted Socrata in 2012 to build a modern open data portal and rolled out tools like Open Checkbook and Open Budget. The portal grew from about 10 to 70 datasets, established rigorous privacy checks with no breaches, and shifted departments from apathy to proactive data stewardship. The result: faster internal analytics, direct public and press access, civic apps and partnerships (e.g., Street Bump, Food Police, Knight Foundation support), and stronger citizen engagement and transparency.

City of Boston

Curt Savoie

Principal Data Scientist, City of Boston