Successful Open Data Implementations Need A Champion

EMC Research just released a survey of government respondents’ attitudes and opinions around the role, use and application of open data.  The survey is worth a read, but one finding in particular stands out to me.  Almost three quarters of federal, state and local government officials agreed that “open data can’t be pursued without the direction of leadership or elected leaders in our organization.”   This definitely rings true with the work that we’ve done in open data.  Every successful open data implementation that we’ve seen has had a senior leader or elected official as its champion.