Open Data Skills

Socrata

Our open data website is managed by a company called Socrata.

• Simple "How-To" Guide

They have various FREE and self-directed online courses. The two below may be of most interest to our citizens and staff.

• Introduction to Data Analysis for Government
• Tools & Technologies

Analysis and Visualization Skills

Power BI

There are many ways to analyze and visualize data and while Excel is the platform most folks are familiar with, tools like Power BI are offering a whole new look and feel to data analysis. The data team uses Power BI to build visualizations and reports. Download Power BI Desktop for FREE to get started and then follow along with the online tutorials below.

• Getting Started with Power BI Desktop in 5 Steps
• Getting Started with Power BI Video Series

Geographic Information Skills

GIS and New Orleans

ArcGIS is a geographic information system (GIS) for working with maps and geographic information. The City of New Orleans uses this platform to provide an infrastructure for making maps and geographic information available throughout the City of New Orleans, across our community, and openly on the Web. If you work for the City, you can use ArcGIS Online by requesting an account through service desk. You can find all our open geographic data here.

Share your data with us

The Process

1. Tell us about your data! Fill out our quick Data Inventory Form so we can get to know your data.
2. Call or email to follow-up and we'll review your submission, your organization, and the kind of data you’re looking to share. We’d also like to hear your suggestions for how the data can be used.
3. Complete a Data Sharing Agreement and return it to us. Please be sure that the person signing the agreement has proper authorization to enter into an agreement on behalf of their organization. To enable the broadest use of your organization’s data, you must agree to assigning your data with a Creative Commons cc0 Public Domain license. 
4. Learn how to manage or mask sensitive information, load data to the open data portal, and create metadata through training and resources we will provide.
5. Share a high resolution digital logo for use on the data portal’s organization page. A recommended size is 189 x 189 pixels. Most common graphics file formats (gif, jpg, etc) are acceptable.
6. Share a brief description of your organization that will be included on the open data portal; four or five sentences maximum.

Your Responsibilities

The Data Sharing Agreement outlines your full set of responsibilities as a data provider. You must read and thoroughly understand the City of New Orleans Data Sharing Agreement before publishing any data.

• You’re responsible for what you share. Do not share any information that shouldn’t be made publicly available.
• You must own your data, and have the authority to license and share it.
• You may need to spend considerable time cleaning and processing your data before it can be shared. This is not a service that we are able to provide.
• You must provide documentation for your data. Documentation makes it easier for others to find your data and understand how to use it.
• You must agree to the Creative Commons cc0 Public Domain license for all data you share.This makes your data usable for public good!

Please contact the City of New Orleans Data Team with questions if you would like to become a data provider. We’re working to provide self-service trainings and additional resources to support this effort. 

 

Source: We've borrowed much of the wording on this page and in the Data Sharing Agreement from the Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center.