Laws and Reports

History

In many other cities, Open Data is a technical policy or an executive order. In New York City, it’s the law. On March 7, 2012, former Mayor Bloomberg signed Local Law 11 of 2012, more commonly known as the “Open Data Law,” which amended the New York City administrative code to mandate that all public data be made available on a single web portal by the end of 2018.

In November 2015, January 2016, and December 2017, former Mayor de Blasio approved several amendments to the Open Data Law. These laws, which include stronger requirements on data dictionaries and data retention, response timelines for public requests, and an extension of the Open Data mandate into perpetuity, help make it easier for New Yorkers to access City data online and anchor the city’s transparency initiatives around Open Data.

The Open Data team at the NYC Office of Technology and Innovation (OTI), is responsible for carrying out these laws.

Sponsors

  • Gale A. Brewer
  • Lewis A. Fidler
  • Vincent J. Gentile
  • Sara M. Gonzalez
  • Letitia James
  • Brad S. Lander
  • Annabel Palma
  • Michael C. Nelson
  • Jessica S. Lappin
  • Daniel Dromm
  • Daniel R. Garodnick
  • Diana Reyna
  • Darlene Mealy
  • Albert Vann
  • Robert Jackson
  • Stephen T. Levin
  • Fernando Cabrera
  • James F. Gennaro
  • Jumaane D. Williams
  • James G. Van Bramer
  • Ydanis A. Rodriguez
  • Daniel J. Halloran III
  • The Public Advocate (Mr. de Blasio)

Legislation

The Open Data Law is a statutory mandate that enacts one of the most robust Open Data policies in the world. The law and its amendments form a framework for ensuring that all eligible City datasets are published by the end of 2018.

Open Data Law: Local Law 11 of 2012 mandates that all “public” data be made freely available on a single web portal by December 31, 2018. According to the law, a “public data set” is any comprehensive collection of data that is maintained on a computer system by or on behalf of a City agency.

Extending data publishing mandate: Local Law 251 of 2017 requires all public datasets, including ones that agencies identify after the 2018 deadline, to be published on the Open Data Portal. It mandates that Agency commissioners appoint an official Open Data Coordinator.

Retention and Archiving: Local Law 106 of 2015 mandates the preservation of the New York City historical record as represented by the City’s official data.

Data Dictionaries: Local Law 107 of 2015 requires every dataset on Open Data to have a plain language data dictionary.

Geospatial Standards: Local Law 108 of 2015 requires that every dataset containing street addresses also contain coordinates and political boundaries.

Public requests: Local Law 109 of 2015 guarantees timely and thorough responses to all public requests for new datasets on Open Data.

Timely updates: Local Law 110 of 2015 requires all data published on agency websites to be included and kept up-to-date on Open Data.

FOIL responses including data: Local Law 7 of 2016 and Local Law 244 of 2017 require agencies to review Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests containing data to determine whether they contained new public datasets that could be published on Open Data.

Examinations and Verifications: Local Law 8 of 2016 required MODA to examine three mayoral agencies each year to verify that all public datasets have been disclosed.

Open Data User Research

Want to better understand who uses your City’s data? The Open Data Team regularly conducts research on users to identify opportunities for improving engagement.