(a) An open data policy will provide benefits to the City, which include:
(1) enhanced government transparency and accountability;
(2) development of new analyses or applications based on the unique data the City provides;
(3) mobilization of San Francisco's high-tech workforce to use City data to create useful civic tools at no cost to the City; and
(4) creation of social and economic benefits based on innovation in how residents interact with government stemming from increased accessibility to City data sets.
(b) San Francisco has been a leader in open data policy in the United States. On October 21, 2009, Mayor Newsom issued Executive Directive 09-06, entitled Open Data ("the Directive"). The Directive stated the City's commitment to transparency in government by declaring that all appropriate data sets would be published through a designated website. The City expanded on the Directive with the enactment of the Open Data Policy (Ordinance 293-10), codified in Chapter 22D of the Administrative Code. A significant and valuable revision to the Open Data Policy came through the amendment of Chapter 22 establishing the position of Chief Data Officer, Departmental Data Coordinators, and making other procedural revisions (Ordinance No. 69-13).
(c) City departments should continue to take steps to make their data sets available to the public in a more timely and efficient manner.
(d) The City should develop a strategy for the release of City-held citizen data directly back to citizens who request such data.
(e) In enacting and implementing this Chapter, the City is assuming an undertaking only to promote the general welfare. It is not assuming, nor is it imposing on its officers and employees, an obligation for breach of which it is liable in money damages to any person who claims that such breach proximately caused injury.
(Added by Ord. 293-10, File No. 101155, App. 11/18/2010; amended by Ord. 285-13, File No. 130787, App. 12/26/2013, Eff. 1/25/2014)