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The City Governments That Have Mastered Data

The initiative What Works Cities has awarded certifications to 16 additional local governments for how they use data in decision-making.

The Open Data BR platform in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, allows residents to track 311 calls by location.

The Open Data BR platform in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, allows residents to track 311 calls by location.

Source: https://data.brla.gov/

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If one thing has thrived during Covid-19, it is the data dashboard.

Months into the pandemic, city halls, counties and every state across the U.S. had their own spin-off of the initial John Hopkins University dashboard, executed with various degrees of expertise — and usability. Covid dashboards and their more uplifting vaccination successors have also been subject to criticism, from lack of accessibility to underlying data not being easily retrievable. But together, they constitute an important step forward in making information of public health importance more visible.