Open data vs Public Data vs Proprietary Data
When talking about crime data, is there a distinction between open, public, and proprietary crime data. Absolutely. What is open data? Open data is data that’s available in a machine readable format without restrictions on the ability to use, consume, or share the information. Philadelphia and Chicago are good examples of cities that have open crime data available for residents, the press, and anyone to collect, use, and redistribute. Philadelphia SpotCrime Map Open crime data is the best option for police agencies. The easier the information is to obtain, the easier it is to get more eyes on the information which, we believe, leads to really cool ways to view the data and, most importantly, leads to safer and more informed neighborhoods. What is public data? Public data is data that’s available to the public to collect or look at, but it’s not easily redistributed (or machine readable) and sometimes not easily obtained. It might require an open record...