On Wednesday, I signed an executive order creating Baltimore City's first open data initiative, called OpenBaltimore. I ordered all city agencies, departments, boards, and commissions to make data sets under their control available to the public. This initiative will promote a more transparent government and encourage the public to participate in efforts to make government more effective and efficient.

With OpenBaltimore, the city government will begin sharing data with the public in an unprecedented way. Innovative and creative individuals will be able to collaborate with government and find ways to improve service delivery and save money for taxpayers.

Data already available to the public can be found at openbaltimore.baltimorecity.gov. On the site, you can learn more about the initiative and gain access the City's data catalog.

Under OpenBaltimore, within 30 days each department will establish a list of data sets that it maintains and identify which are already available to the public and which are not. Each department will take prompt steps to make data available exclusively through OpenBaltimore for public access. Data sets will be published in an open format, which can be retrieved, downloaded, and searched by commonly used web browsers.

I asked each department and agency to designate their own Open Data Coordinator to ensure that the information provided in the data sets is accurate, clear, complete, unbiased, and reliable. Individuals who work on the development of applications can use the data OpenBaltimore provides to create useful applications for city residents and businesses.

Providing public access to government data will increase transparency and improve the level of trust between the people and their government. I want to thank Rico Singleton, the City's Chief Information Officer, for his leadership as we worked to make OpenBaltimore a reality.