In the spirit of International Open Data Day—which occurred in the weekend of 5th March 2022, and the vision of the DCS to become the worlds’ most customer-centric organisation by 2030, we wanted to let you know what open data means to us at the NSW Government.
One of the ways we are committing to this vison of being customer-centric is by sharing data openly and responsibly. Open data is the information, numbers, statistics, facts that can be analysed and used for research, decision-making and planning purposes. In short, it is data anyone can access, use, re-use and share freely at the lowest possible cost, usually free (under fully open licences).
Open data is released in accessible, consumable formats with metadata and data quality statements, made available by engaging with the public. The NSW open data portal hosts over 14,000 datasets. Before releasing these datasets to the public, we take careful steps to ensure sensitive data such as personal or health information is not published.
Benefits of having access to an open data portal includes the following: Open data holds the government accountable and transparent to the public, promotes social and economic growth, helps the government and public make better decisions, keeps everyone informed of the latest happenings—whether it be school closures, current weather warnings, traffic issues or public transport routes etc. We increase the public’s access to open data by releasing data proactively and by assisting people requesting information find them.
By popular demand, our datasets that the community engages in hugely include:
1. The covid-19 datasets—be it no. of cases by locations, age range, test type, check. Please find attached link: Covid data on data.nsw.gov.au
2. Flood datasets: Datasets search: flood data on data.nsw.gov.au and daily river reports: Daily River Reports on data.nsw.gov.au
3. Fuel check – provides you with live updates of petrol station prices: Fuel check app or view the Fuel check data here.
We are continuously committed to releasing high quality datasets that drives service delivery and innovation and to making government data open and accessible.