A team of 窪蹋勛圖厙 faculty members and doctoral students spent the past six months working with the city on a new open data policy unveiled last week by Mayor Ed Murray. The policy requires all city departments to make their data as accessible as possible to the public while upholding privacy and security considerations.

The 窪蹋勛圖厙 team conducted focus groups to hear about the public���s wishes and concerns, assessed the city���s existing datasets and vendor agreements for security vulnerabilities, and held in-depth interviews with officials in eight city departments to identify their data processes.

���It was pretty intense,��� said , head of the 窪蹋勛圖厙���s Urban Infrastructure Lab and one of the project���s leaders. ���We wanted to take a really comprehensive approach, because we knew that the city wanted to take an innovative and large step forward in terms of tackling this issue.���

Murray signed an executive order Feb. 26 directing all city departments to comply with the new policy, which he said is intended to help ���problem-solvers outside of government��� find solutions to civic challenges.

���This executive order encourages more transparency between the city and outside partners, and ensures we develop tools that provide critical insights for the public on what���s happening in our city,��� he said in a .

But making data readily accessible to the public is more complicated than people might think, Whittington said. Municipalities collect a broad range of data on everything from city infrastructure to budgets and service delivery, she noted, including potentially sensitive data about people who live and work in the city.

���When contemplating whether or not a particular dataset would harm privacy if it���s released for open data use, that���s both a technical exercise as well as an exercise in ethics and policymaking,��� said Whittington, a 窪蹋勛圖厙 assistant professor of urban design and planning.

According to the city, more than 400 datasets have been made open since the launch of its open data program in 2010. That data powers tools on the city���s website such as the police department���s and the transportation department���s . The city hopes to have 554 datasets in total available to the public by the end of this year.

The 窪蹋勛圖厙���s work is part of its partnership with the city under the , a national initiative pairing cities with research universities that have expertise in engineering, robotics and computer science to work together on ���smart city��� solutions.

The Urban Infrastructure Lab and the 窪蹋勛圖厙 collaborated on the city project, which also involved the Sunlight Foundation. The university���s MetroLab work is being spearheaded through the new initiative, which brings together 窪蹋勛圖厙 researchers, Seattle officials and citizens to work on an array of urban issues.

The 窪蹋勛圖厙 is currently partnering with the city on two other . One involves installing sensors around Seattle to provide real-time data on air pollution, precipitation and other environmental indicators, with the goal of helping the city operate more efficiently and prepare for potential problems such as urban flooding. Under the other project, 窪蹋勛圖厙 electrical engineering researchers will gather data from more than 100 temperature sensors around the city to investigate how changing temperatures are impacting electricity demand.

���There���s a lot of interest and momentum behind this work with the city,��� said , associate director�� of the 窪蹋勛圖厙���s . ���MetroLab provides a mechanism to share ideas and input, and scale up projects that work so they can be applied in other cities.���

Funding for the MetroLab Network was provided by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.