Democratizing Our Data A Manifesto

A wake-up call for America to create a new framework for democratizing data.

Public data are foundational to our democratic system. People need consistently high-quality information from trustworthy sources. In the new economy, wealth is generated by access to data; government's job is to democratize the data playing field. Yet data produced by the American government are getting worse and costing more. In Democratizing Our Data, Julia Lane argues that good data are essential for democracy. Her book is a wake-up call to America to fix its broken public data system.

Julia Lane is a Professor at the NYU Wagner Graduate school of Public Service and the NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress, and an NYU Provostial Fellow for Innovation Analytics.

Preface ix
1 The Problem, Why it Matters, and What to Do 1
2 The Current State of Play 19
3 Set Up to Fail 41
4 A Successful Model 63
5 Setting Up for Success 83
6 Establishing the Foundation 107
7 The Future 121
Notes 143
Index 167