Call to Action: Open Data

Calling All Data Stewards: Help Build a Culture of Open Data

Data sets relevant to disaster preparedness (including prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery) have traditionally been closed by default to the public.  To help empower technologists, entrepreneurs, governments, volunteers, survivors, and community leaders with information that can improve individual and community preparedness, the Administration is working with stakeholders to open a series of disaster related data sets:

• Locations of schools and childcare centers
• Locations of hospitals and medical care facilities
• Locations of nursing homes
• Locations of PODs (Points of Distribution) for emergency supplies in the wake of a disaster
• Neighborhood names / borders
• Evacuation routes and pick-up sites
• Locations of food trucks
• Data about which local businesses are open in the wake of a disaster
• Data and metrics about how open data sets are used

If you already have data online that you would like to include on disasters.data.gov, the first step is to prepare it for inclusion in the data.gov catalog by following this guide.

Stay tuned to our blog to find out how cities across the nation are stepping up to this Call to Action!