Discover What Data Connecticut Collects on You and Your Community

Did you know there the state of Connecticut is required by law to provide the public access to all sorts of data it and community organizations gather while doing business?

Do you know exactly how much of your tax money is spent on street lights or on cancer research? What is the shortest, safest bicycle route from your home to your work? Where in your region will you find the best job opportunities and the highest number of trees per capita?

The answers to these and many other questions, exist in the data generated by public bodies and community organizations, and exactly what that information is and how to access it, is the topic of a public forum July 8 to be held at Stamford’s Ferguson Library. The forum “What is Open Data and Why Should I Care?,” begins at 6:30 p.m. and is sponsored by The League of Women Voters of Stamford, Rippowam Labs Markerspace and The Ferguson Library.

The scheduled panelists include Tyler Klyekamp, Connecticut’s Chief Data Officer; Sabina Sitaru, Chief Innovation Officer of Hartford; Jack Dougherty of Trinity College, and the Ferguson’s Digital Librarian Frank Skornia.

Creating a centralized access point for sharing and formatting regulations makes it Open Data; a tremendous resource that is as yet largely untapped.

In 2014, the State of Connecticut launched CT Open Data (data.ct.gov) in response to Executive Order No. 39 (2013) which committed the state to creating an open data portal containing data collected across all state government agencies to be shared with the public. The website also includes access to economic development data that was made public under Executive Order No. 38. A microsite within CT Open Data was created for the City of Stamford in October 2014.