Like most organizations, government agencies have traditionally accessed data via static reports from enterprise applications and business intelligence platforms that are generally heavy, complex, inflexible, and must be managed by IT departments. As a result, many knowledge workers today rely on spreadsheets as their primary analytical tool, and the open data made available in this format does not necessarily lend itself well to public consumption or understanding, let alone offer meaningful or actionable insight to voters and leaders.

In order for government agencies to effectively publish open government data to the public and further increase transparency and accountability, a change is needed—the enabler is a new generation of technology. New products exist that are not only easy to use, fast, powerful and visual, but also allow for interactivity with data in ways that were unimaginable just years ago.

Government agencies should focus on these 5 best practices to quickly scale raw open data into powerful public insights