Opendatasoft helps City of Long Beach enhance open data portal

Opendatasoft, a global company dedicated to making data accessible to all, announced today that the City of Long Beach in California has chosen to continue using their technology for its open data portal. Long Beach, which has been recognized as a top 10 digital city for 12 years by the Center for Digital Government, initially adopted Opendatasoft’s platform in 2020. The city will now expand its use of the technology to enhance its portal, with a particular focus on data-driven storytelling to increase transparency and engagement. This will involve connecting new data sources and making them available to citizens and other stakeholders.

At present, Long Beach’s open data portal features 20 datasets containing over 930,000 records on a variety of subjects, including service requests via the city’s 311 reporting system, employee diversity demographics, animal shelter data, and a catalog of trees planted throughout the city. The city’s commitment to openness and engagement is evident in the visualizations and dashboards created for most of its datasets, which help to make the data more engaging and understandable to the public.

According to Behrang Abadi, Digital Services Bureau Manager for the City of Long Beach, the city has enjoyed a close partnership with Opendatasoft over the past three years, enabling it to deliver compelling data experiences that build trust and transparency with citizens and other stakeholders. As a forward-thinking city, Long Beach sees open data as a vital part of its strategy, and the new agreement will allow it to further extend its use of Opendatasoft’s technology, creating more visualizations and dashboards to inform and engage the community.

With a population of around 470,000 people, Long Beach is an award-winning and innovative city that offers world-class amenities while maintaining a strong sense of diverse neighborhoods along the California coast. Franck Carassus, Chief Sales Officer and co-founder of Opendatasoft, praised the city’s focus on using technology and data to benefit both its citizens and operations, saying that Long Beach’s success and best practices provide an excellent example of how data can transform city government and relationships with citizens.