Cook County State's Attorney Chief Data Officer: Communicating Around Complex Open Data
Channel: Chi Hack Night
Date: 14/04/2021

In 2018, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office (CCSAO) became the first prosecutor office to make case level open data available to the public. Transparency was the reason for making this data available but just because the data was available to the public the goal of transparency was not completely met. The public could access the data but making sense of it and understanding how to work with it proved to be very challenging for most. Since the initial publication the CCSAO has worked on providing resources on how to think about, understand, and work this data. This has work has ranged from holding a number of trainings, fielding questions from the public, and most recently developing out some detailed resources to provide clarity including a very comprehensive data dictionary, flow chart, and guide on how to read the data.

This presentation will walk through the evolution of the open data, the office’s mindset to open data, and the additional resources beyond the data that have been developed for the public. Lisa and Matthew will discuss the complicated process of developing robust resources to support the open data and create deeper opportunities for transparency. They will also discuss how these resources were not just valuable for the public but also helped create a deeper understanding of data and the processes the data depicts within the office.