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New open data website sheds light on state government in Utah

Posted at 8:17 PM, Jan 07, 2015
and last updated 2015-01-07 22:17:17-05

SALT LAKE CITY -- In an effort to be more transparent, the state government recently unveiled a new online catalog.

Users can now visit opendata.Utah.Gov to view data provided by every agency in the state, and the website is the product of a bill passed by the Utah Legislature last year.

Users can view everything to crimes that were committed in an area to the location of traffic accidents at any intersection. Users can also compare the grade’s Utah schools received, and they can view how much money a state agency is allocated and what they spend those funds on.

David Fletcher, the chief technology officer for the Utah Office of Technology Services, spoke about the utility of the website.

“Open data is a big issue, and data has a lot of value,” he said. “It has value to researchers, it has value to business, it has value to technology experts that want to create applications using this data, it has value to school kids that want to research and find out information about the state of Utah.”

FOX 13 News’ Tamara Vaifanua has more information on this story, see the video above for her report.

To visit the website, click here.