City Hall is close to naming its first Chief Data Officer, has two final candidates

Mayor Michael Nutter signed an Executive Order in April promising to make government data more accessible. Technically Philly outlined the major deadlines and action items from the policy, which you can see here.

The city’s first major task was to hire a Chief Data Officer, someone to own the creation and dissemination of data sources. The administration’s own deadline for this hire passed last week, but Chief Innovation Officer Adel Ebeid says the search is nearly over. The administration has narrowed its selection down to two candidates, Ebeid says. We’ll keep you updated.

The next step would be to appoint an open data governance board, by the end of August. The concern for both the data officer and the board will be if either will have any independence and enough influence to call for sweeping changes — or if new OpenDataPhilly ownership could fill that role.