Frequently Asked Questions

General

What is OpenCity?
OpenCity is a civic tech platform that makes city data easy to find, access, share, understand, and analyse. It is a rich repository of urban data and a programme of the Oorvani Foundation. We also organise community activities like open data days, data jams, and workshops to enable better understanding of urban challenges and solutioning.

The Open City data repository was initially set up in 2017 in partnership with the good folks at DataMeet. You can find more details here.
Why OpenCity?
Public data about cities like budgets, maps, reports remain scattered and hard to find. The goal of OpenCity.in is to make such urban public data transparent, accessible, and usable so that citizens, researchers, journalists, and policymakers can better understand cities and make informed decisions.
What types of information does OpenCity.in host?
Data on OpenCity.in is primarily related to cities. This is public-interest information related to various topics including City Services, Economy, Education, Environment, Finance, Governance, Health, Infrastructure, Mobility and Planning. We primarily host data in three kinds of data formats – Documents (doc or pdf files), maps (kml files), and numerical data (csv files).

You will also find data stories on this platform, including analysis and visualisations, as well as explainers on using data from the Open City repository.

Can I contribute datasets?
If you have any datasets that you think should be shared with the public, please fill this form with the details of the data being shared: opencity.in/submit-data
How else can I help?
We welcome contributors of all kinds! You can volunteer to help us with the repository, organising events, and supporting us with funds. This platform is a community-funded resource and your support is very critical to keep it going! Click here to support us.

Is the data free to use?
All our work is shared under very liberal and community friendly licenses. Unless explicitly stated:
- All our posts are under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
- All our code is under GNU GPL v3.
- All our data is under Open Data Commons Open Database License (ODbL).
  
  The data on our site is free to download and use. But you are expected to follow the licensing guidelines specified on the dataset, as well as credit the source appropriately:
- For personal learning or understanding of issues: No action required
- For civic activism: No credit required. But please join our change network and share how data is helping you to make a difference!
- For use in formal research, analysis or journalism: Email us at opencity@oorvani.in and keep us in the loop on what datasets you have found useful. We also request you share the link to your research/article when available.
- For civic innovation: Email us at opencity@oorvani.in and tell us about your work and how you are using the dataset.
- For commercial purposes, follow the licensing guidelines mentioned on the dataset and the resources and check if commercial usage is allowed. Validate the usage guidelines on the original source as well.

How should I cite data from the portal?
Please use the “Credit” field of the datasets to cite us. In the case of academic reports, the description on the dataset mentions the citation guidelines.
Do I need to register?
The datasets can be accessed without registration. But we would like you to share usage details before downloading, We also encourage you to subscribe to our newsletter to know about datasets being added and upcoming events.

How often is the data updated?
We try to update periodic datasets like budgets, monthly air and water quality reports as often as they are made available publicly on government sites or shared by official handles online. However we do not guarantee any information is up to date.

All datasets mention the data and year of the dataset or the resource when it is available. In cases where the date or year is not available, like in the case of maps downloaded from public facing REST servers, the date is not mentioned, and you are requested to use your discretion.
Where is the data coming from?
Datasets are obtained from a multitude of sources including the following:

websites of government departments, agencies and organisations
other public portals with appropriate licenses
provided by the government as part of a press release, in response to an RTI application or shared with citizens in public interest
crowdsourced information from public, contributed by civic groups

Is personal data included?
We do not share any public data on our site. If you come across such data or if your details are in any dataset, we request you to email us with the details.
How reliable is the data?
Most datasets are what is published by the government and other bodies. Any errors in the data can be attributed to the source of the data. Ensuring public data accessible also helps ensure that such errors in public data are easily discoverable and fixable.

Though all efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy and correctness of the datasets, we cannot guarantee the same. In case of any ambiguity or doubts, users are advised to verify / check with the authorities concerned or the relevant original record.

What if I find a dataset which is not meant to be shared publicly?
If you come across a dataset or a resource that is not meant to be shared publicly, either because it is sensitive, has personally identifiable information, is under copyright, or for other reasons, please email us with details of the dataset or resource, and why it should not be shared publicly. We will review your request and act on it within a reasonable timeframe.
How do I report errors in a dataset?
Please email us with details. Do include the link to the relevant datasets and resources so that we know clearly the dataset or resource in question.
How can I request a dataset that’s not available?
If there is any specific dataset you need or believe should be shared publicly on our site, you can email us with the details.