Video: Turning Citizens into Data Rock Stars

Ben Wellington is not your stereotypical data scientist. The blogger and comedian runs the blog I Quant NY to tell the story of New York City through its open data releases. He believes anyone can work with open data.

"We need to create a world where they don't have to be data scientists but they also have to realize that they can look at a piece of data and get meaning from it," Wellington said.

He believes the idea that open data's primary use is to act as a government watchdog. Wellington says while that's an important aspect of the open data movement, the best purpose for open data is to create a partnership between citizens and government, working to make the city, state and country better.

To learn more about Ben Wellington's open data project, check out the video below, from Socrata's Open Data TV: 

(Image via ra2studio/ Shutterstock.com)