Press Release: Austin Mayoral and City Council Candidates Respond on Civic Technology Issues
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Austin Mayoral and City Council Candidates Respond on Civic Technology Issues
Austin, TX (October 15, 2014) – Candidates for mayor and city council in the November 4, 2014 election have been surveyed about their positions relating to open government, open data, and civic technology. Their responses are now available online.
Open Austin, a grassroots civic-advocacy group, created the questionnaire. Open Austin has surveyed candidates in every City of Austin municipal election since 2011. This year's questionnaire included nine questions.
The questionnaire and responses are available to view on the Open Austin website at http://www.openaustin.org/atxelection
"Our candidate questionnaire is an important way for us to put these issues before the candidates," Open Austin Chair Chip Rosenthal said. "We hope this is the start of a discussion to provide more open data and better online services in the city."
Of the 78 declared candidates, 27 responded to the open government questionnaire. Five of the eight mayoral candidates chose to participate.
This year, Open Austin challenged candidates to provide their campaign finance information in an easy-to-use format, information that they already file on state forms. Seventeen of the 27 respondents accepted this open data challenge.
In addition to its public website (www.austintexas.gov), the City of Austin operates an open data portal (data.austintexas.gov). The Austin City Council has adopted an open government resolution, which calls for a city strategy to publish open data and embrace important technologies.
Open Austin is a citizen volunteer group that promotes open government, open data, and civic application development in Austin, Texas. Open Austin was formed in 2009 by citizens interested in the City of Austin web strategy. Open Austin is non-partisan and non-endorsing. It has conducted voter outreach campaigns in every City of Austin municipal election since 2011. Open Austin is on the web at www.openaustin.org
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(Download a PDF version of the press release here.)