The other day I finally took the time to explore Connecticut’s Open Data portal in depth. While I was aware of the portal before I did not extensively use it. Like many members of the public I looked at a few of the interesting example data sets and moved on. My goal was to figure out if there are some interesting data sets that I can pull down and use with some of the new algorithms that I have been learning. However no specific data set stuck out to me.

One of the best practices that I have seen recommended is that open data portals provide a log of FOI requests. The Hartford open data portal has a running log but that log was not interesting. It was mostly media organizations requesting e-mails or attorneys requesting documents relevant to their cases. So I went to the section of the website where I could suggest a dataset and was encouraged to see there have been several suggestions already and the site administrator has been responsive to them. So after making an account I posted my suggestion and the administrator responded within 24 hours. I do not know how long it will take for this to appear, but I am hopeful he is able to find some of this data and release it.

My first request is for you to vote for my suggestion on the website so they see there is support for it. The second request is to check out the portal and let me know if you find any interesting data sets that you think should be wrangled and let me know in the comments.