# Glossary

This living glossary of terms is intended to serve as a reference point as you read through this guide, but also as you engage with your communities and partners. 

**API**: Standing for “Application Programming Interface,” an API is set of instructions that allow  two web applications to receive requests and complete transactions over the web.

**Chief Data Officer (CDO)**: A state or local position focused on building data-driven government. CDOs may lead open data programs, manage data analytics projects, and apply GIS to address government challenges.

**Civic Data Ecosystem**: The people and organizations connected with data in a local region and the infrastructure that supports data work.

**Civic Data Hackathon**: An event that brings together people who are interested in using technology and civic data to address a community need.

**Civic Hacking**: The use of technology and data to create tools and approaches for addressing civic issues and improving civic workflows.

**Civic Tech**: Technology that facilitates access to government information and data and that supports government services.

**Data Curation**: The processes involved with managing, preserving, and providing access to data.

**Data Intermediary**: Organizations or individuals who help people find, use, and apply public information; NNIP identifies three main categories of activities for data intermediaries: 1. assemble, transform, and maintain data; 2. disseminate information and apply the data to achieve impact; 3. use data to strengthen civic capacity and governance  

**Data Literacy**: The ability to access, work with, and critically evaluate data.

**Data Portal**: Web-based libraries designed to make open data findable and usable by others. Datasets in data portals are accompanied by metadata records, which describe and provide information about the data.

**Digital Equity**: An environment in which individuals and communities have access to the technology and digital information that is needed for full engagement with civic life.

**Digital Literacy**: The ability to use digital technologies and the web to locate, access, evaluate, and create digital information and media.

**Digital Scholarship**: Scholarship that involves the use of digital data, methods, tools, and authoring and publishing systems.

**Metadata**: Data about an information object -- such as a book, photograph, or civic dataset -- that help users to identify, discover, manage, and preserve it. A common definition for metadata is “data about data.”

**Open Data**: Information released by an organization or government entity that is free to access and use, can be reused by anybody for any purpose, are available in a usable format, and can be modified and shared by others.<br>


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