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.