The Responsive City: Engaging Communities Through Data-Smart Governance

Foreword

There is no better way to improve the lives of billions of people around the world than to improve the way cities work. For the first time in human history, the majority of the world's people live in cities. By 2050, 75 percent will. As more and more people move to cities, more and more of the world's challenges—and solutions—will be concentrated there, too.

The rise of cities coincides with a technological revolution that is empowering local leaders to find innovative new ways to better serve the public. At the center of that revolution is our growing ability to use data to improve the services that government provides. Governments have long been in the business of keeping records, and increasingly they are using those records—billions ...