Information is the currency of democracy.

Then why is it that so many people feel disconnected from local decision-making?

Public agencies spend billions each year to manage their data. Then why is so much of it locked away in closed, creaky systems?

And why is it that cities facing the same tough choices — from running schools to building roads — are stuck finding solutions on their own?

At OpenPlans, we think cities can work better. We think it should be easier for public agencies in one place to adopt good ideas and good software from other places. We think opening up data and inviting citizens into the civic process is a good thing.

Who We Are

OpenPlans is a non-profit technology organization helping to open up government and improve transportation systems.

We build open source software. We help agencies open up their data. We report on urban issues. We offer technical assistance to public agencies, and we build communities around our initiatives in order to seed an open and evolving ecosystem of technology tools that further the public interest.

We’ve launched OpenGeo, Streetfilms, Streetsblog, GothamSchools, Civic Commons, OpenTripPlanner and more. We have a particular interest in transportation and urban planning. And we’re just getting started.

We’re a team of 60 transit nerds, journalists, and engineers. We’re based in New York City, but we have staff and projects located in far off places (like Portland and Argentina).

Not a dot-com, we’re a dot-org

We draw on philanthropic and public agency support to seed technology initiatives. For software projects, we offer custom development, hosted services, and enterprise support as they scale. We reinvest the revenue in even better tools and in important information outlets like Streetsblog and Streetfilms.

Our mission and business strategy are objectively aligned. All of our software is open source. There are no shareholders or dividends distracting us from doing the right thing for agencies and the public.

The result: technology that works as a true public resource.

Support OpenPlans

We have a big vision: develop OpenPlans as a self-sustaining vector for more open, engaged society.

We are thankful for the support of our founder and from many foundations, agencies, companies, and other individuals including:

But if you share our vision, we need your support. Our unique business model means that your philanthropic investment today will yield compounding social dividends.