Washington D.C. Launches Performance Dashboard

Washington, D.C., has introduced a Web dashboard aimed at making the performance of local government in the district more transparent to residents.

The site, called TrackDC, is part of an ongoing commitment by DC government to be more accountable to its constituents, Mayor Adrian Fenty said in a statement. Washington already offers an online data catalog (Data.dc.gov) and government statistics site (CapStat). New York and San Francisco are among other metropolitan areas with such "government 2.0" efforts underway.

TrackDC provides performance data on approximately 50 government agencies. The site offers budget and spending information and other operational data related to each agency, with more than 400 data sets on various aspects of agency services and performance. For example, users can access information on crime incidence and response, permits, construction projects, purchase orders, and awarded contracts.

How are DC's agencies doing? According to the site, 338 key performance indicators in district government were fully achieved in fiscal 2009, while 228 were partially achieved or not achieved.

TrackDC lets users perform their own analysis by downloading raw data to spreadsheets and other applications, according to the office of Washington CTO Bryan Sivak.

The site provides links to Facebook and Twitter, an app store, a location finder for Wi-Fi hotspots, and a service request center, among other resources.

The district did an internal launch of TrackDC late last year as part of Mayor Fenty's CapStat accountability program.

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