Blog article: What other portals are doing that we think is cool! 

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Imagine trying to bake a cake without ever tasting other cakes from other bakers. You’d figure out some things on your own, but you’d probably miss out on tricks, shortcuts, and flavours that others have already mastered. That’s what it’s like running an open data portal without looking at what the best ones around the world are doing. 

We wanted to see what’s out there, how other portals are set up, the tools and features they use, and the ways they make data useful. So we went on a bit of a global tour, scanning some of the most respected portals from national sites to smaller city portals. What we found gave us fresh ideas and a better sense of where we could go next. 

A global tour of portals worth learning from 

From the largest players like the European Union, the UK, and the US federal government, to national leaders like France, Finland, and Singapore, and then down to city portals in New York City, San Francisco, Vancouver, Ottawa, and Seattle, we chose these for their track record of innovation, the myriads of their datasets, and how they’ve turned open data into something more than just a catalogue.  
 

PORTAL	URL	PLATFORM
NYC, USA	data.cityofnewyork.us	Socrata
Gov.UK	data.gov.uk	CKAN
U.S. Data Portal	data.gov	CKAN
Helsinki (Finland)	hri.fi	CKAN
Paris (France)	opendata.paris.fr	CKAN
European Data Portal	data.europa.eu	CKAN
San Francisco, USA	data.sfgov.org	Socrata
Singapore	data.gov.sg	CKAN
Vancouver, CAN	opendata.vancouver.ca	CKAN
Seattle, CAN	City of Seattle Open Data portal	Socrata

Off the bat, we found that across the list, these portals: 

• Publish high volumes of quality datasets. 

• Offer advanced search, visualization, and developer tools. 

• Have governance models and active engagement strategies. 

• Influence global best practices through open data policy (shout out to SF – you rocked there!) and technology. 

What we’re doing right! 

One thing this review made clear is we’re not starting from scratch. Many of the features we saw elsewhere are already part of our own portal, from solid metadata standards to clear publishing processes. And in some areas, we’re ahead of the pack. Our Data Quality Score is something we didn’t spot on any other portal. It’s a simple but powerful way to help people quickly understand the reliability of a dataset, something most sites leave to guesswork. 

Main features we saw on most portals: 

At a quick glance, a list of features stood out page, after page. Things that make a portal easier to use, more transparent, or more interactive, like:  

• Tagging and categorization improvements 

• Better search, filtering, and browsing  

• User submission tools or request tracking 

• Dashboard metrics 

• Dataset versioning and change history 

• Dedicated sections for APIs and other technical documentation 

• Built-in tools for creating graphs, maps, and charts directly from datasets 

Without further ado, I’ll briefly display some of the key features we found across the board.  

New York City has a a full catalog overview with compliance metrics for agency datasets. This includes: 

• Scheduled dataset releases – tracks upcoming datasets each agency plans to publish  

• Total dataset inventory – shows how many datasets each agency has made available  

• Delayed releases – flags datasets that were planned but not published on time  

A nice feature that helps users ask the right question, get filtered to the proper person and helps track the requests coming in is a standard form to collect requests. NYC helps you:   

• Request a new dataset   

• Ask a question 

• Report an error 

• General inquiry 

Another Government links their divisions/agencies’ datasets right along their page. Some may even use the terms like “you might also like…” if a dataset is related to another one. For example, a tree permit dataset might show you a related dataset called ‘tree canopy’.  

In Finland, they have chosen to highlight their top dataset of the year, including honourable mentions – which I think flexes partnerships and increases participation to release more data. 

In Paris, they outline categories of tools to use:   

• Create a map  

• Create a chart  

• Access all APIs  

• Documentation 

In Singapore, they make it easy to share data by letting you embed charts and tables directly into blogs or articles. It’s a great way to make data more accessible—not just for experts, but for anyone curious about the numbers without having to dig through raw datasets. 

One of the slickest data features comes from Vancouver’s Open Data portal. Shout out to my homeboy Canadian Province. Their dataset page has everything from currency, accuracy, # of downloads, search words, change logs, last modified, websites for more information and more. 
 
 

But THE cake is Seattle’s Homepage. I really like how clean and easy-to-read this page is; more icons, fewer words. It highlights key sections like “About Open Data,” “API Docs,” and “Suggest a Dataset” right in the middle, making them easy to find.  Maybe I am being subjective, but I really like the flow.

I also appreciate how they promote related services like the FOI office, which ties in well with open data. It’s a layout that feels more intuitive and user-friendly. They also highlight different dashboards and agency links, which is a great collaborative tool for users who want a one-stop shop.  

Exploring global open data portals reminded me that innovation thrives on collaboration and curiosity. By studying what others are doing well (from NYC’s compliance dashboards to Singapore’s embeddable charts) we’ve gathered fresh inspiration to improve our own portal. Toronto’s already ahead in some areas, and with ideas like dataset request tracking and our unique Data Quality Score, we’re not just keeping up, I think we’re helping set the pace. 

What features do you think we should introduce or incorporate next on our Toronto Open Data portal?