Open Austin

Open Austin

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Open Austin is a citizen volunteer-driven organization that promotes open government, open data, civ

Open Austin is a citizen volunteer group that promotes open government, open data, and civic application development in Austin, TX. We were formed in 2009 by citizens interested in the City of Austin web strategy and approach. Through a series of conversations, common ground was developed between the City and Open Austin to work together in a formal and recurring way. A strategic alliance was formalized between Open Austin and the City, expressing our mutual interests to partner, innovate and improve on these civic issues.

09/11/2026

Thank you to the 18 community leaders, Open Austinites, and folks from the public who came to give constructive feedback on our community tech work.

A big THANK YOU to Antonio Delgado from Latinitas for generously hosting us!

Appreciating our Community Partners:
Julie Gutierrez Get There ATX | Austin Transit and Cycling, an City of Austin project
Adam Hughes Austin Free-Net Austin Free-Net
And again, Antonio Delgado Latinitas

Photos from Open Austin's post 09/11/2026

More from our inaugural community convening. Thank you Latinitas for generously hosting us!

Photo credit: Liani Lye

06/04/2026

At next week's Data/Dev Community of Practice meetup, Umberto Fasci and Nicola Rowe will demo how Open Austin can leverage Google Colab and Socrata to tackle questions on our Data Research Hub. In turn, we aim to standardize our approach to Data Research Hub questions.

NOTE: Now virtual!!
RSVP for the Google Meet room
Tuesday, June 9, 7pm on Google Meet

06/04/2026

At tomorrow's Design Community of Practice monthly meetup, we're starting to write our UX Research playbook. This will guide any Open Austinite, regardless of experience level, through conducting product discovery and UX research in a volunteer setting. In turn, we aim to standardize discovery and research across all our Civic Digital Lab products teams.

Thursday, June 4, 7pm @ ACC Rio Grande Room 3328

06/03/2026

What you can expect in June:

✨ NEW ✨ We're going public with our General Organizing Meetings experiment - a weekly triage to build up Open Austin's business operations.

And as usual, we have our monthly Communities of Practice meetings, now at ACC Rio Grande Room 3328. We're laying the foundation to expand our Communities of Practice capabilities:

June 4th, Design Practice: We're starting to write our UX Research playbook so our Civic Digital Labs products teams can conduct product discovery and UX research easily and consistently.

June 9th, Data/Dev Practice: We're using Google Colab and Socrata to define how Open Austin does data, which will make it easier to tackle questions on our Data Research Hub!

Photos from Open Austin's post 05/27/2026

Martin Liu from our OneBus product team joined Joon Community during April’s ATX Climate Week to share the OneBus app during their sustainability bus tour and bird watch.

The OneBus app works towards accessibility, equity, and sustainability: Can we increase bus ridership by connecting public transit to fun, easy-to-access activities? How can we expand access to work, leisure, and exploration for people without cars?

Photo credit:
Joon Community:
ATX Climate Week:

Photos from Open Austin's post 05/20/2026

This month, we co-hosted our May Data/Dev Community of Practice Meet with EFF-Austin, where we demo’d the National Police Data Index. One of our Civic Digital Labs products, the National Police Data Index is live! It serves as a searchable database built to help defense attorneys and civil rights attorneys quickly research law enforcement officers and agencies.

Photos from Open Austin's post 05/18/2026

Recently, Liani pitched Open Austin at Leadership Austin’s Emerge Program closing retreat, themed on civic activation and sharing concrete pathways to social impact. A big thank you to PJ Diamond, Leadership Austin’s Director of Programs, for inviting us! We’re looking forward to getting these budding courageous leaders involved.

Photo credit:

Photos from Open Austin's post 05/10/2026

More from our inaugural community convening.

Photo credit: Liani Lye

05/05/2026

IN 1 WEEK! At our first Data/Dev Practice Meet of the spring season, we'll touch base on our Data Research Hub, and demo one of our products. 's Police Data Index has just launched and is a searchable database built to help defense attorneys and civil rights attorneys quickly research law enforcement officers and agencies.

RSVP through our link in bio

Tuesday, May 12th, 7pm @ ACC Rio Grande

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