Strategic Approach to New and Emerging Forms of Data
To help us address the many technical, regulatory, security, and business concerns around the use of New and Emerging Forms of Data (NEFD), Metro ITS has drawn focus to the opportunities and requirements around emerging technologies and data in our strategic roadmaps.
Metro’s approach connects data discovery and sharing with practical analytics, responsible use, and continued development of staff skills. The following examples describe established capabilities, work underway, and planned investments.
Metro Nashville treats new or emerging datasets through a robust and transparent framework that spans identification, evaluation, publication, metadata enrichment, governance and community engagement:
Governance and Standards
- Policy Framework: Metro’s Open Data Policy, initiated by mayoral executive order, defines scope, metadata requirements, standards (default to open formats), and data classifications.
- Privacy, Security, and Equity: New datasets undergo classification under InfoSec policy (e.g., confidential vs. public), ensuring compliance with privacy/confidentiality laws and alignment with equity goals. The Enterprise Data Management roadmap identifies these obligations as essential to increased sharing.
Metadata and Publication
- The Nashville Open Data Portal provides a centralized, freely available repository for Metro’s public data assets, supporting civic engagement and data-driven problem-solving by employees and the broader community.
- Comprehensive Metadata: Required metadata includes source, structure, update frequency, ownership, data quality notes, and any generating models or code.
- Open Formats and Portal Publication: Approved datasets are published in machine-readable, open formats (CSV, GeoJSON, APIs) on the Nashville Open Data Portal.
- Metro ITS also provides Nashville Insights- a one stop shop for all maps, data and dashboards.
Ethical and Responsible Use
- AI and Emerging Tech Oversight: New technical or AI-driven datasets are subject to Metro’s responsible AI principles—accountability, equity, transparency, security, and measurable utility.
- Human Oversight: Each dataset and AI system is overseen by a designated human stakeholder to ensure ethical use and continuous validation.
Community Engagement and Iteration
- Public Feedback and Prioritization: Metro’s Open Data Portal enables public feedback on priorities and underlines datasets for publication.
- Partnerships and Co creation: Metro collaborates with civic tech, academia, nonprofits, and private sector partners to develop new datasets and apps, expanding the utility and impact of open data is through Nashville’s Tech Studio, which is a foundational program under the broader Nashville Innovation Alliance. The Nashville Tech Studio works with local universities to test and create new technology that helps solve some of the biggest challenges in our city. We bring together students, experts, and community partners to build tools that make life better and more accessible for everyone in Nashville.
Continuous Improvement
- Evolving Strategy: Metro regularly revisits its Open Data Policy—working with groups like What Works Cities—to align with best practices and adapt to emerging data opportunities
Metro Nashville’s Data Insights services enable data-driven decision-making across government by integrating and analyzing information from multiple systems through the city’s enterprise data platform. Using tools such as ArcGIS Enterprise, Snowflake, Matillion, FiveTran and Tableau, Metro transforms raw data into secure, reliable datasets, dashboards, and analytics that support operational performance, transparency, and strategic planning. These capabilities power internal analysis and public reporting, helping departments and residents better understand how Nashville works.
As our data ecosystems grow in complexity, our strategy includes:
- Implementing an enterprise analytics platform
- Convening an analytics user group
- Conducting a baseline internal data literacy skills assessment
- Establishing formal data sharing agreements to support data sharing both internally and externally
- Working with HR, ITS, and self-selected departmental customers to develop a plan to formalize ongoing Metro-wide data literacy skills training
Metro is putting this strategy into action. To date, we have implemented Tableau as Metro’s enterprise analytics visualization platform to support both internal and public-facing use cases and implemented an analytics user group to promote the adoption of analytic toolsets.
