Understanding the city budget by visualizing data, providing a forum for dialogue, and sharing essential information about the budget process.

Image: OpenSpending

What we do

Open Budget: Oakland promotes a deeper understanding of the city budget, so that citizens, officials, and other stakeholders can engage in more informed dialogue about how the City of Oakland currently works and how it should in the future.

How we do it

• We work with community groups to learn what aspect of the budget is most relevant to them, and how it would be best shared with the public.
• We work with Oakland’s Budget Office to access budget data and present it in a simple, useful format.
• We visualize Oakland budget data, and share resources for people to create their own visualizations and analyses.
• We use tools that are free, open-source, and require minimum technical skill.
• We stimulate dialogue and provide a forum for Oaklanders to discuss the budget.

Now that you know our goals, share your ideas here.