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Above: Jascha Franklin-Hodge, the city of Boston's CIO, describes the importance of data and open data to drive innovation during Boston’s first Data Coordinator Summit. Credit: Howard C. Lim. Howard C. Lim is the project manager for the city of Boston’s Open Data to Open Knowledge project, a winner of the Knight News Challenge on Libraries. Boston is a city with a distinguished history of firsts. For example, the nation’s first public park, Boston Common, was designated way back in 1634. The Mather School founded in Dorchester in 1639 is the first public elementary school in America. The Boston Public Library shares a notable history as well. It is the first library to lend books to the public and the first library to establish a branch system. To honor this rich tradition and kick-start the Open Data to Open Knowledge project, one of the first open data initiatives to collaborate closely with libraries, the Boston open data team hosted the city’s first Data Coordinator Summit at the Boston Public Library Commonwealth Salon on March 30, 2016. About 70 city employees gathered at the library to learn about Boston’s newest open data project to democratize access to city data. The audience was particularly special because the attendee list included the newly identified data coordinators from an overwhelming majority of the city’s 45 departments. The summit not only convened key city employees, but it also served as a great platform to share the vision and importance of data and open data within the city.