The World Council on City Data — a recently established organization that grew out of work by the Daniels Faculty’s Global Cities Institute (GCI) — was recently profiled in the Toronto Star.

In the past, most data collected by cities was not comparable, making it difficult for municipalities to meaningfully share quantifiable information on the successes and challenges that they faced. Now, thanks to work initiated by Professor Patricia McCarney, new standards are being put in place and cities around the world have signed on to participate.

From the Toronto Star:

Patricia McCarney got the idea to standardize data across cities when she worked at the World Bank in Washington. A problem for herself and her colleagues was finding sets of usable, comparable data. Cities around the world collected data on everything from education to transit use and air quality using their own metrics and languages.

The lack of usable information plagued her. In 2007, after chatting with university and World Bank colleagues, she decided to do something about it.

Now, the council has pioneered an international standard of 100 indicators that cities around the globe will use to collect data on everything from delivering city services to quality of life.

Click here for the full article.