The New York City Council on Wednesday unanimously passed a resolution amending its rules to require the Council Speaker to make available legislative tracking information data and discretionary funding data to the public in a machine-readable format, and City Council members and open government advocates see the changes as a basis for making legislative information available through an open API. The resolution also calls on the Council Speaker to develop a periodically updated public technology plan on improving public access to Council material and meetings.

"I am working to ensure that civic hackers like those at the Sunlight Foundation can build an open API with bulk downloads so the transparency the rules and people demand becomes a reality in the coming months," City Council member Ben Kallos, chair of the Government Operations Committee, said in a statement e-mailed to techPresident.