---
authors:
- anders
redirect_from: /2013/06/spending-data-party-announce/
title: Join us for a City Spending Data Party and map the money near you!
---

More than half of the citizens of the world [live in a city](http://www.unfpa.org/pds/urbanization.htm). From schools to fire brigades cities are responsible for some of the most important services we can think of when it comes to government. So whether the nearby school is paid by your city, council or [Município](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Municipalities_of_Brazil) chances are that the service is operated near you and that everyone should have access to information about the money is being spent.<br>

We are therefore thrilled to announce the global **City Spending Data Party - July 19th to 21st**.

**Where:** Add your city to [the list](https://docs.google.com/a/okfn.org/document/d/1Zh-TPxgMiFDrzk-rNJqL9CmCbbtlZmp2xjWlZ6T20TA/edit#heading=h.f0m4z18ez212)

**Who:** You, other spending explorers and the rest of the OpenSpending community

The Spending Data Party came together thanks to feedback and engagement from [Hasadna](http://www.hasadna.org.il/en/) (Israel), [OpenBudgetOakland](http://openbudgetoakland.org/), [OpenKratio](http://openkratio.org/), [BudgIT](http://yourbudgit.com/) (Nigeria), [OKF Japan](http://spending.jp/) and [OKF Nepal](https://twitter.com/okfn_np). With the City Spending Data Party we want to open budget and spending data from cities to help us all get a sense of where the money is being spent. We hope that you will join to open up the budget and spending of your city!

Register for the [**City Spending Data Party** ](https://docs.google.com/a/okfn.org/forms/d/1uHNAh9cfP_F5nudGfhV8t0XnNPmFL7cXhkuqWHAMaR4/viewform)!

###Explore spending in your city - dive in<br>
<il>- Do you know how much your city actually spends on education compared to police enforcement?</il>

<il>- Do you want more people to get people involved in the budget of your city?<br>
Maybe you can learn a few tricks from [OpenBudgetOakland](http://openbudgetoakland.org/mayor_13-15_proposed.html) who created a site where citizens have been commenting on the budget proposal throughout the entire decision making process.

<il>- Which companies works for your city, and do they actually do a good job?</il><br>
Cities such as [London](http://openspending.org/gb-local-gla) and [Washington DC](http://openspending.org/dc-vendors-contractors) release transactional spending data that allows you to see what companies clean up the garbage and repair the roads. Let's make many more cities open up their spending data!

<il>- Share what you learn with the community and ask if you get stuck!

### What to do at the spending party?
<il>- **[Load and visualise](http://openspending.org/datasets/new)** the budget of your city or province and add it to the list of [90 cities already mapped](http://apps.openspending.org/maps/) across the world.</il>

<il>- **Open up budgets** from other local institutions such as [universities](http://openspending.org/blog/2013/06/17/universities-on-the-spending-map.html), public utilities or housing corporations.</il>

<il>- **Learn from online trainings** how to visualise budgets, how to analyse spending data or how you can set up [a local OpenSpending satellite site](https://github.com/openspending/satellite-template). We will run various trainings and are eager to hear if you can contribute. Sign up [to do a training here](https://docs.google.com/a/okfn.org/forms/d/17diF5_alj37kvcY_2Oqx90xKz1aHJtjgVsXmL3yrHlY/viewform).</il>

<il>- **Make OpenSpending better** by contributing to the code. We've got plans for some great enhancements and want to hear what you'd like to make.</il>

Need inspiration? Head over to the [Idea pad](https://docs.google.com/a/okfn.org/document/d/1Zh-TPxgMiFDrzk-rNJqL9CmCbbtlZmp2xjWlZ6T20TA/edit#), and see what cities have already signed up.

###FAQ:
<il>-I don't know where to get budget or spending data from my city?<il><br>
Fear not! We'll make sure to share guides on how to access budget and spending data from your city and will also organise a **Data Clinic on July 10th**, where we'll help you search for data or ask your city for it, if it's not available.
<br>
Would you like to join us mapping the money near you on **July 19th to 21st**? Register for the **City Spending Data Party** below!

<iframe src="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1uHNAh9cfP_F5nudGfhV8t0XnNPmFL7cXhkuqWHAMaR4/viewform?embedded=true" width="760" height="500" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0">Loading...</iframe>
