The aim of research is to explore the open data phenomenon using the city as the level of analysis. We used Kassen's (2013) local level framework as a base but adopt it to Europe, expand and elaborate Kassen's discussion of local open data initiatives using the Stockholm open data platform. The Stockholm open data project is evaluated from three perspectives: legal, political and economic environments. Open data activities are further evaluated in terms of the main features of open data defined by the Open Knowledge Foundation (2015) including: availability and access, reuse and redistribution, and universal participation. The impact of opening the data is evaluated against the three common reasons described by Open Knowledge (2015): transparency, releasing social and commercial value, and participation and engagement. We found that projects promoting open data initiatives, are more similar to 'closed' platforms that provides APIs.