Open Innovation Fall 2013

What Is a Chief Practical Advice Re-Defining Our 10 FavoriteData Officer? for Your Open Government in Open Data Apps Data Program the 21st Century Fall 2013 The Open Data Movement

Dear Fellow Innovator,Welcome to the inaugural edition of the Socrata quarterly magazine, “Open Innovation.” As theopen data and data-driven government movements grow, we’ll use this quarterly publication torecount the success stories, cover current policy issues, and share the many ways that access toand innovation around public data can improve people’s lives.This fall, we start with a story that is near and dear to everyone: how government data canempower consumers. When the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau revealed data on bank’scustomer service records and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services exposed huge costdifferences at various hospitals, open data helped to “spread much-needed digital sunlight.”We’ve met many of the hard working people who fuel open data programs like these around theworld. How are they successful? We discussed the role of the Chief Digital Officer (CDO) withformer City of Chicago CDO Brett Goldstein. And, we interviewed other leaders in the field andrecorded their best practices, including tips for who should be on your open data team and thethree critical areas your open data policy should cover.Though the open government movement is still young, some organizations already have opennessand innovation ingrained in their culture. Former Director of Maryland’s StateStat program, BethBlauer, shares that state’s success making decisions with data. And, you can look to New York Cityas an example. The Big Apple was recently named the “The Most Economically Competitive City”in the world by The Economist Intelligence Unit. We chronicle NYC’s journey over the last twoyears and highlight many outstanding achievements.Finally, you can read about how open data is modernizing and redefining government in the 21stcentury and follow four inspiring stories from organizations that have saved time, saved money,and improved their service delivery using open data. And, you’ll get a list of some of our favoriteweb and mobile apps that showcase data hosted on Socrata.I hope you enjoy reading “Open Innovation” and find it inspiring. If you’d like more informationon the latest open data news, you can visit us at www.socrata.com.Best wishes and I look forward to featuring your successes in future editions.Sincerely,Kevin MerrittFounder & CEO of Socrata

Contents 4 6The Open Data Movement 8What Is a Chief Data Officer? 10Practical Advice for Your Open Data Program 12 14 Who Should Be on Your Open Data Team? 18 3 Critical Areas Your Open Data Policy Should Cover 21 6 Steps to Open Data Success 25 3 Guidelines for Publishing Your First Open Data Sets 27Op-Ed: Open Data Is Re-Defining Government in the 21st Century 28NYC Digital 32Impact: 4 Stories of Open Data success 36 A Three-Year Problem Solved in Two Hours 40 “Set It and Forget It” Saves San Francisco Staff Time 44 King County Elections Takes Open Data Mobile 46 Hard Copy Is History: Web-Based Reports Save Paper, Time & Money Our 10 Favorite Open Data Apps Gut Decisions Are Expensive and Dangerous

The Open Data Movement A merican consumers gained considerable knowledge and The Open Data power when a huge Medicare database Movement was recently distributed to the public in easy-to-understand language. The data Leveling the Playing Field For Consumers revealed what many patients have long by Kevin Merritt suspected – hospitals charge Medicare CEO of Socrata tremendously different prices for the same procedures.4 Open Innovation • FALL 2013 According to The New York Times, for example, “in Saint Augustine, Fla., one hospital typically billed nearly $40,000 to remove a gallbladder using minimally invasive surgery, while one in Orange Park, Fla., charged $91,000 [and] … in one hospital in Dallas, the average bill for treating simple pneumonia was $14,610, while another there charged over $38,000.” This wasn’t the first time that a freshly unearthed government database bolstered the average consumer. Earlier this spring, the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released detailed – but fully understandable – data that showed which banks have the most consumer complaints. The CFPB had previously issued data on credit card complaints; but now it has broadened its data distribution to include customer protests about mortgages, student loans, credit scores, and other products. As Bloomberg Businessweek noted, the CFPB database has already had an impact on improving consumer service: “Response times have sped up by 3 percent since the database came online … And banks are giving more customers a break: The number of credit-card cases Capital One Financial, Citigroup, American Express,

The Open Data Movementand GE Capital Retail Bank have resolved A good case study can be found at are also publishing restaurantin clients’ favor rose 12.9 percent in the the Department of Transportation inspection data online.past six months.” (DOT), which has been publishing data on airlines’ on-time performance as well Companies are helping to makeThe Medicare and CFPB data disclosures as consumer complaints against airlines. open data a widespread reality forare huge wins for the open data consumers, too. movement, which seeks to democratize Another proof point is the Highera vast treasure trove of accumulated Education Opportunity Act of 2008, Socrata, the company I lead, forgovernment data. That consumers which was designed to increase example, offers customers like Medicarecan now command equal footing with transparency and consumer information and CFPB – as well as a host of statesbig, established, and often opaque on student loans, college costs, and and cities – a digital platform to publish complex data in a simple and easy way.Open data benefits consumers and helps BillGuard utilizes the CFPB’s newspread much-needed digital sunlight. credit card complaint database to help consumers find deceptive, erroneous,institutions like banks or hospitals, is yet other financial issues. Determined to and fraudulent charges on their creditanother reason to support open data. make sure that this law is as effective card and debit card bills.   as possible, the U.S. Department ofNew York Law School professor Beth Education now provides government And iTriage has harnessedNoveck, the former U.S. Deputy data and online tools to help students downloadable information from theChief Technology Officer for Open and families choose a college and decide Department of Health and HumanGovernment, agrees that this type of how to finance their education. Services to develop a mobile applicationdisclosure increases accountability and that has helped eight million people find“starts from the premise that As the Medicare, CFPB, Department the best local doctors and hospitals thatconsumers, when given access to of Transportation and Department of meet their needs.information and useful decision Education data disclosures indicate,tools built by third parties using that the executive branch of the federal Regardless of where it comes from,information, can self-regulate and government is a major player in the though, open data benefits consumersstand on a more level playing field ongoing open data movement. and helps spread much-needed digitalwith companies who otherwise seek sunlight so that the average citizen is noto obfuscate.” But the agenda for open data is also longer forced to remain in the dark. being set at the local level.These “smart” data disclosures,adds Cass Sunstein, the former U.S. Last year, for instance, Yelp partneredadministrator of the White House Office with San Francisco and New York Cityof Information and Regulatory Affairs to develop the Local Inspector Value-(OIRA), also offer “a new tool that helps Entry Specification (LIVES), an openprovide consumers with greater access data standard that allows municipalitiesto the information they need to make to publish restaurant inspectioninformed choices.” information for consumers on Yelp. Other cities, such as Austin, Texas, Open Innovation • FALL 2013 5

What Is a Chief Data Officer? What Is a Chief Data Officer? Socrata spoke with former City of Chicago Chief Data Officer and Chief Innovation Officer Brett Goldstein about the role of the Chief Data Officer. New to the world of government, this executive post helped Mayor Rahm Emanuel make Chicago a leading digital city with the largest, most prolific civic hacking community in the world. The following is an excerpt form our interview with Mr. Goldstein in early 2013.Why the role of a Chief Data Officer years ago, your relationship was limited, processes; bring some fresh ideas toand why now? with requests for information being improve systems. answered in a pdf. Now the possibilitiesOver the past decade, we’ve seen the – and expectations – are very different. A Chief Information Officer, since I carryrole of technology change, at its most that title as well, is about IT ops. IT ops,basic. In the early days, you had IT You’re often dealing with the near for example, in Chicago is a massiveops and your core role of a CIO. You real-time possibility of response undertaking and it has daily challenges.then saw the evolution to see things coupled with the machine readability What does that mean? It meanslike a Chief Security Officer. Why? of the data. And when you have these everything from email to ERP. The ERPBecause cyber-security became critical sort of responsibilities, ranging from alone is a massive system.to the enterprise, to the business, to quantitative analytics to transparency,administration. But, what you’ve seen in a meaningful, honest way, you need As we are re-architecting DoITover the past few years is just how data someone to lead that way. I think (Chicago’s Department of Innovationcan transform. Our relationship with Mayor Emanuel showed a nationwide and Technology) in Chicago, we aredata has changed in a variety of ways. leadership move by making it a key pulling in analytics – the IT organizationTwo of which, I think, are relevant to piece of the administration. and use of data should not be separate.the discussion. What are the differences between the A Chief Innovation Officer has skillsOne, the advances in big data. We’ve roles of Chief Data Officer and Chief related to process and businessseen how we’re going to move from Innovation or Information Officer? development, but should be wellBI to actual insights that can come grounded in the ability to havefrom large data. But, in parallel, we’ve I see the Chief Innovation Officer applied delivery.seen this idea of transparency through as the person who has some smart,administrative data. Our relationship transformative ideas. They are able to The CDO is an interesting role where,with the public has evolved. Back a few be, potentially, a change agent. Rethink I think at its heart, if you give it the6 Open Innovation • FALL 2013

What Is a Chief Data Officer?skills of a data scientist, you’re getting listening, understanding, de-conflicting, requires tenacity. It requires some strongat what you really need here. And, and at the same time, making sure that executive sponsorship. Every day I wakethere’s a whole talk about, ‘What is my organization develops solutions that up and I say, ‘I am going to do it right.’a data scientist?’ A data scientist is a are enterprise solutions that come both The right way can often end up beingcombination of someone who can,speak, write, and analyze, however with ‘Good enough for government’ isn’t goodthe requisite CS skills to be considering enough. Our standards here should be theproblems of machine learning, dataanalytics, stats, all of those pieces.Day-to-day, what do you do both same standards we see in the Silicon Valley.internally with different departmentsin the city, as well as your role in the from deductive and inductive thinking – the hard way. So, you need to havebroader community? because many of the challenges we have vision. You need be able to say, ‘I am today can be a function of limited silos going to choose the hard way’ andI want to challenge people, I want to from the past. be motivated to follow through. Thebrainstorm with them, and I want to easy path is often not what’s best forget some good ideas moving. What’s the profile of a future Chief community, for your residents, for your Data Officer in terms of qualities constituency.With that said, my agenda is twofold. and qualifications? And what adviceOne, I think government should be would you give people who aspire to it Also understand that you don’t needaccessible. If people think they have a in their career? to be a subject matter expert in everygood idea, it shouldn’t be hard to get one of your departments but take thein touch with me. I need to be out Data science is at the core. Understand time to understand process, policy,there, engage people, be responsive data. You can’t go out and talk about the different agencies. None of uson Twitter. data, implement policies systems or should have the hubris to think that just strategy, without getting it. And, these because we understand the technologyTwo, the Mayor has a vision of Chicago are all learnable fields. we understand what this all means.as a tech hub. We have enormous talentin Chicago. I think we need to support My undergrad is in government. ‘Good enough for government’ isn’tit, foster it, and be out there and After I got my B.A., I decided to get good enough. Our standards hereinvolved. We’re doing some great things. technology focused and it started out should be the same standards we see with me just reading a stack of books. in Silicon Valley. That should be ourAdditionally, within the community of People need to invest time in learning motivation because what higher duty doCIOs and government leaders, I do my how things work. we have than our communities and ourbest to be in close contact with my residents and doing things in a better,peers. I want to hear people’s problems. It’s easy to run a tool that will produce transparent way?There are a variety of leaders I talk to on an outcome. Understanding whethera regular basis. I try and hear them and what you produce is valid is anotherwe try to focus solutions around that. piece. When you’re talking to engineers or talking to people in community orWe need to get past the silos, think in getting out there, people respect depthan enterprise way, and then we’ll have of knowledge. Working in governmenteffective scaled solutions. It is a lot of Open Innovation • FALL 2013 7

Practical Advice for Your Open Data ProgramHow do you choose the first datasets to publish?Who are the key players that need to be on yourteam? We’ve collected wisdom from open dataleaders around the world and distilled it intothe following how-to guides for starting and maintaining your open data program.



Practical Advice for Your Open Data ProgramWho Should Be on Your OpenData Team?A n open data project is a large and exciting undertaking. Onethat can truly change the relationshipbetween your agency and the public. Itcan also improve the efficiency of yourinternal operations. But to do it well, it’sessential to gather a team with the rightskills to ensure success, from strategicplanning to community outreach, not tomention technical expertise.If your agency is just getting started, agency’s work. The time you spend your organization’s executive to make aa small and enthusiastic team may be winning them over will pay for itself, big difference in improving transparency,all you need to launch a successful as each stakeholder can then inspire citizen services, and overall performancepilot. With the right mix, this group their own teams for broad support in your organization.can also provide the energy, leadership, down the road.and strategic planning to get your Their role: The executive’s primary roleentire organization onboard for an When putting together your open data in the initiative is to secure funding forongoing effort toward data sharing and team, keep the following five groups in the program and make sure it deliverstransparency. mind – and what’s in it for them – to on its goals. Once they’re onboard, ensure the skills and input you need are they can also provide the organizationalGathering this team is not always easy. at the table. leadership and impetus for your entirePart of the process will likely require you agency to get involved. Read moreto sell your program to the stakeholders 1. Chief Executives advice about how to get your chiefwho may not fully understand the value executive’s support.  of open data yet. City or County Managers, Chief Operating Officers, Heads of PlanningFortunately, there are many clear anddirect benefits for each of the open data What’s in it for them: Launching anstakeholders on your team. The team open data program is an opportunity forbuilding phase is your opportunity toteach and inspire them to think aboutthese benefits and the many excitingways open data can improve your10 Open Innovation • FALL 2013

Who Should Be on Your Open Data Team?2. Internal IT and Data Teams support and share the agency’s mission This group may be the smallest at the with easy-to-use information, and to use beginning of your initiative, or duringChief Information/Technology/ their skills to help promote community a pilot. But as your initiative grows,Data Officers, IT Leaders, Developers, engagement. expanding the amount of input fromWebmasters department heads and creating channels Their role: This is the branch of your to listen to all levels of your organizationWhat’s in it for them: This group team that will help you create clear, will become increasingly important.will be excited by the opportunity to concise, and targeted messages for Learn more about how and why it’simprove efficiencies and modernize the many different groups who can important to engage every department.  information-sharing infrastructure. This help with (and benefit from) an openwill help them streamline their everyday data program. Their key roles include 5. Developers in thework. It also allows them to produce leading external communication, acting Communitytangible results in the form of apps as the press contact, and supportingand interactive visualizations that help community evangelism. Learn more Open Data/App Developers, Open Dataimprove life both at their workplace and about how this team can help engage and Open Government Advocates, GISin the greater community. the community.  ProfessionalsTheir role: This part of your team 4. Management and Team What’s in it for them: Publishing dataprovides the technical know-how Leaders gives developers and advocates in theneeded to create your data publishing community the resources they need toplan. The chief information officers Department Heads, Agency-Level do their own creative work. They willalong with other IT leaders should take Program Managers, City and take the data you provide to create toolscharge of selecting and implementing County Clerks that improve life of their community.the open data technology platform.These leaders, as well as others in your What’s in it for them: This group will Their role: From providing feedbackIT department, may also help rally the be able to benefit directly when open about what data you should publishsupport of business users and program data sets allow their teams to do their to taking that data and creating user-leaders to deliver their information and work more efficiently. When published friendly applications, this group can beservices through the open data portal. creatively, in the form of interactive an invaluable asset to your open dataThey will also be key players in reaching charts or visualizations, team leaders and program. They provide a broad base ofout to the private developer community department heads will be able to see expertise and professional perspectivesfor input. more clearly the effectiveness of their that your organization alone, no matter teams and point to data-driven results. how large, couldn’t provide. To help you3. Communications and get this group onboard, we’ve identifiedInformation Officers Their role: This group provides four essential things you can do: publish access points for each team at your data, connect with civic developerPublic Information Officers, organization. By engaging them, organizations, host a hackathon, andCommunication and Marketing you will be able to more effectively be humble. Read more about the fourManagers, Public Affairs boost each team’s ability to deliver essentials of developer evangelism.  data and information that supportsWhat’s in it for them:  programs, your mission, and improveCommunications teams will be organizational efficiency.enthusiastic about the opportunity to Open Innovation • FALL 2013 11

Practical Advice for Your Open Data Program3 Critical Areas Your Open DataPolicy Should CoverYou know open data is a good idea. that, the possible goals – and benefitsBut are all your stakeholders on board? – are many. They can range from betterAnd if they are, does everyone know efficiency in handling public informationwhat needs to be done to make this requests, to increased innovation in theinitiative happen? private sector in developing tools for citizens.A n official open data policy is one line items in your policy can be many, of the most effective ways to in our experience working with various In Chicago, one city goal was to improveachieve organizational support and cities and organizations, we’ve found preparedness for winter storms. So,transformational change through your that good data policies cover three their open data program provided theinitiative. It makes sure everyone is critical areas: 1) the organizational goals data sets for web and app developers toon the same page about why you’re that this program hopes to achieve, 2) build Winter Apps, a variety of resourcespublishing data, who is responsible for the data sets you will publish, and 3) the to help citizens get ready for and copewhat, and what data you are (or aren’t) designated roles of each team who will with winter weather.going to publish. help to complete the work. It’s important to be explicit about yourTaking the time to thoughtfully put this 1. Goals: Why are we taking purpose, so all stakeholders are clearinformation together in a policy is well on an open data initiative? about why they’re doing the work. Yourworth the effort. It will provide direction goals should also be measurable. Do youfor everyone who will be involved in What does your organization hope to hope to increase bus ridership or launchmaking this work a success. achieve with an open data program? five new apps for citizens? Stating One of the primary motivators is to them clearly in your policy will help youWhat should your open data policy deliver on the promise of transparency demonstrate the success of the programinclude? The Sunlight Foundation has by providing data that shows how later on.a living document full of guidelines for taxpayer dollars are being spent. Beyondopen data policies. While the possible 2. Data sets: What are we (and what aren’t we) going to publish? You likely have a vast number of data sets that could be valuable if included in your open data program. What should you plan to publish? Even if you’re12 Open Innovation • FALL 2013

3 Critical Areas Your Open Data Policy Should Coverstarting small with a pilot program,your policy is a good place to statethe scope you’d like to encompasseventually. Because transparency is a keycomponent of the move toward opendata, we recommend publishingas much as possible.As an example, New York City’s policy is to publish all city data that doesn’tinclude personal information. Thatmeans all non-personal data should be“open by default” and published ontheir data portal. An “open by default”approach saves time in deciding whatdata should or should not be madeavailable.3. Designated roles: Whoand what is needed to makethis program a success?You need a team of people to make Be thorough about listing all the transparency, further goals, and createthis project successful. For example, contributions this program will need economic opportunities for citizens. Takeyou’ll need your chief executive to to succeed. And then be clear in a look and learn from those who’vesecure funding for this work, your this section of your policy about the done it already.communications officer to communicate expectations and responsibilities of eachinternally and with the public, and IT stakeholder. You may also use this partpeople to connect with the developer of your policy to create a working groupcommunity – just to name a few. to give all the stakeholders a forum to discuss their progress.Transparency is a Examples of open data New York City haskey component of policies taken a leadership rolethe move toward in the implementationopen data. Open data policies can look very and growth of open different, depending on the organization data as a service they are developed for. You may for its citizens. Its find it helpful to look at some of the open data legislation policies of pioneering cities like New creates a citywide, York and Chicago. Both have official comprehensive open data policies to increase policy – a common set of standards and guidelines for the City’s ongoing open government efforts. Open Innovation • FALL 2013 13

Practical Advice for Your Open Data Program6 Steps to Open Data SuccessPerhaps you’ve read about the success started small. In fact, many began withof open data programs seen in just one data set. Kansas City, Mo.,Chicago, New York, San Francisco or the State of Missouri, and the Unitedother cities, in terms of lowered crime Nations Development Programme allor financial transparency. You’ve heard started by focusing on one high-valueabout the increased efficiency and data set that they wanted to makecommunity engagement an open data available through multiple interfaces, likeprogram can bring. But, does getting APIs, visualizations, and embeds. The key is to focus on quality over quantity at the beginning. With just one new and useful resource available, your community will appreciate the first step toward transparency and information they can use.started sound overwhelming? Tip: Start with easy data sets first, those that are already available in spreadsheetsData that has S ocrata has worked with many of or PDFs in the public domain. Then,longitude and latitude these open data leaders. From our expand their use to multiple interfaces,information can be time with them, we’ve come up with such as an interactive visualization oreasy to find and load six key steps to build an open data map. See more tips for starting small.  into your open data program. We hope that using them as aportal. And, Socrata framework for your initiative helps make Step 2: Focus oncustomers have found the process manageable, and it helps Transparencythat maps are some ensure all your bases are covered.of the most common Keep your eye on achievingvisualizations that Step 1: Start Small transparency, an essential goal forcitizens create. most government open data initiatives. Transportation data. Financial records. Start with the easy data sets. These are Crime data. There are lots of places to usually financial and personnel data, start. But don’t get bogged down at the because they are typically standardized beginning with the number of data sets in format, well-organized, and available you could publish. Lots of initiatives we in multiple departments already. Once now look to as examples of transparency you have those published, you can move14 Open Innovation • FALL 2013

6 Steps to Open Data Successon to more complicated sets like ethics Step 3: Listen to Developers would make app creation easierdata, such as campaign donations and in Your Community for them?lobbyist salaries. Developers in your community are Be humble and collaborate! YourIt’s tempting to avoid publishing certain essential for their creativity and honest initiative will be all the better for it.data sets because you fear that they are feedback. By talking to them, you get a Developers are key partners in puttingnot comprehensive or well organized your data to work and improvingenough. However, based upon what Transparency may be citizens’ quality of life.we’ve seen in the open data field so far, scary to some, butyou get points from your citizens for it’s worth its weight Tip: Successful programs, like the NYCbeing forthright. Transparency may be in citizen trust that Big Apps competition and the Evergreenscary to some, but it’s worth its weight comes as a result. Apps Challenge have engagedin citizen trust that comes as a result. developers in a community to build better sense of what sorts of data sets many successful apps for citizens. LearnTip: Think about building helpful might be useful for apps. One way to from these models and put somethingvisualizations and browsing filters do this is to host a meet-up group and like it in where you live. See more tipsto help people interact with and just listen. How is their access to the for working with developers. You canunderstand the data with little effort. data? Are there any other resources that also see our guide, “How to Run aFor example, if it is budget data, a pie Hackathon.”  chart of budget by department mightbe helpful. You can then embed thesecharts on your website where they canbe automatically updated. See more tipsfor achieving transparency.   Open Innovation • FALL 2013 15

Practical Advice for Your Open Data ProgramStep 4: Increase Internal your initiative. Your staff can be theParticipation primary beneficiaries of easier access to information achieved through this effortGetting all of your co-workers onboard – be it through less duplication of effortscan be one of the most difficult parts to easier collaboration with better accessof launching an open data program. to data.Everyone is strapped for time and oftenresponsible for multiple job descriptions, Tip: Showcase studies from otherso it may be difficult to get them government organizations where theirexcited about a large new initiative. peers have transformed their businessNevertheless, it is essential to win them processes. See more tips for increasingover, because open data programs internal support. flourish with broad support.The key message is that, in the end, anopen data program makes everyone’sjob easier. As you begin this work,ask about information bottlenecks inyour agency’s process, and be clearabout addressing them early on with16 Open Innovation • FALL 2013

6 Steps to Open Data SuccessThis Oregon Marine Step 5: Optimize for in standard formats, a key feature of anBoard (OMB) map Efficiencies and Cost open data initiative.shows citizens where Savingsthey can launch their The benefits of data federation areboats. As information How much would it save your numerous, including easier sharingchanges, the OMB organization if even 10 percent of and comparison for citizens aboutcan easily update it in high-touch interactions could be moved quality of life in their surroundingthe data portal, rather to self-service channels? In addition to areas. For example, the City ofthan producing and increasing transparency and improving Chicago, Cook County, and the Statemailing out a new flyer citizen experience, it also saves time and of Illinois have been able to pool theirof launch locations. money when you move your data to data into a single, citizen-friendly an open data platform with automated site, MetroChicagoData.org. Citizens areYour staff can updating. For example, the Oregon now able to get comparable informationbe the primary Marine Board significantly reduced about their surroundings in one spot.beneficiaries… time spent creating print resources and Read more about the benefits ofthrough less costs associated with publishing and federation. duplication of distributing with just one open dataefforts to easier project. Conclusion: Don’t Getcollaboration Bogged Down By thewith better Your staff will have more time, money, Enormityaccess to data. and energy to spend on projects that require more individual service. All of these steps can be taken in tandem with one another or in any Tip: Look at the most common public order that suits you best. Think through information requests and see which of what will work for your organization. If these may be easy candidates for data you get overwhelmed, remember to: publication. Try to move these requests for information to self-service channels 1) Ask for help and feedback. Get early on to free up time, resources, input from your colleagues and and increase both internal and external community members. Don’t get caught support for your open data initiative. up in a top-down system. There are lots Read more efficiency tips.  of great minds out there. Use them! Step 6: Pool Data with 2) Build with sustainability in Neighboring Cities, Counties, mind. Start small, start easy, and pick and States data that will be most likely to increase efficiency. This will in turn open up time Once your data is published, it opens to take on the more difficult tasks down whole new possibilities for working with the road. surrounding cities, counties, and states. Two-way exchanges of data, called data federation, with other jurisdictions is possible when data sets are published Open Innovation • FALL 2013 17

Practical Advice for Your Open Data Program3 Guidelines for Publishing YourFirst Open Data Sets Y ou’ve decided now is the time for 1. Publish data sets your agency to get started with an that help fulfill your open data program. But how do you organization’s mission decide which data sets to publish first?   and goalsThe Oregon Marine There is no standard formula that applies Drawing clear connections between yourBoard’s boater to all organizations. Depending on your data program and your organization’sinformation maps program goals and priorities, there can mission will help win support, as well asoffer more than just be any number of good places to start. give your program purpose, discipline,the location of launch However, in working with a variety of and measurability.points. The “flyouts” organizations, we have identified a fewgive citizens detailed smart starting points that have worked Start by looking over your organization’sinformation about well. We hope they will help you decide strategic plan. Then, identify within itspecific facilities, the best route to take as you kick off potential data sets that would have theconstruction details, your open data initiative. biggest impact on achieving those goals.phone numbers,and more.18 Open Innovation • FALL 2013

3 Guidelines for Publishing Your First Open Data SetsYou may also want to ask your co- Another way to approach this starting 3. Publish the informationworkers what data will help them to do point, especially if you’re currently citizens and developers aretheir job better or more easily. publishing very little data online, is asking for to start with data that is easily madeAs an example, the Oregon Marine available. Usually, this will be financial This is one of the best places to startBoard used open data to help achieve transparency and personnel data about if your agency wants to increase citizentheir strategic goal to educate citizens your organization. That’s because it satisfaction and reduce repetitiveabout boating safety, education, and handling of frequent informationaccess. They used their open data Depending on your requests. There are many ways toplatform to create interactive maps find out what information citizensthat let citizens know information program goals and are searching for or requesting most,such as location-specific waterway such as:regulations, where to register a boat, priorities, there canwhere to purchase various permits, • Analyze your website data, usingview boat ramp locations, and more. be any number of programs such as Google AnalyticsThis ended up saving the Marine Boardtime, materials costs, and labor costs good places to start. • Review your Freedom of Information– all while using data to achieve a Act requestsmission-based goal. Read more about is typically well-organized and can bethe Oregon Marine Board’s open data easily extracted from your back-end • Survey your internal publicexperience.   financial systems as clean spreadsheets. information officers, clerks, Once it’s loaded on your platform, you and disclosure teams2. Publish data that can use it to build helpful visualizationsis already (or easily) and guided browsing filters to help • Directly request feedback fromavailable and organized citizens interact with and understand the constituents and developers data with little effort.Open data may be new, but publishing Using feedback as your starting pointdata online is not. It’s more than One good example of this is the Ethics is an organic process. After gatheringlikely your agency already has some section of Data.gov. There, citizens can suggestions, it will require prioritization,data available, often via PDFs, Excel search, download and visualize extensive often based on strategic goals or howspreadsheets, or other offline database campaign funding and other data. much work it will take to provide theextracts, shapefiles, and KML files. Since Before publication on the open data requested datasets on your portal.they’re already organized and perhaps portal, this would have been availableonline already, these are great places to only in spreadsheets or by submitting What is exciting about starting herestart for your open data project. a public information request. Now, the is that it kicks off your initiative with data can be easily filtered and viewed widespread engagement. It will also helpStarting here means that you’ll begin by through a variety of customizable charts, you measure the interest level of yourrepublishing these sets in all the required tables, and sorting features, delivering community on a variety of communityformats, so that they are easily accessible on the promise of transparency and easy concerns. These may surprise you! Fromand machine-readable. (Learn more access for citizens. recycling data to health inspection data,about data formats and standards.)   take a look at what other open data leaders have learned about which data sets the public finds most useful.   Open Innovation • FALL 2013 19

Op-Ed: Open Data Is Re-Defining Government in the 21st Century20 Open Innovation • FALL 2013

Op-Ed: Open Data Is Re-Defining Government in the 21st CenturyOp-Ed: Open DataIs Re-DefiningGovernment inthe 21st Centuryby Kevin MerrittCEO of SocrataP erhaps it’s the constrained fiscal reality, punctuated by threats of government shut-downs. Or maybe it’s the ideological wars in Washington, playing outmost recently in the battle over privacy and security sparked by revelations aboutthe PRISM surveillance program. Whatever the reasons, the public sector in the21st century gets a bad rap. As Tim O’Reilly, the founder of O’Reilly Media, hassaid, government is seen by legions of citizens from coast to coast as a bloatedand inefficient ATM that takes in taxes and delivers mediocre services in return.Even a muscular liberal like Paul Krugman of The New York Times calls the federalbureaucracy “an insurance company with an army.”But a new movement, spurred by digital and social activism, is taking root torenovate and redefine the public sector.This movement is based on democratizing the vast treasure trove of data thatgovernments have accumulated over the years, transparently releasing it so citizensand companies can drive meaningful change and solve problems that government,on its own, cannot solve.“Opening up data,” says Todd Park, the U.S Chief Technology Officer, “meanstaking data that is sitting in the vaults of the government, that the taxpayers havealready paid for, and jujitsuing it into the public domain as machine-readable fuel forentrepreneurship and innovation.”This emerging digital collaboration between the public sector and scores ofentrepreneurs across the nation has the potential to profoundly transform the roleof government. Indeed, instead of being an ATM, as O’Reilly observes, it’s nowan accelerator that helps inspire and build new businesses that bring fresh ideas,programs and initiatives to the public. Open Innovation • FALL 2013 21

Op-Ed: Open Data Is Re-Defining Government in the 21st CenturyThere are several striking examples of Services to develop a mobile application “Micro-Data Economy,” and the nextnew companies using open government that has helped eight million people wave of innovation and innovativedata to create programs that benefit our find the best local doctors and hospitals businesses will flow out of thousandscommunities. that meet their needs. Founded by of micro datasets released by the public two emergency-room doctors in 2008, sector: crimes in our neighborhoods;OPower, for example, leverages the company has approximately 90 real-time bus locations; restaurantgovernment data on energy use, employees, over 600 hospital partners inspections; and permit and licenseweather, and appliance efficiency to give and thousands of physicians and urgent applications, to name just a few.customers personalized advice on how care partners who all are working toto save on their energy bills. Employing help provide more information and The executive branch of the federalover 250 people, OPower has helped better care to consumers. government is a major player in theresidential customers save more than 1.4 ongoing open-data movement.terawatt hours of electricity (enough to The ‘Micro-Data Economy’power all of the homes in a small city One of the White House’s key digitalfor a year) and over $165 million on their This isn’t the first time businesses have objectives is to “unlock the power ofpower bills. generated growth and prosperity by government data to spur innovation accessing open government data. across our nation and improve theBillGuard uses the Consumer Financial quality of services for the AmericanProtection Bureau’s new credit card In the 1970s, for instance, the release of people.”complaint database to help find data collected by the National Oceanicdeceptive, erroneous, and fraudulent and Atmospheric Administration To help achieve this ambitious goal, thecharges on users’ credit and debit card changed scores of industries and even Obama Administration is opening upbills. BillGuard’s free software alerts created a new one -- the weather new government data sets, launchingconsumers whenever a charge on industry. This was followed by the new prizes and challenges to spurtheir bill has been reported by others innovative use of data, and showcasing entrepreneurs who are developing newThis emerging digital collaboration apps and services fueled by open data.between the public sector and scores ofentrepreneurs across the nation has the Says Ian Kalin, a Presidential Innovationpotential to profoundly transform the role Fellow who has been immersed inof government. the Obama Administration’s open data efforts: “This is all about theas fraudulent and then assists them in release of GPS data in the 1990s, which government releasing data at thegetting their money back.  gave citizens location services now wholesale level so that entrepreneurs considered essential by many. can help provide retail services that willAnd iTriage has harnessed spur economic growth, create jobs, anddownloadable information from the As Beth Blauer, my colleague at Socrata, improve the quality of life for millionsDepartment of Health and Human points out, we’re now living in the of Americans.”   Cities and states are also setting the tone and agenda for the move to open data in the public sector today.22 Open Innovation • FALL 2013

Op-Ed: Open Data Is Re-Defining Government in the 21st CenturyNew York City, for instance, has for that, which means fewer calls to the and a citizen experience that’s out ofpassed landmark open data legislation city. Need to check the status of 311 step with the modern consumer era.designed to move public information service requests? The most recent datafrom the hands of city officials to the is delivered to citizens’ mobile devices, “This is the right way to frame thepublic. The broader access to data is along with public parking availability, question of Government 2.0,” explainssaving New York millions of dollars. bike maps, crime information, and more. O’Reilly, a leading open data advocate.Mayor Bloomberg’s “geek squad” “How does government become anof data crunchers already has solved Major universities have seen data’s open platform that allows people insidecomplicated and expensive problems, potential to transform cities and are and outside government to innovate?like tracking down damaged trees afterHurricane Sandy or mapping which There are several striking examples ofrestaurants dump harmful cooking new companies using open governmentgrease into city sewers. data to create programs that benefit our communities.Meanwhile, New York’s annual BigAppscompetition has citizens creating apps dedicating resources to it, such as How do you design a system in whichwith public data, like Work+, which University of Chicago’s Computational all of the outcomes aren’t specifiedfinds the nearest coffee shop with Wi-Fi. Urban Sciences Center, MIT’s Civic beforehand, but, instead, evolve throughThis culture of citizen-made apps has Data Design Project, and New York interactions between government andproved unexpectedly cost-effective. University’s Center for Urban Science & its citizens, as a service provider enablingFor example, the Metropolitan Transit Progress. its user community?”Authority hired a local firm to producean app showing real-time bus arrival States are getting in on the action The answers to these questions are stilltimes after it determined that in-house too. Maryland has rolled out StateStat, taking shape, but one thing we do knowproduction would cost hundreds of a performance measurement and is that the strategic use of data is clearlymillions of dollars. The final price tag? management tool based on open re-defining government’s role in theLess than $1 million. data. StateStat is credited with helping 21st century. Maryland save millions of dollars onMeanwhile, Chicago also is driving prison costs while raising public schoolinnovation with open data. It recently test scores to the highest level in theplaced first in the Bloomberg Mayors nation four years in a row.Challenge, based on its proposal to buildthe first open source, predictive analytics As a software entrepreneur, I seeplatform. When completed, it will open data as the transformation ofaggregate information in a single place governments from monolithic serviceto help leaders make smarter, faster providers to open innovation platforms,decisions and prevent problems before fueled by data. This shift may hold thethey develop. answers to some age-old problems in government, like chronic inefficiencyChicago is making data availablearound persistent problems andchallenging citizens to find solutions.Ever wonder where a snowplow isduring a snowstorm? There is an app Open Innovation • FALL 2013 23

May 2011 October 2011 NYC Digital Launch of issues first new NYC Open Digital Roadmap, Data platform outlining a path to (nyc.gov/data) realize New York powered by City’s potential as Socrata; over 750 the world’s leading datasets available digital cityJanuary 2011 NYC Digital established June 2011 December 2011 M Free WiFi made Mayor Bloomberg La available in city announces in parks partnership to M build Cornell- th Technion applied co science and in engineering campus January 2011 September 2011 March 2012 Rachel Haot Engage NYC, NYC named “Th named NYC Chief first annual social Most Economic Digital Officer media summit held Competitive Cit in the World” b July 2011 the Economist NYC hosts first Intelligence Uni Hackathon to reinvent NYC.gov NYC Local Law 11 mandates open access to city governmen datasets

NYC Digital Mission: Make NYC the world’s leading digital city Part of the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, NYC Digital streamlines digital communication with the public and creates public-private partnerships that serve New Yorkers and support local industry.May 2012 December 2012 May 2013 aunch of Made NYC launches City of New Yorkn NY Digital Jobs the Reinvent is approved for its Payphones Design own geographicMaps, highlighting Challenge top-level domain, he 1,000+ tech .nyc ompanies hiringn New York Cityhe August 2012 June 2013cally Introduction of Mayor Bloombergty the Small Business announces winnersby Digital Toolkit, of 4th annual NYC it which helps local BigApps. Winning businesses attract applicationsnt customers online receive cash prizes totaling $150k February 2013 Michael Flowers named NYC Chief Analytics Officer



Impact4 Stories of Open Data success A Three-Year Problem Solved in Two Hours 6 “Set It and Forget It” Saves San Francisco Staff Time 10 King County Elections Takes Open Data Mobile 14 Hard Copy Is History: Web-Based Reports Save Paper, Time & Money 18

Impact A Three-Year Problem Solved in Two Hours Mayday! Troubled Technology WatersA Three-YearProblem Solved “My job is to reach out and grab asin Two Hours many people’s attention as I can about the Marine Board’s mission of boatingState of Oregon: Marine Board safety education and access,” says Massey, public information officer forFor three years, Ashley Massey the Oregon Marine Board.sought a way to create aneasy-to-update, online map of Massey found a great solution withresources for Oregon boaters. open data. Her journey toward it beganHer odyssey ended with her first in 2007.map on Socrata. 2007 - The Marine Board’s seven-How much time did she need to year-old Microsoft Access databasemake it? Two hours. of boating facility information was damaged.How much did it cost her?Nothing. 2008 - Massey and colleagues recompiled all of their boating access information and entered it into Google Maps. “We had to manually enter each boat ramp location and manually place the dot on the map. It was very labor intensive,” says Massey. 2009 - Disaster occurred when all of their work in Google Maps was accidently deleted. 2010 - Massey spent six months researching vendors and price agreements. “The cheapest solution we found was for $100,000, and it wasn’t capable of doing searches, so it really wasn’t an option,” says Massey.28 Open Innovation • FALL 2013

A Three-Year Problem Solved in Two Hours ImpactWhen the Oregon A Seaworthy Solution Rogers sat down with her that day,Marine Board team taught her how to upload a dataset,loaded their water In the summer of 2010, Oregon’s and visualize it in a map. Once thehazard and boat ramp eGovernment Program Manager Wally main map view was created, Masseydata onto the state’s Rogers presented the state’s new open and colleagues were able to add iconsopen data portal they data portal hosted on Socrata. Massey and images. Massey had her first mapcould easily visualize it recognized the solution to her problems. completed in less than two hours.as maps. Those maps “I was excited. I said, ‘I’m ready towere then embedded rock’n’roll.’ We already had a dataseton Oregon.gov. and a vision for the look-and-feel ready to go,” says Massey. Open Innovation • FALL 2013 29

Impact A Three-Year Problem Solved in Two Hours Keeping Oregon Boaters BuoyantThe team at OMB used familiarsymbols on their maps to mark The following datasets (and more) areboat ramps, restrooms, and other now available to Oregon’s boaters onresources. And, their most up-to- Socrata’s platform:date water hazard information wasnow available on the website map – • Where to find clear gasolineno phone calls needed. • Where to purchase aquatic invasive30 Open Innovation • FALL 2013 species permits • Where to register a boat • Boat ramp locations • Pumpout and dump stations • Floating restrooms • Navigation obstructions • State-approved “clean” marinas • Location-specific waterway regulations A Boatload of Savings The regulation handbook that the Marine Board would produce every two years would cost about $150,000, “and it would only last two years,” Massey emphasizes. Time Savings: “Using Socrata has essentially shaved 50 percent off the time I used to use for print publications. I now have more time I can put into doing public relations and marketing that I didn’t have time to do before.”

A Three-Year Problem Solved in Two Hours ImpactSetting Sail with Her Efficiency: “Now, when we find Embarking on a BrightPlatform out about a facility change, we have Future a form through the platform that ourReal-Time Information boating and waterway managers can Massey takes advantage of every new submit to us. When we approve it, it feature Socrata creates. “The capabilities“I really appreciate the automatically populates the dataset. continue to grow. Socrata keeps usspeed and ease of updating. It’s live.” updated on their latest innovations and[The portal] helped us platform development. When we seemove toward real-time, Accuracy: “We have minimal data new opportunities to enhance the maps,digital information which is entry now. And we’re getting [the we seize them. The maps keep gettingmuch more cost-effective better and better,” says Massey.and up-to-date than printpublications.” “I can’t sing the What are Massey’s biggest data dreams praises of our open for the future? “I hope that one day allCitizen Involvement data platform of Oregon’s natural resource agencies enough.” can share our data and, ultimately,“Citizens can create new our resources. Together, we have theviews of the same data, information] from the source - the information that people want, whetherand layer datasets on top of boating facility managers who operate they are camping, boating, fishing oreach other to create custom the sites.” hiking. How awesome would it be tomaps.” get all the information recreationists Cost Savings: “We used to send out seek in one location online?”Embeddable Maps yearly surveys and only half, if that, would get returned. We’d do follow- Highlights“I love the ability to embed up phone calls and annual site tours.code and share it with others. Getting people out of the office and on Replaced $200,000 custom-I have embedded maps the road to verify the condition of boat built database from 2000 andbased on certain datasets ramps was a huge expense. We’ve got eliminated high maintenanceon boatoregon.com. And, it over 1,000 boat ramps in Oregon.” fees and server security riskturns out that those are someof the most popular datasets “Using the platform is saving money Reduced both time spentavailable on Oregon’s open and making operations so much more producing print publications anddata portal.” efficient. We’re even getting pictures costs associated with printing, from the waterway managers that we storing and distribution by 50% can import directly into the dataset.” Avoided paying $100,000 for a new, custom-built mapping system Happiness: “I can’t sing the praises Paid $0 to post data on Oregon’s of our open data platform enough. It’s Socrata open data portal completely changed the way we look at doing business.” Open Innovation • FALL 2013 31

Impact “Set It and Forget It” Saves San Francisco Staff Time It’s also why San Francisco began using Safe Software’s FME platform to help“Set It and Forget It” staff move their daily dose of dataSaves San Francisco automatically onto the Socrata platform.Staff Time Open, Transparent, andCity and County of San Francisco AutomaticSan Francisco’s more than 800,000 In 2011, San Francisco’s leadership,residents come up with a lot of including Chief Innovation Officer Jayrequests. From sidewalk repairs to Nath and Chief Information Officercampaign finance information, the City Jon Walton, pushed for an open dataand County of San Francisco (CCSF) portal as a “one-stop destination for allprocesses hundreds of requests a day. approved City data.” They had visions of greater transparency and convenienceSound time consuming? It is. for citizens but soon discovered, as many organizations do, that standardizing theThat is why San Francisco moved to City data onto one platform improvesa Socrata open data portal in 2012 internal efficiency.with the goal of digitizing the requestsfor data, updating the data more “It’s nice to be able to point to one spoteasily, and publicly tracking progress and say to a colleague, “You want thison requests. information? It’s going to be on this site. You can download it, manipulate32 Open Innovation • FALL 2013 it, create views. And then, also, you can embed it into your own websites,” says Jeff Johnson, Manager of CCSF’s Enterprise GIS Program and Open Data Services at the Department of Technology. The Ethics Commission’s High Profile Job One of Johnson’s favorite examples of greater efficiency through open data is the San Francisco Ethics Commission. It turns out that reporters, lobbyists, candidates, and others involved in San Francisco politics closely watch the data the Ethics Commission reports.

“Set It and Forget It” Saves San Francisco Staff Time Impact“We’ve gotten “We’re under a lot of pressure to In addition, Johnson helped Masseyreally good be accurate,” says Steven Massey, make uploading data to Socrata require,feedback from Information Technology Officer for the truly, no time at all. Johnson suggestedthe community CCSF Ethics Commission. Safe Software’s FME product to bringabout these the Ethics Commission data into Socratacharts” Before the November 2012 elections, automatically. “I was familiar with Safe the Ethics Commission decided to use Software. I use it in my GIS work, but the open data portal to optimize for it can be used for more file types than accuracy and streamline their efforts. just geographical information,” says Massey worked with Johnson to move Johnson. all campaign finance and lobbyist data on to the portal and have it Johnson asked Safe Software to automatically publish to embedded develop a writer specifically for charts on sfethics.org. loading a broad range of data files to Socrata, eliminating the need for a “We replaced many of the tables unique connector to be written by San throughout our website with embedded Francisco’s busy IT Team. Having this Socrata tables so that users can export writer paid off in significant the data. We’ve gotten really good time savings. feedback from the community about these charts, since they are much easier to read than our PDF financial reports,” says Massey. Open Innovation • FALL 2013 33

Impact “Set It and Forget It” Saves San Francisco Staff TimeBetter Reporting of Ethics Johnson is excited about improving both Plus, Massey enjoyed a surprising benefitInformation transparency and efficiency for CCSF from the new automated and visualized staff, without asking for much extra data that Socrata and FME madeBefore Socrata and FME, news sources effort from them. “Our Open Data possible.would collect the data on candidate policy directs City agencies to load datafunding by downloading PDFs posted onto the data.sfgov.org platform, so we Campaign finance data has receivedby the Ethics Commission and tallying need to make it as easy as possible,” wider attention now that it is more easilyup numbers by hand. The process often says Johnson. “They have a job to do - available. “Prior to Socrata, campaigncame with many questions for Massey get graffiti covered, fill potholes, share finance data was most valuable toand, sometimes, incorrect results financial data. That’s their business.” reporters. It made it into the newspaperwere reported. quite a bit. Now it’s in regular demand A Smooth Transition from a broader audience,” says Massey.In the 2012 election season, reporters Massey considers this a win for publicfrom the SF Weekly, SF Appeal, SF Bay Massey says that the transition from data transparency.Guardian, SF Chronicle, and SF Examiner PDFs to automatic uploads on thewere all able to report on the data the open data portal was quick. “Within aEthics Commission published without couple of days I had what I wanted upgoing through that manual process. and done. Jeff finished the scheduled data updates in August and I had the“Now, when people call in, you direct summaries up right after that with allthem to the site and you’re done,” says the graphs,” says Massey.Massey.By providing up-to-date campaign finance information in a single, public location,the Ethics Commission allowed journalists and candidates to track reporting onfunds without submitting an information request.34 Open Innovation • FALL 2013

Before up-to-date campaign finance data was “Set It and Forget It” Saves San Francisco Staff Time Impactmade available in an open format, reportersused to make written requests for information to Getting Citizens What Theythe Ethics Commission and calculate totals per Need, Easilycandidate by hand. Overall, time savings, improvedThanks to Safe Software’s FME, new data gets transparency, and greater accuracy haveautomatically loaded onto CCSF’s open data meant the most to the CCSF team, “Iportal, keeping related charts up-to-date and now have uploads that run every nightsaving the Ethics Commission team time. from various databases around the city. We call it “set it and forget it,” says Johnson. Johnson is even canvassing city and county agencies to instruct his colleagues about the use of FME along with Socrata. “FME is a very simple tool. That’s the beauty of it.” Johnson wants to keep San Francisco’s staff working hard on what matters, serving more than 800,000 citizens with the data and support they need everyday, as easily as possible. Highlights CCSF staff are able to respond more quickly and easily to citizen requests Ethics Commission, GIS, and other data is scheduled to update automatically every night via FME Socrata charts embed on to the Ethics Commission website and serve up-to-date data Greater accessibility to campaign finance data increases citizen engagement with it Open Innovation • FALL 2013 35

Impact King County Elections Takes Open Data MobileKing County ElectionsTakes Open Data MobileKing County: ElectionsRecreational marijuana use? Same sex marriage?Romney or Obama?These contentious issues had Washington statecitizens closely watching the races leading up totheir Nov. 6, 2012 election night.Behind the scenes of all this excitement, in themost populous county in the state, King CountyElections offered its nearly 1.2 million registeredvoters something they’d never had in an electionbefore: mobile-friendly voting informationand results.36 Open Innovation • FALL 2013

King County Elections Takes Open Data Mobile ImpactProviding What CitizensWantWhere do citizens look for theinformation? Increasingly, they relyon cell phones.In fact, King County voters indicatedin a 2011 survey that there were anumber of elections-related actionsthey’d like to be able to do via theirmobile devices. Those that rated thehighest included checking the latestelections results and counting downthe time left to return a ballot.“Our goal was to provide voters witheasier and faster access to electionsinformation so they could get whatthey needed most while on the go,”says King County Elections ChiefCommunications Officer Kim van Ekstrom.A Short DeadlineKing County Elections received fundingfrom the state’s share of a “HelpAmerica Vote Act” grant to developweb-based tools for voters. The finaldecision to move forward on mobilecame just a month and a half beforethe 2012 presidential election ballotswere to be sent out.“Most of our work on the grant had King County, Washington hosts tech-savvyalready been completed. By the time Seattle and its surrounding communities. Thewe decided to develop pages for mobile King County Elections team wanted to servedevices, the project was running out of voters in the county better by improving accesstime and we did not have the ability to to voting and election results information.extend the grant. We utilized Socratato piggyback the project on the opendata platform,” says Dale Hartman,IT manager for King County. Open Innovation • FALL 2013 37

Impact King County Elections Takes Open Data Mobile When King County Elections polledInteractive and Mobile- voters about whatFriendly Open Data technological improvementsUsing Socrata DataSlate, Socrata’s they wanted to seeteam built web pages specifically for most, the publicsmall, mobile devices, with interactive overwhelminglycharts visualizing results, as well as an requested betterinteractive map of ballot drop mobile access tobox locations. election information.Interactive: The charts allowed usersto scroll over certain sections to get Throughout themore detail. election season,Dynamic: All of the charts were voters were givenupdated automatically a soon as up-to-date mapsKing County loaded fresh results or of ballot drop boxinformation to their FTP site. locations, as wellPractical: The mobile-friendly map of as daily updatesballot drop box locations gave users on election results.“pinpoints” they could select to request Citizens could seedirections to their nearest ballot drop this information bothbox location. They even received a site online and on theirphotograph as a reference. mobile devices.In addition, Socrata built an updated“Countdown Clock” to the ballot dropoff deadline that would look great onmobile devices.38 Open Innovation • FALL 2013

King County Elections Takes Open Data Mobile ImpactJust in Time for the service to visitors. Every citizen who HighlightsElections wanted to see election results was able to see them - on their computer or their Citizens access data on web orThe project was completed successfully mobile device. mobileand on time. “It was a goodcollaboration. We delivered the services A Model for the Future Updated results instantlythat we wanted to, they looked great, and automatically appear inand we were able to do it on a short As mobile election results become the embedded maps and chartstimeline,” says van Ekstrom. norm, King County Elections’ initiative will serve as a model for success. 236,000+ views of mobile-King County Elections’ efforts to make friendly maps and charts ontheir Nov. 6 elections results more Commenting on King County’s efforts election nightaccessible paid off. More than 236,000 to keep up with the tech-savvy citizens,people visited the King County site IT manager Dale Hartman said, “King Capacity to handle election-and viewed the new charts and maps County Elections has an excellent track related traffic spike thanks to aembedded on those pages. record of using technology to improve cloud-based solution service to citizens. The development ofKing County Elections’ site became this mobile tool is a natural next step for Scalable systems supports 90the busiest site Socrata supported Elections and King County government races and measureson November 6, 2012. Fortunately, to deliver customer service andbecause Socrata’s technology is cloud- recognize the needs of our citizens.” From concept to delivery in lessbased, there was no interruption in than two months Open Innovation • FALL 2013 39

Impact Hard Copy Is History: Web-Based Reports Save Paper, Time & MoneyHard Copy Is History:Web-Based Reports SavePaper, Time & MoneyState of WashingtonEvery year, government agencies produce reportsthat inform government policies and where taxdollars flow.Expensive to produce and print, these paper-based reports are often hundreds of pages long,take thousands of hours to create, and are out ofdate by the time they are published.Until now...40 Open Innovation • FALL 2013

Hard Copy Is History: Web-Based Reports Save Paper, Time & Money ImpactThe GSRO team used Socrata to create Washington’s Salmon Systems, SBGH-Partners, and Mt.350 visualizations of the data they had Recovery Team Thinks Olympia Design Studio to build a webcollected, and then embedded those charts Forward site for the salmon recovery report andon the “State of Salmon” website. to post images of spreadsheet data, “We have a statute that requires us charts, and graphics. Their initial plan to produce a report every two years was to publish a similar, static report about the state of salmon recovery in with a bit more detailed information and Washington, as well as watershed health a lot less paper. and funding,” says Jennifer Johnson, Recover Implementation Coordinator for Socrata’s Platform Enters the Governor’s Salmon Office (GSRO) in the Scene Washington State. Johnson says the report is typically 150 The team began to gather data from the pages long and costs the GSRO up to departments and regional biologists that $50,000 to produce, not including staff contribute to the report. When they time. reached out to the Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) they were told to “I wanted to move to something less go to Washington State’s open data site expensive, more frequently updated, hosted by Socrata, data.wa.gov, to get and more accessible to the public,” says the latest information. Kaleen Cottingham, Director of the “We saw the Socrata tool and thought, “We saw the Socrata ‘This is cool. Maybe we could do twice tool and thought, as much in half the time with real, ‘This is cool. Maybe live data and cover more populations we could do twice as of salmon,” says Paladin and SBGH- much in half the time Partner’s Scott Boettcher. with real, live data” They had kicked off their project in April Recreation and Conservation Office, 2012, with a deadline to produce the which manages the GSRO. report by December 2012. They began loading data onto the Socrata platform Cottingham and Johnson knew what starting July 2012. they wanted to achieve but had no model to follow. They hired cloud- “I did a lot of reworking of data so we based solutions provider Paladin Data could get it into cleaned-up tables that we could easily upload. Data would come to us in landscape, portrait, Word docs, spreadsheets, phone calls, and more,” says Boettcher. Determined to finish on time, the team forged forward. Open Innovation • FALL 2013 41

Impact Hard Copy Is History: Web-Based Reports Save Paper, Time & Money Improving the report required extra work with regional fish biologists and other agencies to ensure accurate reporting and getting the data loaded onto the platform on time. Cottingham supported Johnson’s wish to offer greater detail, “There is a paradigm shift. People used to have power because they controlled the data. Now we’re shifting to an expectation publically that we earn respect by being transparent and sharing our data.” A Do-It-Yourself Approach In the end, the group pulled together and published on time with about 250 web pages, 350 charts and graphics, and many improved data steward andThe State of Washington A More Accurate Report “If you look at ourhosts a number of salmon timeline and whatspecies that are listed As part of producing a digital we achieved, it’sas “endangered” or report, Johnson wanted to publish remarkable we“threatened” under the more granular data in addition to pulled it off”federal Endangered Species summarized information. The paperAct. The State of Salmon report published previously had offeredreport provides data on “roll-ups” of information, rather thantheir recovery. raw, source data. “The report would be more accurate at data management relationships. “It was a finer scale so we decided to show all a change project and change projects of the fish populations, About 150 are always have turbulence. If you look at listed under the Endangered Species our timeline and what we achieved, Act, and then we chose to include it’s remarkable we pulled it off,” says some non-listed populations, as well. Boettcher. We ended up with a pretty heavy load of data,” says Johnson.42 Open Innovation • FALL 2013

Hard Copy Is History: Web-Based Reports Save Paper, Time & Money Impact Highlights Replaced a 150-page paper report with an interactive website Saved $10,000 in printing costs Eliminated the cost of mailing out 400+ copies of a 150-page report Created embeddable charts, automatically updated when new data comes in Improved engagement with field biologists for more accurate data reporting Collaborated with multiple departments to improve data quality Report Website: http://stateofsalmon.wa.govCottingham’s vision was now a reality. tool it could manage and manipulate onHer team had pioneered a paper-free its own,” says Boettcher.report with visualizations, plus now thedata could be fed through the state’s The GSRO team looks forward to addingopen data portal to update those even more detail to the report in thevisualizations automatically. future and encouraging data sources to submit data in easy-to-load formats.And, this framework will serve them They’re optimistic.well for years to come. “Bringing in even more sources of“We have a system that Jennifer can data can be a challenge, but throughmanage entirely on her own. That the collaboration you’re gettingwas a piece that was very important to better information in the end,” saysKaleen, that GSRO would be left with a Cottingham. Open Innovation • FALL 2013 43

Our 10 Favorite Open Data Apps 1. TowTextOAOFapupvpersno1rD0iattea Chicago, IllinoisHundreds of developers around the world have used So you’re in Chicago and your caropen data hosted on Socrata to create apps for everyday is missing. Was it towed? Stolen?citizens. We feature 10 of our favorites here. Chicago’s TowText app removes some of the guesswork. Sign up and the city will text you within 15 minutes if they had to move your vehicle.2. Look at Cook 3. Help Me, I’m Sick 4. Ballot Drop BoxCook County, Illinois New York City, New York State of OregonLike most Americans, residents of Cook Sick in New York City? Need to get to Sometimes, finding a convenient ballotCounty, IL want to know where their tax a hospital or medical center? Help Me, box is almost as challenging as decidingdollars are going. Look at Cook provides I’m Sick is an iOS app that finds medical how to vote. That’s why Oregon createddetailed, understandable data on county services near you. Call the facility or see its Ballot Drop Box locator. Type in anspending, which promotes transparency a map to its location with the press of a address or zoom in to find local dropand peace of mind for taxpayers. button. boxes and their schedules.44 Open Innovation • FALL 2013

Our 10 Favorite Open Data Apps5. King County Elections 6. VeloRacks 7. Adopt a SirenKing County, Washington Seattle, Washington State of HawaiiPeople like to access information on Cycling has many advantages over It takes time to ensure that everytheir mobile devices. Ballot results are driving, but they have a common emergency siren in Honolulu worksno exception. When residents asked for dilemma: where to park. Need to find a properly. Adopt a Siren allows peoplemobile-friendly voting statistics on local bike rack? If you’re in Seattle, VeloRacks to look up scheduled siren tests and, ifelections and measures, King County offers detailed information about nearby they’re within hearing range, volunteerElections provided. bike racks and businesses. to report whether the siren worked.8. Construction Projects 9. World Bank Finances 10. RecollectEdmonton Washington, DC Vancouver, BCSome say Edmonton, BC has two This mobile app provides snapshots One person’s trash is another’sseasons: winter and road construction. of World Bank Finances’ activities. ingenious niche service. Recollect servesThe City of Edmonton created this iOS Navigate maps and list views to learn cities everywhere, allowing residents toapp to provide local drivers with up- about a country’s donor and beneficiary find their waste collection schedule, setto-date reports and to help them avoid portfolios, including projects, financial collection day reminders, and receiveactive construction zones. instruments, and contracts and updates about local waste issues. procurement. Open Innovation • FALL 2013 45

Gut Decisions Are Expensive and DangerousGut Decisions AreExpensive and DangerousWhy all governments must embrace data-driven decision makingBy Beth BlauerBeth Blauer is the nation’s leading Despite the potential to use readily available informationexpert in implementing “stat” to increase citizen engagement, save money, and boostprograms in government and is program performance, many public entities still baseDirector of GovStat at Socrata. decisions largely on instinct. Beyond contributing to inefficient processes and shortsighted policies, “gut”46 Open Innovation • FALL 2013 decision making is costly—even dangerous. In 2013 and beyond, the central question that every government leader needs to ask is: “How much longer can I afford to not adopt a data-driven approach to decision making?” The Results-Driven The Evolution of Public Revolution is Gaining Performance Measurement Momentum in Maryland A new era of data-powered government StateStat, Maryland’s acclaimed is taking shape. This nascent movement government performance management provides only a hint of what is possible initiative, actually has its roots in the in the future. It’s not a matter of if CompStat program implemented data-driven government can create the in New York City in the mid-1990s. best solutions to society’s problems; it’s The CompStat team in NYC had a matter of how soon governments will cross-referenced crime maps with embrace the idea and reap the benefits. police department resource maps and uncovered a glaring disparity– crime-fighting resources were evenly distributed, but crime wasn’t. By being

Gut Decisions Are Expensive and Dangeroussmarter about dispatching departmental Based upon my work in the juvenile In 2012, Maryland had the 15 lowestresources, the city’s leadership was able justice system, Governor O’Malley foreclosure rate in the nation, 87to reduce crime significantly. invited me to be the director of his new percent of high school seniors program, StateStat. graduated from high school, and 56After Martin O’Malley was elected percent more students took AdvancedMayor of Baltimore in 1999, he made StateStat’s Staggering Placement exams in science, technology,it his number one priority to launch Success engineering and math-related topicsa statistics-oriented approach to in 2012 than they had in 2006. Thegovernance similar to CompStat. By the All told, StateStat’s success was answers to problems that had bedeviledsummer of 2000, CitiStat, Baltimore’s nothing short of staggering. In its the state for years were in the data.version of the CompStat program first three years, the state saved $20was born and quickly became a game million in overtime in our public safety How was such widespread successchanger. The shift to a data-driven agency alone. Savings were created possible? I believe that it was ourapproach not only impacted crime, by consolidating print shops and state commitment to the philosophy ofbut it provided a data-based decision car fleets, and reducing duplication in governing by data. The StateStatmaking platform for all city agencies. projects. program oversaw 80 percent of allIt gave birth to services that benefited budgets and personnel in the state.citizens, like 311 and a 48-hour pothole O’Malley made good on his Agencies checked in with StateStatguarantee. commitment to reduced crime. Violent monthly, if not weekly. And, StateStat crimes in the state decreased by 25 was reviewed quarterly against GovernorWhen Baltimore’s Mayor O’Malley percent between 2007 and 2012. In O’Malley’s 15 stated goals.became Maryland’s Governor O’Malley fact, homicides were down 27 percentin 2006, it was clear that CitiStat would in 2011 compared to 2006. The city of Government Should Be anbe rolled out statewide. Governor Baltimore also saw a historic reduction Innovation LeaderO’Malley was ambitious and bold in crime.with his vision for Maryland. His goals By adopting cutting-edge technologies,included an end to childhood hunger such as cloud data storage and application programming interfacesThe evidence is clear: governments must (APIs), to share their valuable data,play a leading role in the data revolution. some government agencies are not only catching up with the private sector inby 2015, a 20 percent decrease in In addition, the O’Malley administration terms of innovation, but acceleratingcrime statewide by 2018, and to get managed a massive $8.3 billion in beyond it. Data has long beenChesapeake Bay to the “Healthy Bay spending cuts in its first seven years recognized as a government asset, butTipping Point” by 2025. He knew while recovering 81 percent of jobs now it can finally be shared and utilizedfrom his experience with CitiStat that lost during the recession – that’s both inside government, and amongdata from multiple agencies would be the eighth fastest rate in the nation. citizens, entrepreneurs, and researchers,essential to solving these complicated Meanwhile, O’Malley’s team helped to to find solutions to persistent civicissues. He purposefully pulled together expand healthcare coverage to more problems.people from different departments, and than 360,000 residents, most of themtheir data, to find solutions. children. The evidence is clear: governments must play a leading role in the data revolution. Open Innovation • FALL 2013 47

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