Open innovation-spring-2014-by-socrata

Knowledge for
Everyone: The Open
Data Institute
Alameda County:
Reinvents Community
Engagement
How Open Data
Is Revolutionizing
Health Care
6 Government
Processes Replaced
by Open Data
SPRING 2014
Building a Stronger Economy with Open Data
CHICAGO’S SUCCESS STORY

Dear Fellow Innovator,
I’m glad you picked up a copy of our third edition of Open Innovation. It’s packed full of examples of how the open
data movement is growing quickly and becoming one of the most dynamic areas of technology today.
In our “Community Report” section, you’ll get to meet people who are bringing open data to more places, like the
executives in Montgomery County who supported the creation of financial transparency apps that educate citizens
on county budget data. You’ll also hear about Code for America’s successful startup incubator program and the
Center for Medicaid and Medicare’s (CMS) innovative use of healthcare data. Finally, we highlight authors in the
community with our new book review section and showcase a few members of the “Open Data Doers Club.” Any of
the doers remind you of yourself?
“There’s an app for that.” We’ve all heard it and it’s becoming more and more true thanks to new public datasets
made available by governments. In our “What’s App’ening?” section, you’ll find out how New York City
encourages citizens to create apps that address the city’s toughest issues and you’ll get an overview of Socrata Open
Expenditures™ and Socrata Open Budget™, financial transparency apps we designed with help from government
finance leaders.
We cover practical topics in our “Smarter Government” section, such as questions to consider when writing your
open data policy and how to host “internal hackathons,” like Alameda County, California does to educate staff and
encourage engagement with the County’s open data program. And, if you’re interested in efficiency, you might like
our collection of six government processes replaced by open data.
And, now to one of my favorite subjects: economic development through open data. In our “Open Data in Focus”
section, you’ll read about Chicago’s success in creating new businesses and jobs, thanks to their open data portal. We
also discuss the strategic value of data in government, spotlight how the United Nations Development Programme
inspires data journalism, and highlight the Open Data Institute’s (ODI) work as an incubator of businesses based in
open data.
For fun, we finish with a story about how art and open data can intersect by introducing you to Scott Kildall. This
San Francisco-based artist is transforming geo-data from the San Francisco City and County’s (SFCC) open data
portal into 3-D art called “Data Crystals.”
Please let us know how you like the magazine and what you think we should feature next. We want this publication
to be a hub for the most exciting and inspiring innovations happening in open data and open government today.
Sincerely,
Kevin Merritt
Socrata Founder and CEO
Editor-in-Chief
Alida Moore
Contributing Editors
Bridget Quigg
Tim Cashman
Patrick Hasseries
Design/Art Direction
Corey Smith
Promotion
Steven Gottlieb
Published By
Socrata
83 S. King Street
Seattle, Wa. 98104
info@socrata.com
(206) 340-8008
www.socrata.com
SPRING 2014
40 Growing Chicago’s Open Data Economy
By Bridget Quigg
COMMUNITY REPORT
4 Socrata Book Club
6 The Rebirth of
Government Outreach:
Textizen Brings Public
Engagement into the
Mobile Era
By Patrick Hasseries
9 Open Data Doers Club:
American City-Dwellers
12 How Open Data
Is Revolutionizing
Health Care
By Joe Pringle
18 Montgomery County
Collaborates on Open Data
By Ewan Simpson
WHAT’S APP’ENING?
21 New York City Asks
Hackers to Solve Tough
Issues
By Bridget Quigg
24 Financial Transparency
for Smarter Governments
and Citizens
By Safouen Rabah
SMARTER GOVERNMENT
27 5 Questions to Ask
When Creating Your
Open Data Policy
By Ian Kalin
30 Alameda County:
The Gold Standard in
Community Collaboration
By Alida Moore
37 6 Government Processes
Replaced by Open Data
By Bridget Quigg
IN FOCUS
48 Why Governments
Must Embrace the Strategic
Value of Open Data
By Safouen Rabah
and Tim Cashman
53 Knowledge for
Everyone: The Open Data
Institute
By Alida Moore
58 How International
Organizations Use
Data-as-a-Service to
Inspire Journalists
By Eleonore Fournier-Tombs
JUST FOR FUN
61 Data Crystals: Scott
Kildall and the Collision
of Art and Open Data
By Alida Moore
Subscribe to future issues of Open Innovation by going to www.socrata.com/magazine

BOOK CLUB
Socrata Book Club looks at the latest and greatest volumes written about
government transparency, open data, and data-driven decision-making.
Beyond Transparency
Open Data and the Future of Civic Innovation
Edited by Brett Goldstein and Lauren Dyson
The rise of open data in the public sector has sparked innovation, driven
efficiency, and fueled economic development. Its transformative potential could
shape the future of civic life and reinvent the relationship between residents and
government, especially at the local level.
Beyond Transparency is a new anthology from Code for America, edited
with former Chief Data Officer of Chicago Brett Goldstein. In this cross-disciplinary
survey of the open data landscape, practitioners from municipal
chief information officers to civic entrepreneurs share their stories of what they
accomplished with open data. The book features essays from leaders including
Michael Flowers, former Chief Analytics Officer of New York City; Tim O’Reilly,
founder & CEO of O’Reilly Media; and Beth Blauer, Socrata Director of GovStat
and former StateState Director for Maryland.
Open Data Now
The Secret to Hot Startups, Smart Investing, Savvy Marketing, and Fast Innovation
By Joel Gurin
Joel Gurin is Senior Advisor to GovLab’s Open Data 500, the first major study
of American companies that use open data to build their business. In Open
Data Now, Gurin applies his wide-ranging experience and two years of research
to provide a comprehensive guide on the open data field. He describes the
open data landscape for technologists, business executives, entrepreneurs, and
ordinary citizens, providing insight into how open data is changing ideas about
privacy, corporate responsibility, and government regulation
Open Data Now is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how
open data is changing business, government, and society. Gurin describes how
social media is shaping brand identity and reputation and how the new science
of sentiment analysis is transforming marketing strategy. He also makes the
case for open innovation in science, describing how some research institutions
are sharing their data early on to promote discourse.
Open Government
Collaboration, Transparency, and Participation in Practice
Edited by Daniel Lathrop and Laurel Ruma
Open Government is a collection of essays and case studies that lay out visions of
a more democratic and effective government, achieved by making meaningful,
structured data accessible to everyone. Contributors come from a wide spectrum,
including a White House insider, the chief technology officer of a major city, and
an activist hacker. The book presents a balance between hopes for the future and
the realities that stand in the way.
“Open Government is a comprehensive compendium of the who, what, how, and
why of the emergent national ‘Gov 2.0’ movement. It’s a must-read for all who care
about transparent, efficient, and participatory government, which, by definition,
should equate to each and every one of us in our capacity as citizens and voters.”
~Andrew Hoppin, CIO, New York State Senate
Smart Cities
Big Data, Civic Hackers, and the Quest for a New Utopia
By Anthony Townsend
In Smart Cities, urbanist and technology expert Anthony Townsend takes a broad
historical look at the forces that have shaped the planning and design of cities and
information technologies from the rise of the great industrial cities of the nineteenth
century to the present. A century ago, the telegraph and the mechanical tabulator
were used to tame cities of millions. Today, cellular networks and cloud computing
tie together the complex choreography of mega-regions of tens of millions of people.
In response, cities worldwide are deploying technology to address both the
timeless challenges of government and the mounting problems posed by human
settlements of previously unimaginable size and complexity. As technology barons,
entrepreneurs, mayors, and an emerging vanguard of civic hackers are trying to
shape this new frontier, Smart Cities considers their motivations, aspirations, and
shortcomings while offering a new civics to guide efforts to build the future, one
click at a time.
OPEN 4 OPEN INNOVATION • SPRING 2014 INNOVATION • SPRING 2014 5

COMMUNITY REPORT
BULLETIN BOARD FOR OPEN DATA COMMUNITY NEWS
COMMUNITY REPORT
THE REBIRTH
OF GOVERNMENT
OUTREACH
Textizen Brings Public Engagement
into the Mobile Era
Inaugural run of Textizen: volunteers place ads in public places around
Philadelphia, inviting passersby to text in their answers to public survey questions.
the Textizen team to take part in
their 2013 Incubator program, which
helps fledgling projects from the CfA
Fellowship grow into independent
business ventures. The Textizen team
News of the project’s success spread widely,
and the soon the Textizen team began to
receive requests from government leaders
looking to deploy the app in their own cities.
set up a main office in San Francisco,
where the CfA Incubator program
is based. For the next six months,
the team received intensive training
and mentorship, networking with
leaders in the government technology
industry, learning how to secure
investors and manage business taxes,
and using an endowment of $10,000
bestowed by Code for America to
build and launch their business. Since
its launch, Textizen has been used to
poll citizens on a number of topics,
In 2012, the City of Philadelphia realized it had
an issue with diversity and citizen engagement.
Primarily older, wealthier citizens attended City
meetings, and their feedback did not accurately
portray public opinion as a whole. To engage a more
diverse base of residents, the City knew it needed
to adopt 21st century methods of communication
and asked Code for America (CfA), a non-profit
organization dedicated to improving government
with digital technology, for help. CfA was uniquely
positioned to help Philadelphia in a fraction of the
time and budget it would have taken the City through
conventional channels. In its 2012 Fellowship program,
Code for America challenged software developers and
designers to come up with a solution. Within months,
they developed the groundwork for a new service
with the potential to benefit cities everywhere.
“It also significantly cuts down
on costs and labor by eliminating
the need to canvass an entire city
or print out individual ballots.”
The Philadelphia City Planning
Commission piloted the new app
in June 2012. News of the project’s
success spread widely, and soon
the Textizen team began to receive
requests from government leaders
looking to deploy the app in their
own cities.
INTO THE CODE FOR
AMERICA INCUBATOR
As the 2012 CfA Fellowship neared its
end, it was clear Textizen had evolved
beyond its original scope. CfA invited
FROM CONCEPT TO PILOT
CfA’s Fellowship answered the
challenge with a marketing tactic
that companies have used for over
a decade: mobile texting surveys.
According to the Pew Research Center,
more than ninety percent of American
adults have a cell phone, and most
cell phones come with a basic texting
plan. The Fellowship proposed that
Philadelphia position calls to action
in everyday advertising locations –
billboards, websites, public transit
vehicles and stations, etc. – and invite
citizens to participate in quick public
opinion surveys by texting in their
answers. To help the City accomplish
and track this new method of public
inquiry, the Fellowship developed
Textizen, a dynamic, web-based
application. Textizen makes it simple
for government officials to create
public opinion surveys. The app pairs
each survey with an auto-generated
phone number to which people
can text their answers. Textizen
catalogs responses as they are sent
in and provides detailed statistics
on responses through its easy-to-use
dashboard system. “We chose
to use text messaging because it’s a
technology that most people have and
know how to use,” says Serena Wales,
Chief Technology Officer of Textizen.

COMMUNITY REPORT COMMUNITY REPORT
OPEN DATA
DOERS
CLUB:
AMERICAN
CITY-DWELLERS
From government officials and
software developers to everyday
citizens going about their business,
the power of open data impacts us
all. In our new series, Open Data
Doers Club, we introduce you to the
people who make up the open data
community to show how open data
helps improve their lives. In this edition,
you will meet common American
public officials and urbanites.
CITY TECHNOLOGY PICKER-OUTER
Alias: Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
You have a meeting with a dozen city leaders tomorrow to
discuss technologies that could help agencies better convey
information to the public. You know their objective is to
improve performance, set smarter goals, and track progress
toward those goals. You’ve already proposed creating an open
data portal for the city, but that’s just the first step of making
open data useful to your citizens. You are hard at work
talking with your developer contacts, looking to other cities
for examples, and scouring the web for possible solutions.
Chief Technology Officer, a performance measurement
dashboard is what you’re seeking. Cities like Kansas City,
Missouri are already using dashboards to track progress
toward city goals and the performance of city services. Many
have also used dashboards to identify service redundancies
or gaps, share information between agencies, and show the
public how the city is progressing toward key goals. So go
ahead, do your research into performance measurement
dashboards and walk into your meeting with confidence,
knowing that you have at least one great solution to propose.
Textizen’s online dashboard reports up-to-date survey results
through detailed statistics and visualizes them with rich, easy-to-understand
to create new public opinion surveys and deploy them with ease.
from roads and public transportation
to mental health awareness. In one
particular case, Chicago Public
Schools used the app to ask city
residents what types of school
improvement projects they should
prioritize. The school board had
previously attempted holding surveys
through conventional means such as
meetings and letters to parents, but
they received few responses. Textizen
helped them distribute survey ads
on local trains and buses through
the Chicago Transit Authority. The
graphs. The dashboard also enables government officials
result was more than 2,000 survey
responses, with 98% coming from
unique participants. “By putting ads
in everyday locations like billboards
and bus stops, there’s a very high
chance cities will catch citizens’
attention while they already have
their phones out and are looking to
pass the time,” says Wales.
Textizen has so far deployed to
over a dozen U.S. cities, including
Boston and Salt Lake City. Its
engineers recently released support
for Spanish-speaking audiences and
are working to expand Textizen for
use in other countries and languages.
The app is a strong example of how
governments can reconnect with
the public using technologies and
services most people use every day.
The company behind it demonstrates
the success and valuable services that
are born when software engineers
apply their talents to improving
government, especially when they’re
backed by programs like the Code for
America Incubator.

CITY FINANCE FANATIC
The public meeting has just started. You shuffle through
pages and pages of city finance data, getting everything in
order for the big reveal. You’re going to demand to know
why the city needs to raise taxes to pay for a new park when
they could be diverting funds from redundant services
and making expensive programs more cost-efficient. Then,
clumsy old Jane from the PTA trips and spills her coffee all
over your report. You watch in horror as the ink runs and
your data disappears before your eyes. The beautiful graphs
you spent all night making in Microsoft Excel are gone.
What calamity Jane has brought upon you and all the
taxpayers of the city! Financially concerned citizen, what
you need is open data. With financial transparency apps
like Open Budget™ and Open Expenditures™, you could
have saved hours of phone calls, financial analysis, and
chart-making. Plus, you would easily understand the
difference between capital budget and operating budget,
and you’d see exactly where your government is spending
money. Best of all, you could have shared this information
with other citizens, safe from Jane’s klutzy sabotage.
RACKLESS SEATTLE CYCLIST
You maneuver from street to crosswalk like a graceful
unicorn on figure skates. You are doing the dance of the
bike commuter; you are a being that is half pedestrian and
half vehicle—the pinnacle of urban transportation. The
morning mist dampens your face as you breathe in the salty
Puget Sound air. Unlike cars and buses, cycling is free, and
calories are the only fuel needed to power your mission.
You roll to a stop and as you reach for the Clif bar in your
pocket, realization strikes: there’s no place to lock up your
bike. Looking about, you wonder where the nearest bike
rack is.
Seattle cyclist, open data is for you. What you don’t know
is that there isn’t a bike rack within a three block radius,
and the area you’re in is prone to bike thefts. But with
mobile apps like Veloracks powered by city data, you can
always find the bike rack closest to your current location.
And with the Seattle Police Department publishing
up-to-date crime data on Seattle’s open data portal,
you can look up just how safe the area will be for your
two-wheeled baby.
MISSED TRASH DAY (AGAIN) SUBURBANITE
While going about your business, the unmistakable beeping
of a garbage truck echoes in the distance. Realization and
panic arise. You forgot to take out the trash – again. Now
you’re faced with three options: press the garbage down
and try to make enough room in the can for another week,
pull the garbage out and let its stench permeate your living
space, or leave it outside and hope it doesn’t attract animals.
In the meantime, your miniature dachshund, Schnitzel, is
undoubtedly trying already to knock over the garbage and
get to those chicken bones you threw away the other day.
Alas, unfortunate suburbanite! If only you’d known about
open data. With apps like Recollect, you could have looked
up your local garbage day and set yourself reminders.
More than that, it would help you communicate with your
local government about important city services. Your
garbage would have been collected. Your family wouldn’t
be complaining about the smell radiating out of the
kitchen trash. And Schnitzel wouldn’t be revenge-chewing
your favorite shoes. The good news is you have another
opportunity to get this right – next week.
CITY DATA ACCESSIBILITY ADVOCATE
Alias: Chief Digital Officer (CDO)
You sit at your desk reading email and listening to phone
messages. The feedback is clear: citizens want easier access
to government data. Government workers are overwhelmed
by too many data requests from citizens. City leaders need
a better way to garner public support and feedback for
potential projects. It seems like conventional methods of
communication are failing to serve at all ends. That’s why the
city hired you, Digital Guru. It’s your job to find a solution
to this communication barrier using new and innovative
technologies.
Chief Digital Officer, the solution you should seriously
consider is a cloud-based, publicly accessible data repository—
also known as an open data portal. Government agencies can
upload data they want to share with the public, and it would
be readily accessible to citizens on any device with an Internet
connection. City leaders could use the portal to address and
engage the public masses. Everyone would win, and maybe,
just maybe, they would finally erect a statue of you as the hero
that ushered in a new era of civic engagement.

COMMUNITY REPORT
How Open Data
Is Revolutionizing
Health Care
By Joe Pringle, Socrata Director of Health
The United States spends more than three trillion
dollars a year on health care. Governments at all levels,
in partnership with the private sector, are working to
improve the collection, use, management, dissemination,
and reporting of health data – a project of a scope
equal to the Apollo Space Program. The emergence of
vast amounts of new health data, and improved tools
for using it, is occurring in parallel to a tectonic shift in
the demand for that data. The health care industry is
transitioning from an opaque, fee-for-service model,
where costs and transactions are based on the quantity
of care delivered, to a more transparent and value-based
model, where providers are compensated based
on value and consumers are better able to compare
providers in terms of cost and quality. These concurrent
trends foster a rapid rise in the health data economy
that will help transform health care and health policy.

THE EMERGING HEALTH
DATA ECONOMY
A second trend driving equally
important changes in health care is
the emergence of a shared layer of
health data that all organizations
and individuals can tap into. In
some ways, health data is following
the same path as open data in other
sectors, where increasing amounts of
raw and machine-readable data are
being released into the public domain.
However, some of the most valuable
health data is patient-level data,
which is private and subject to severe
restrictions in how it can be shared
Electronic data is now captured at the point
of care, and providers access clinical decision
support systems in real time as they interact
with patients.
and used. For this reason, patient-level
data is only being shared to approved
entities. Both publicly available and
privately shared health data will drive
innovation in the form of reduced
costs, higher quality, and better
public policy.
Public sector health organizations have
published data for decades, but it has
generally been difficult to find, access,
and use. Innovative efforts by the U.S.
Department of Health and Human
Services, the Centers for Medicare
and Medicaid Services (CMS), and
the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) vastly improve the
Much of the attention
on the current health
data revolution is
focused on both the
use of big data within the enterprise
and the increasing availability of
personal health data to consumers.
Providers, payers, insurers, and
other actors are rushing to build
data warehouses and to implement
a wide range of technologies to
support enterprise data management,
analytics, population health,
decision-support, and business
intelligence (BI) goals. Traditional
health care IT vendors are adding big
data, analytics, and BI capabilities
to their offerings. Electronic data is
now captured at the point of care,
and providers access clinical decision
support systems in real time as
they interact with patients. Payers
use data mining and analytics to
improve fraud detection and risk
management. Wearable devices
track and store health data, while
increased consumer awareness of
personal health records and data
give individuals greater ability to
make informed choices. All told, vast
amounts of health data across these
activities are being captured, stored,
and accessed in new ways.
CMS Medicare Provider Utilization and Payments Data: CMS recently released a
new dataset on Medicare Provider Utilization and Payments as part of an ongoing
strategy to make the costs of healthcare more transparent and easier to compare
across geographies and providers.
scaling up efforts to have providers
report on quality measures. CMS
reimbursement to providers will be
linked to quality outcomes, efficiency
and patient satisfaction under a value
based purchasing (VBP) model.
Data on quality measures is being
shared to practitioners, health care
providers, health plans, integrated
delivery systems, purchasers, and
others. The performance of providers
can be evaluated in an objective way,
by comparing the quality and value
of the services they deliver against
the costs charged for those services.
This is a given in other sectors of the
economy but largely absent in the
health sector until now. Third, we have
a better understanding of community
and health outcomes, which guides
health policy and investment. More
and more data about community- level
quality and utility of available health
data. These efforts lower the barriers
for researchers, developers, and
entrepreneurs to build upon this data.
THE IMPACT OF DATA ON HEALTH
CARE AND HEALTH POLICY
This emerging health data economy
is driving a “learning health system” 1
where prices are more transparent;
consumers, payers, and policy makers
can compare quality and outcome. At
the same time, research data is being
shared in new and innovative ways.
Both these changes impact health
care and health policy in numerous
ways. First, we are seeing an increased
understanding of the cost of care.
As the biggest single payer for health
care in the United States, the Centers
for Medicare and Medicaid Services
(CMS) is playing a leading role in
making the costs of health care more
transparent and easier to compare
across geographies and providers.
CMS releases aggregated data on
provider charges and makes claims-level
data available to approved entities
for research. A number of states
are establishing all-payer- claims-database
(APCD) systems to provide
comprehensive, multi-payer data to
allow consumers, purchasers, and
policy makers to understand the cost,
quality, and utilization of health care
for their citizens. Innovative companies
such as Pricing Health Care, Health
Care Bluebook, and others use these
data sources to provide new tools for
consumers and others. The media uses
1 Best Care at Lower Cost: The Path to Continuously
Learning Health Care in America. Washington, DC: The
National Academies Press, 2013.
the data to shine a light on disparities
in costs in different communities. All
of this is driving providers to compete
on price in a fundamentally new way.
We are also seeing health care
quality improve. As part of the shift
away from a health system where
payments are based on the quantity
of care to a system based on value and
outcomes, CMS and other payers are

As technology advances and medical records evolve from paper to digital, we enter
a new future of health data, where this data can be easily and securely accessed
among individuals and across organizations.
health is being shared, allowing anyone
to see and compare health outcomes
across cities, counties, and states.
Understanding how a community is
performing with respect to health,
and how it compares in terms of social
determinants, costs, services, and
other factors helps inform investment
and public policy decisions. Leading
health organizations at the state level,
such as the New York Department of
Health, New Jersey Department of
Health, and California Department of
Public Health are aggressively opening
up state-level health data. In turn,
intermediaries and aggregators, such
as County Health Rankings and other
sources, use this data to help inform
the public about how communities
compare in terms of health. This
leads to improved awareness and
understanding of public health issues.
Finally, health care and health policy
research are improving. More data
is coming in, which pushes more
value out. The biggest value from the
increasing availability and utility of
health data comes from research on all
aspects of our health system – think
Human Genome Project multiplied
by 1,000. The National Institutes of
Health (NIH) has long been a leader
in requiring the groups and projects
it funds to create a plan for sharing
the data they generate. In addition
to its open health data activities,
CMS makes privileged data, such as
claims data, available to approved
entities for research. Organizations
are forming networks of all sizes to
facilitate data sharing across traditional
organizational boundaries. Much of
this data is not open or shared publicly.
Lowering the barriers for approved
entities to access and use this privileged
data vastly reduces the amount of churn
for researchers to assemble the data they
need, increasing the pace of innovation.
SIGNIFICANT CHALLENGES AND
GREAT OPPORTUNITIES AHEAD
The health data revolution is
just getting started. Numerous
opportunities remain to increase the
supply of available data and make it
easier to find, access, and use. There
are, however, significant challenges
ahead that must be overcome if we are
to realize the full benefits for health
care and health policy. First, we must
improve tools and approaches for
overcoming privacy issues. Health
data is both extremely valuable and
extremely private. Though sharing
health data across organizational
boundaries offers tremendous promise,
maintaining the security and privacy of
that data creates additional complexity.
Aggregated and population-level data
must be de-identified, and we must
guard against emerging techniques that
can be used to “re-identify” data using
proxy identifiers. Sharing personally
identifiable data (claims data, clinical
data, etc.) requires an additional
layer of technological and procedural
infrastructure to protect it. This takes
time and costs money, and we need
improved tools for doing this better,
faster, and cheaper to help the data
flow more smoothly while maintaining
sufficient privacy controls. Second, we
must encourage researchers to share
data. Researchers are recognized and
rewarded for publishing papers, not
their data. Releasing data can even be
counterproductive for those researchers
simply looking to maximize their own
prospects for publishing future papers.
Despite numerous efforts underway
to encourage researchers to release
their data, this is still a huge barrier to
the free flow of research data. Finally,
we must encourage organizations to
focus on interoperability and linking
health data. We’re currently in the
early stages of transitioning from
an opaque, closed, and proprietary
environment for health data to a more
transparent and open environment
where data is shared across
organizational boundaries. The HHS
Office of the National Coordinator
is aggressively pushing health care
IT vendors towards interoperability.
This is a first step for simply being
able to map electronic health records
from one vendor to another. Health
data publishers are sharing data in
machine-readable formats and APIs
that make it easier for entrepreneurs
Numerous opportunities remain to increase
the supply of available data and make it
easier to find, access, and use.
to connect and repurpose it. A messy,
overlapping array of “standards”
discussions are taking place at all
levels to better understand how we can
harmonize the data. These efforts will
require sustained involvement by key
stakeholders across the health system.
IMAGINING THE FUTURE
OF HEALTH DATA
Looking ahead, one can imagine a
future where shared health data can
be easily and securely accessed among
individuals and across organizations.
There are too many brilliant people
working on leveraging health data
and too much value to industry and
society to expect anything less than a
revolution over the next decade. What
will that revolution look like? Providers
will advertise prices and tout their
performance on quality measures so
individuals and payers will be able to
quickly and easily compare provider
cost, quality, and patient satisfaction.
More transparency and more choice
will relentlessly drive innovation and
competition. Voters will be able to
understand how their community
is doing with respect to health care
inputs and outcomes, and will push
elected officials and policy makers to
optimize investments and public policy.
Researchers will share data freely,
accelerating the velocity at which we
understand what’s working, what isn’t,
and how we can improve technology
and practice. Health data captured
at the point of care and in wearable
devices will feed a real-time data layer
that can be tapped by clinicians, public
health officials, payers, and consumers
to inform decisions at all levels. All
of this innovation will be powered by
health data being shared in new and
innovative ways. For many reasons the
health sector has been slow to harness
the power of open data, but going
forward it will have a transformative
and immensely positive effect on health
care and health policy.

COMMUNITY REPORT
In his four years on Montgomery County
Council, Councilman Riemer has been a staunch
supporter of a citizen’s right to know what
his or her government is doing. And his career
has long been a study in understanding how
technology can make an impact on government
and legislation.
OPEN INNOVATION • SPRING 2014 19
MONTGOMERY COUNTY
COLLABORATES ON
18 OPEN INNOVATION • SPRING 2014
OPEN DATA
By Ewan Simpson, Customer Success Manager
W
hen people talk
about municipal
open data
innovators, they
use names like Bloomberg,
O’Malley, and Emmanuel.
In Montgomery County,
Maryland, some of the
names commonly associated
with open data innovation
are Riemer and Leggett.
In Montgomery County
however, unlike in many
other municipalities, the
impetus for open data
started in the legislative
body. Councilman Riemer’s
work in creating open
data policy serves as a
model for county council
members across the
country, showcasing how
they too can play a role in
democratizing data for their
citizens. Councilman Hans
Riemer, with support from
County Executive Ike Leggett
and members of the County
Council, championed the
County’s open data initiative,
which began in 2012 and
exemplifies the importance
of creative collaboration
between executive and
legislative powers.
In his four years on Montgomery
County Council, Councilman
Riemer has been a staunch supporter
of a citizen’s right to know what his
or her government is doing. And
his career has long been a study in
understanding how technology can
make an impact on government and
legislation. “When I was elected
as a councilmember, it was my
mission to bring that intentional
focus to help the County reinvent
how we use technology,” he
says. The Councilman was inspired
by the work of Code for America,
particularly the organization’s fusion
of technology and civic change.
He followed their work closely and
decided that Montgomery County
needed to hold a hackathon. “I began
to research what it would take to
hold a hackathon and I realized
that before the hackathon, you
have to have quality data. I began
to understand how fundamental
open data would be to our success.”
Councilman Riemer and the
County Executive Leggett’s office,
legislative and executive, quickly
realized that not only could they
do this but that open data could
make a big difference to citizens
and government. The next step
was figuring out how best get an
open data program started. Riemer
decided the County first needed
an open data policy with muscle.
The Open Data Act introduced
a number of practices, including
a department-wide data policy, a
centralized repository for data, and
an implementation plan. In response
to this bill, Montgomery County
launched dataMontgomery, their
open data portal in October 2012.
It serves as a central repository for
a growing number of municipal
datasets including 311 information,
restaurant inspection, and permits.
The portal is expected to grow
substantially within the next year.
It is equipped with a series of
visualization tools that allow citizens
to create their own maps and charts,
API endpoints for developers and
civic technologists, and social media
tools that allow the County to
capture suggestions and feedback.
Montgomery County’s approach

THE LATEST AND GREATEST IN OPEN DATA APPS
COMMUNITY REPORT
“One purpose of open data is
to enable the citizen analyst
to have a stronger voice.
Open data gets people more
engaged in the decision-making
process and, finally,
allows governments to provide
better services.”
- Councilman Hans Riemer
to open data has been thoughtful
and thorough as Riemer describes,
“We had to determine what our
contribution would be to the wider
open data community. We decided
the best way to contribute would be
by building a strong foundation.”
A hallmark of County Executive
Leggett’s leadership and reputation
for innovation, dataMontgomery,
defines open data best practices. In
addition to legislation with teeth,
Montgomery County’s thorough
approach to opening data includes
citizen outreach, peer education,
data inventory, evaluation and
review. “Although relatively new,
our open data program has quickly
become a model for others. We
realized that the best way to
implement the program, within
our resource restraints, was to
prioritize. To prioritize what data
needs to be published and when,
we went to great lengths to solicit
input from residents, businesses,
and our staff. This level of outreach
and engagement around open data
was unprecedented and really
helped us de-politicize the process
so that we’re just focusing on
valuable, useful data,” says Dan
Hoffman, Chief Innovation Officer.
Another key to dataMontgomery’s
continued success, according to
project manager Victoria Lewis,
is the ongoing commitment
from participating departments
and Montgomery County senior
management, “dataMontgomery
would not be as successful if we
didn’t have the level of engagement
and commitment that we see every
day from our data owners and
Montgomery County continues to push the
envelope in open data innovation and will
soon debut a series of financial transparency
applications providing unprecedented visibility
into how the county spends money and how
the county is performing within the confines
of its budget.
executive sponsors. We needed
to comply with Bill 23-12, but
people here also see the many
benefits of publishing data.”
Moreover, Montgomery County
continues to push the envelope
in open data innovation and will
soon debut a series of financial
transparency applications providing
unprecedented visibility into how
the county spends money and
how the county is performing
within the confines of its budget.
County Executive Leggett’s model
for innovation and transparency
continues to reach new heights as the
platform expands data availability,
provides easy to use interfaces and
contextualized views of data, and
open dialogue with citizens and the
civic technology community.
For Councilman Riemer, his
commitment to open data
and government transparency
continues to grow. “One purpose
of open data is to enable the citizen
analyst to have a stronger voice,”
he says. “Open data gets people
more engaged in the decision-making
process and, finally, allows
governments to provide better
services.” He plans to further engage
with other members of the open data
community who are beginning their
own programs.
NEW YORK CITY ASKS HACKERS
TO SOLVE TOUGH ISSUES
BY BRIDGET QUIGG
How do you get the most out of an apps contest
where eight million people are invited? When
the City of New York began its BigApps
competition in 2009, organizers wanted
bright minds to use the city’s data to improve quality of
life in NYC. Over the years, they learned the best way to
do so is to challenge those minds by connecting them with
real civic problems and partners. Former NYC Mayor
Michael Bloomberg initiated the BigApps competition well
before most cities were considering open data programs.
It had always been a joint effort between the Economic
Development Commission (EDC) and the Department
of Information Technology &
Telecommunications (DOITT).
Describing his vision, Bloomberg
said, “If we’re going to continue
leading the country in innovation
and transparency, we’re going to
have to make sure that all New
Yorkers have access to the data
that drives our city...catalyzing
the creativity, intellect, and
enterprising spirit of computer
programmers to build tools that
help us all improve our lives.”
Director of OpenNY for the State
of New York, and former Director
of Research and Development for
the NYC DOITT under Bloomberg, Andrew Nicklin also
played a leadership role at the beginning of NYC BigApps.
He wanted to put the data to work. He adds, “Open data is
not an end but a means. Just by looking at data you can’t
know everything about what makes that data important as
a foundation for economic growth.”
TOP TIER OPEN DATA PORTAL
Initially, New York City had a homegrown application
for hosting public city data but moved to the Socrata
platform in 2011 with NYC OpenData. The data on this
site has been the core of BigApps.
It is one of the most attractive,
comprehensive, and user-friendly
open data portals in the world.
Not only can citizens gain real-time
access to public datasets
via application programming
interfaces (APIs), the data is
organized into categories for easy
searching. Images accompany
popular datasets, supporting
materials and guidance for
developers are easy to find,
and the site offers a Tumblr
feed of stories about how data
access is impacting the city.

WHAT’S APP’ENING? WHAT’S APP’ENING?
(Previous page and above) Participants and supporters attend 2013 NYC BigApps awards
ceremony held at the IAC building in Manhattan.
All of these resources, interactions,
and inspiration add up to the ideal
home base for participants in the
BigApps competition. “The real
secret to success behind BigApps is
marketing the competition so that
it appeals to thousands of students
and professionals with diverse
talents and backgrounds,” says
Seema Shah of HR&A Advisors,
an economic development and real
estate consulting firm producing
the BigApps competition in 2014.
“Whether you have a technical
skillset or not, your life experiences
are the most valuable assets you can
bring to BigApps. Everyone in NYC
understands the intricacies of civic life
here -- and that’s why everyone should
participate.” She notes New York City
already has an active civic hacking
community, so the best strategy for
BigApps is bringing new people into
civic hacking. The competition’s
website has done a better and better
job over the years of encouraging
participants to connect, share ideas,
recruit new teammates, and track
progress. In addition, BigApps offers
some of the largest cash prizes in civic
hacking. Beside tens of thousands of
dollars in earnings, winners receive
opportunities to further develop their
products alongside local tech leaders,
even receiving free office space and
other resources.
THE MOVE TO “BIGISSUES”
Widespread engagement isn’t enough
for the BigApps team, though. Ian
Fried, communications lead at the
Big Results
from BigApps
2013 BigApps included
13 events, 120 projects,
54 eligible apps, 517
participants, 42 data
providers, 7 winning teams
Founded in 2009 and
has launched more than
300 apps
Has opened up more
than 1,000 datasets to
developers around the
world
Focuses participants on
real world civic issues for
greater impact
BigApps teams have raised
more than $8 million
dollars in VC funding
Opportunities to win
over $100,000 in prize
winnings every year
EDC says, “The goal is to reward
the best tech solutions to civic life
in NYC. At its core, BigApps is a
mission-oriented, industry-agnostic,
citywide competition that believes
in the transformative power of
technology.” He points out that
the first criteria for judging apps
is, “Potential positive impact on
New York City residents, visitors,
and businesses.” However, in the
early years of the competition,
there wasn’t enough of a focus
on garnering participation from
small businesses, nonprofits,
universities, cultural institutions,
and other entities that contributed
to supporting a vibrant civic life. In
2013, the BigApps team asked local
leaders and various organizations
to become partners and surface
specific, pressing local issues that
participants could directly address
and solve. The new approach, called
BigIssues, allowed local businesses
and organizations to sponsor work
BigApps is a mission-oriented, industry-agnostic,
citywide competition that believes in
the transformative power of technology.
on key civic issues where they have
expertise. In 2013, the BigIssues
categories covered the environment,
the economy, lifelong education,
and healthy living. Sponsors could
coach teams, offer resources, and,
ultimately, judge the entrants in
their BigIssue category. Each sponsor
created a page with guidance, access
to data, and other information
BigApps teams could use. For
example, Pure Energy Partners
stating in its BigIssues brief, “In
NYC, we throw away more than
6.5 million pounds of food every
day. This could fill up 24 subway
cars. Or, it could be put to better
use as fertilizer and clean energy.”
Applicants were then challenged
to get creative about this specific
problem. In addition, these partner
organizations often host hack days
leading up to the main competition.
Shah says adding in these experts
helps to add a new level of credibility
to BigApps, create buzz and increase
broad-spectrum participation.
The grand prize winner for BigApps
2013 came from the “Healthy
Living” BigIssues category. The app,
created by designer Wendy Nguyen,
is called HealthyOut. It helps users
find a healthy meal when dining
out, anywhere in the city. Nguyen
is a multi-time entrepreneur with
a background in public health and
technology, Her $35,000 grand prize
helped her build the app and its
reach so that within a year it had
become one of the top five most
downloaded apps in iTunes’ Food
& Drink category, and was being
recommended by nurses, doctors,
and nutritionists. That response
is just the kind of uptake
BigApps organizers sought by
encouraging participants to
address known issues.
The BigApps team considers the
BigIssues program a success and
plans to continue with it. “We’ll be
addressing new issues in 2014, under
a new mayoral administration,” says
Shah. Just how much of an impact
can open data have on the lives
of New York’s citizens? Nicklin is
optimistic. He says, “It will fall to
the background and be a mainstay of
how things get done. Government as
API. It will be so integral in people’s
lives it won’t even be noticed, such
as health inspection information
on Yelp when people look for a
restaurant.” He adds, “We want the
data to be where people need it.”

Financial Transparency
for Smarter Governments
and Citizens By Safouen Rabah, Vice President of Product
Over the last few
months, our
apps team has
been hard at
work developing
a suite of
financial transparency
apps to help users
understand the intricacies
of government budgets and
spending. In this edition
of What’s App’ening, we
look at two apps that are
part of that suite: Socrata
Open Budget™ and Socrata
Open Expenditures™. These
apps are the culmination of
significant user testing and
have been designed to be
useful to finance experts
and non-experts alike.
WHY FINANCIAL
TRANSPARENCY MATTERS
Five years ago, any government who
made the choice to join the open data
movement was seen as innovative.
Now, publishing data is the gold
standard of open government, but
it must be more than a line item
that government leaders cross off
their transparency checklist. While
publishing data publicly is a great
start to making the most of the data
collected, it’s also just the first step.
In order for open data programs to
have significant impact, the smartest
governments publish raw data
and provide ways citizens need to
understand and use that data. This
includes visualization tools, APIs
to remix and reuse data in multiple
contexts, and citizen-friendly apps
to engage people in government
processes.
Financial transparency apps
demystify government finances and
expand the conversation around
budgets and spending. These apps
bolster public participation in
governance. Government cannot
call itself transparent just because it
published a ledger of raw data, as few
citizens understand how to consume
financial data. Furthermore, many
citizens are hungry to understand
this data. Financial transparency
demonstrates serious commitment
to open government. A citizen
armed with information about the
budget is a citizen able to ask the
right questions and understand her
government’s priorities.
In evaluating the apps that already
exist for government finances, our
team found none that truly helped
people understand how budgets and
spending work. We realized that
most apps were not built for everyday
citizens to use. To help government
meet the needs and demands of
its citizens, we set out to build a
suite of financial transparency apps
that examine government finances
from the citizen perspective. We
created two specific apps to address
transparency benefit citizens? A
citizen armed with information
about the budget is a citizen
able to ask the right questions
and understand the priorities of
government. Engaged citizens,
journalists, and other stakeholders
demand this data.
When designing these financial
transparency tools, Socrata worked
closely with the technology and
finance teams at Montgomery
A citizen armed with information about
the budget is a citizen able to ask the right
questions and understand the priorities of
government. Engaged citizens, journalists,
and other stakeholders demand this data.
County, Maryland to learn about
government budget and spending
data practices and obtained
feedback from members of the local
financial transparency. The first,
Open Budget™, allows citizens to
understand everything that goes into
a government’s budget. The second,
Open Expenditures™, shows citizens
how the government is spending
funds.
SOCRATA OPEN BUDGET™
Open Budget™ helps citizens and
other stakeholders understand the
operating budget, capital budget,
capital projects, and the priorities
of government. For example, a
citizen curious about public safety
budgeting can drill down into the
funds allocated for Police, Fire, and
Rescue and, from there, get specifics
on the source of those funds. Open
Budget™ allows users to follow the
lifecycle of the budgeting process.
Budgeting is a multi-phase process
that can be confusing to the average
citizen. Open Budget™ provides
a snapshot of the budget, where
it’s been, and what’s happening
next. How does this level of budget
community to ensure the module
objectives of empowering the public
with financial data were met.
“We worked with Socrata to make
sure we could educate citizens
about how we budget and spend as
we empower them with data. The
apps are designed to move visitors
through the entire budgeting process
in an engaging way. All of the data is
shown in dynamic charts and made
interactive. It flows in a way that
makes very complex information
easy to understand,” says data
Montgomery Project Manager
Victoria Lewis.

SMARTER GOVERNMENT
HOW OPEN DATA IMPROVES GOVERNMENT
Our suite of financial transparency apps demonstrate clearly many aspects of
government finances. For example, citizens can easily understand the difference
between capital budget vs. operating budget, and can see itemized lists of
government expenditures.
SOCRATA OPEN EXPENDITURES™
Government spending is another
area that can be confusing to citizens.
Because citizens care about where their
money is spent, conversations around
government spending can be volatile,
especially when spending is unclear.
Smart governments committed to
serving citizens have a strong incentive
to help taxpayers understand spending.
Governments also have an opportunity
to help sophisticated data consumers,
such as journalists and business
owners, understand the data. Open
Expenditures™ helps fulfill this mission
by presenting spending data in a
detailed, understandable way.
With Open Expenditures™, citizens
can explore government spending
to where funds are allocated. For
example, a user can view the relative
amount spent on park maintenance,
public art, school buses, and more.
Citizens can also explore trends
in spending over time, browse the
data by government vendor to see
which companies are hired by their
government (for example, if their
city hires the same firm for both
road construction and maintenance),
and browse the spending by specific
payment to see the details around
payments to vendors. This app also
benefits businesses by offering insight
into how their competitors are serving
the government. Ultimately, this app
recognizes that citizens have the right
to see how the government spends
their money in a format they can
understand, regardless of financial
expertise.
Socrata’s suite of financial
transparency apps expand the
conversation around budgets and
spending, and will bolster public
participation in governance. These
apps are designed to be meaningful to
all audiences, ensuring all stakeholders
will be able to understand where the
money comes from, how it is allocated,
and where it’s going. Making these
apps available to citizens demonstrates
a government’s commitment to
transparency and openness.
Want to learn more? Visit socrata.com/
products/custom-web-and-mobile-apps-
government-data today.
5 QUESTIONS
TO ASK WHEN
CREATING
YOUR OPEN
DATA POLICY
By Ian Kalin, Director of Open Data
Since the dawn of the Internet, we have seen an evolution of online services
as extensible technology platforms that enable users, application developers,
and other collaborators to create value that extends far beyond the original
offering itself. The same principles that have shaped the consumer web are
now permeating government. Forward-thinking public sector organizations
are catching on to the idea that, to stay relevant and vital, governments must
go beyond offering a few basic services online. Some have even come to the
realization that they are custodians of an enormously valuable resource: the
data they collect through their day-to-day operations. By opening up this data
for public consumption online, innovative governments are facilitating the same
kind of digital networks that consumer web services have fostered for years.
The era of government as a platform is here, and open data is the catalyst.

SMARTER GOVERNMENT SMARTER GOVERNMENT
Policymakers seeking to
frame a transparency
and innovation program
within a government often
have questions. As active participants
in the era of open government, we
hear their questions all the time. A
common question is, “What should
I include in my open data policy?” as
is, “How do I know if my draft open
data policy is good?” These are great
questions with complicated answers,
even for seasoned advocates who have
been through the trenches of policy
creation. There is no single way to
create an open data policy. Imagine
you are an architect and someone
comes to you and asks you to design
them the perfect house. You, the
savvy architect, will ask: “What size
house do you need? Do you have any
children? Can you afford a fancy
home downtown?” Open data policy
works in a similar way. The definition
of what is actually best depends on
who you are, what you do, and what
you are trying to achieve. With this
context in mind, here are five key
questions to consider when crafting
an open data policy.
1. WHAT IS YOUR ROLE WITHIN
THE ORGANIZATION?
Open data policies usually come
from legislators, elected officials,
or government managers. Each
of these stakeholders can choose
from four buckets of open data
policy types, including new laws,
non-binding resolutions, executive
orders, and internal regulations
or memorandums. Every bucket is
not available to each stakeholder.
Government managers cannot
pass new laws by themselves. Still,
others have more than a few options
at their disposal. Elected officials
can often issue executive orders,
memos, and non-binding resolutions.
Additionally, your seniority within
your organization influences your
ability to create impact with all types
of tools. A memo from a President
can go further than a resolution from
a secondary advisory council. (Not
that a President is necessarily more
connected than a town council. In
this context, they are just different
in terms of scope.) Answering this
question can help you determine
which of the tools are available
to you.
2. HOW DO YOU CHOOSE
BETWEEN THE POLICY MODELS?
Each model has strengths and
weaknesses. Laws can be the most
difficult to create, but they tend to
have the greatest impact, particularly
in terms of their ability to allocate
public funds. Non-binding resolutions
tend to have the least impact on
government operations, or public
benefit for that matter, but they are
relatively quick and easy to create.
Executive orders often have the power
of law, and recent experiences (e.g.
The White House and New York
State) demonstrate that they can be
extraordinarily detailed in terms of
how public agencies should work
together. Therefore, executive orders
are often the most impactful. The
big drawback to executive orders
is they tend to disappear when an
administration ends. This is why
many executive orders are often
codified into full-fledged laws once
an elected official reaches a twilight
period. Internal memos can be
effective, particularly when issued
by a senior leader and paired with a
previously issued executive order or
law. Internal memos can also apply
to the smaller government office
trying to get started with open data
and wants to make sure basic levels
of privacy are protected in those
early experiments. These tools have
their own merits and should be
considered based on the objectives
and constraints.
3. HOW DETAILED SHOULD I
GET AND DO I NEED TO FIND A
BUDGET?
Generally speaking, the longer it takes
to issue a policy, the less valuable it
is to include highly granular details.
Technology moves faster than
regulations. That said, good open
data policies should not shy away
from technical details if they want
the overall program to be effective.
Interoperability and standards are
a major aspect of what makes these
policies successful. Consider the San
Francisco open data policy, which
includes guidance for common
metadata and the use of Application
Programming Interfaces (APIs).
Without having to specifically walk
through technical conditions like
cardinality or JSON syntax, the
leaders of the open data program can
leverage those overarching guidelines
to better integrate data catalogs
between city departments. Once
you get to this stage of open data
policy development, the question
of money isn’t far behind. All open
data policies, when well executed,
lead to cost savings, efficiency
improvements for governments, and
even job creation. In a perfect world,
open data policies would pay for
themselves without any type of new
investment. But the reality is that
government procurement systems
do not recognize cost savings the
way the commercial sector does.
Therefore, in order to spur faster
activity and strengthen the level of
support for open data, it is highly
recommended that some modest
amount of financial allocation be
included in the policy, as long as it
does not cause an extensive delay or
even a blockage of the overall policy.
4. WHAT ARE THE BASELINE
CHARACTERISTICS OF AN OPEN
DATA POLICY?
Every open data policy should
include or be influenced by the
following elements:
• High-level term definitions like
“Data is…” and “Chief Privacy
Officer shall be…”
• Statement on government’s
responsibility to empower their
citizens
• The need to embrace best
practices from other sectors,
such as leveraging new
technology to deliver improved
government services
• Open data is rooted in American
history (or at least some local,
earlier transparency policy)
• Open data programs must protect
individual privacy, confidentiality
and security
For an example of a sample resolution
or assistance in creating your own open
data policy, download Socrata’s Open
Data Companion Kit.
5. WHAT IF I WANT TO BE
AMBITIOUS?
Bravo! It’s difficult enough to get new
policies issued, so you might as well
include the bigger items if you are going
to go down this path. Here are some of
the major items we recommend, based
on what leading government leaders
have already delivered:
• Have an “open by default” policy
foundation that builds on existing
policies like privacy protection
and freedom of information. Use
detailed definitions: Open data
includes… Oversight authority
is…
• Create comprehensive, internal
inventories, and then public
catalogs online. Include ongoing
volume and quality updates.
• Include common core metadata
and use unique identifiers for
datasets.
• Create an oversight authority
with established ownership.
Who needs to do what and who
can hold them accountable?
• Mandate the release of new data,
online in machine-readable and
human readable formats, with
minimal license restrictions on
use and on a single, authoritative
portal.
• Mandate systems for prioritizing
data release and perform actions
against a public and ambitious
timeline.
• Focus on the citizen-customer
and include a framework for
public feedback.
• Provides some level of funding
or resources to actually get
this stuff done. With or
without public funding, plan
to leverage public-private
partnerships.
• Integrate with “My Data” and
“Big Data” programs.
Successful and impactful open
data policy isn’t created in a day,
or in a vacuum. By asking the right
questions before you begin, you
can determine the best course of
action for creating your own open
data policy. Of course, in addressing
these five questions, you might end
up with even more questions. There
are resources available to help you.
We at Socrata would love to help you
get going.

Spanning the East Bay region
of the San Francisco Bay area
in California, Alameda County
boasts a population of more
than 1.5 million residents, which
puts the County on par with
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and
just under Houston, Texas. The
size of Alameda County isn’t what
makes it remarkable, however.
What’s most remarkable about
Alameda County is its success
in engaging with its citizens in a
way that makes this large county
feel more like a small town. Few
communities are as involved with
their local government as the
residents of Alameda County.
So, what is the County’s secret to
community collaboration?
ALAMEDA
COUNTY
THE GOLD STANDARD IN
COMMUNITY COLLABORATION
By Alida Moore
SMARTER GOVERNMENT
“ Alameda County has
long had a commitment
to collaboration,
partnerships, and
community involvement, so much
so that it has become an integral
part of our culture,” says Susan S.
Muranishi, County Administrator.
This commitment means the County
is constantly asking itself, “How can
we better serve our citizens? How can
we leverage technology to improve
services to our residents? How can we
engage our youth?” These questions
led Muranishi and Chief Information
Officer/Registrar of Voters Tim
Dupuis to explore the world of open
data. “Our policy makers were very
interested in data sharing,” Muranishi
explains. “We’ve been talking about it
for a long time. As the doors opened
up, we realized we had a tremendous
goldmine in the form of information
we could make available to the
public in a user-friendly format.” To
quickly publish that data and make it
accessible to citizens, Muranishi and
Dupuis launched Alameda County’s

successful Data Sharing Initiative.
Dupuis pushed the effort forward.
“We knew open data was a key area
we needed to explore. It was being
spearheaded at the federal level by
the White House and we wanted to
get involved at the local level,” he
says. “We started a committee around
open data and data sharing amongst
all County departments. We came
to Socrata to tilt up our open data
portal.” Muranishi was impressed
by Dupuis ability to win leadership
buy-in. “Tim was able to determine
how to get value out of our data
quickly. He convened department
heads and made it a priority to
help them understand why we were
adopting this open data model. It
wasn’t perceived as a threat because
people can understand that the data
is already available; let’s just make
it easier and more accessible to our
constituents and our community as
well,” Muranishi says.
The community as a whole needed a
way to share the data. The selection
of the right portal was important, as
well as the tools the portal provides.
Alameda County has more than
100 datasets available on its Socrata
portal, including crime statistics,
restaurant inspection data, and
even a bedbug dataset. “The portal
allows users to filter down to find
more information on what is most
interesting to them,” says Dupuis. “A
blogger took the restaurant inspection
data, filtered down to the Taco Bell
dataset, and featured that information
in a blog post, sharing it with the
community. This is something we
at the County might not have had
(Top) Tim Dupuis welcomes participants to an acApps challenge. (Bottom) Tim
Dupuis poses with the winners of the challenge after presenting the prize check
of $3,000.
the time or bandwidth to do, so we
focus on delivering the data to the
community to examine in a way that
is interesting to them.” Muranishi
echoes the enthusiasm for the data
portal and explains how it led to the
idea that would revolutionize the
ways in which the County interacts
with its citizens. “The way the portal
was set up opened our eyes to how
we could use it,” she says. “We had all
this data that was of interest to our
citizens. We examined the priorities
for our open data initiative and our
next step was clear: it was time to run
our first hackathon.”
APPS CHALLENGES
Each Apps Challenge is a one-day
hackathon where teams
are formed to create apps from
Alameda County data. Dupuis and
his team invite participation from
residents of all skill levels and age
The first Apps Challenge was phenomenally
successful. The event was held at Castro Valley
Library in late 2012 and had more than 120
participants.
groups, include professional and
novice developers, high school and
college students, senior citizens,
and anyone with a passion for civic
engagement, regardless of technical
background. After a brief overview
and a couple of keynote addresses
from the sponsoring board member
and a County representative, the
attendees form teams based on interest
specified as part of the registration
process, as well as a brief “idea pitch”
session. The first Apps Challenge was
phenomenally successful. The event
was held at Castro Valley Library
in late 2012 and had more than
120 participants. “It was a learning
experience for us,” says Dupuis.
“The outcome was tremendous. We
had about 25 app ideas at the end of
the day.” The winning app was AC
BookIt!, a clever mobile app that
allows users to use their smartphones
to scan the UPC code on any book to
find out if that book was available in
the Alameda County library system.
Users can connect their library card
to the app and, if the book is available,
the app will reserve it and give driving
directions to the library branch
holding it. “They were able to create
this app in a day and it’s now available
for download in the iTunes app
store,” says Dupuis proudly. A team
of students from Castro Valley High
School (CVHS) developed the second
place app, ACPR Finder. “They took
our park data and created a website
that allows you to filter different
criteria,” Dupuis explains. “Do you
want to walk your dog? Have a fire
pit? Play volleyball? Their app filters
your interests and locates the best park
and provides driving directions.” The
Apps Challenges allow the County to
promote its open data. But more than
that, they provide a venue to meet the
youth of the community and show
them what their government does,
while inviting them to apply their
skills to benefit the entire community.
Dupuis and his team held the second
Apps Challenge in the spring of 2013
and the third in the beginning of
May 2014.
RETHINK AC
In today’s world of technology,
hackathons are a popular way to drive
innovation. What’s unique about
Alameda County is the dedication to
collaborate not only with residents,
but also with County employees. Once
Muranishi and Dupuis saw the success
of the Apps Challenges, they knew they
could leverage that formula within
the walls of the County. “It just made
sense to do the same thing internally,”
Socrata Product Lead Clint Tseng presents at an apps challenge. Many Socrata
developers, engineers, and other team members travel all over the country to
support local hackathons and events.

SMARTER GOVERNMENT
(Opposite page) A group of students
presents an app idea to the audience of
the Apps Challenge. (This page) Apps
Challenge attendees work on their
app idea.
ALL ABOUT THE YOUTH
One common driver of the
programs in Alameda County is the
commitment to youth engagement.
From the YLA and Apps Challenges,
to a program called New Beginnings
that focuses on job training for youth
in the foster care system, the County
is dedicated to teaching young citizens
how to be civic engagement superstars.
“It’s natural for us to involve our youth
in open data because they are tech-savvy,”
says Muranishi. “Many know
how to code and they are all quite
creative. We have plans to connect
with other groups, such as Black Girls
of government, including it as
part of both the Youth and Adult
Leadership Academies. The Youth
and Adult Leadership Academies are
programs that give county residents
of all ages the opportunity to learn
about and discuss County programs
and services. The Youth Leadership
Academy (YLA) in particular also
helps develop leadership skills and
meet other students throughout
the County. It is an award-winning
program. Both academies now
conclude with a mini-hackathon
session in which participants are
given a flipchart and 45 minutes to
create an app idea on which they give
a three-minute presentation. Teams
have even been known to create mobile
screen mockups to include in their
presentations.
their own operating needs,” she says.
Eighteen app ideas came out of the
event. The County has already begun
developing one, a calendar mobile
app that gives public employees a
central location to learn about County
events. Employees originally had to
go to specific areas of the website to
find events. This app allows them to
see all events in one place, improving
efficiency. “What I liked with the
internal event is that it allowed a
dialogue between employees and
department heads to share ideas,” says
Dupuis. “It gave us the opportunity to
encourage and recognize the creativity
and energy our employees have around
their work.”
Muranishi and Dupuis have brought
the hackathon model to other areas
says Muranishi. “We have more than
9,000 employees -- what better way to
get people engaged across departments
and see what their ideas are? For
Rethink AC, we focus on collaboration
and invite people from different
departments to work together.” The
event is limited to 100 people and
the first one happened in September
2013, with attendees representing a
broad cross-section of all departments.
Rethink AC is run just like the Apps
Challenges. Muranishi remarks on the
different perspective County employees
are able to bring to the table. “We’ve
been focused on government efficiency
and transparency. Our employees came
up with fabulous ideas because they
work within the government, know the
information clients and constituents
are looking for, and understand
Alameda County has been awarded and
recognized by several organizations for
its innovation and dedication to civic
engagement.
AWARDS
2013 Driving Digital Government – County
Government
Center for Digital Government
2013 Merit Award Recipient for Alameda County
Data Sharing Initiative
California State Association of Counties (CSAC)
2013 Best of the Web Award – 1st Place, County
Portal Category
Center for Digital Government
RECOGNITION
2013 Spotlight on Large Urban Counties –
Leadership in Action - Technology
National Association of Counties (NACO Large Urban
County Caucus (LUCC)
2014 Public CIO Magazine, A Visual Tour of a
Winning Website
Government Technology
2013 Apps Challenges and Citizen Engagement
Silicon Valley Leadership Group

6PROCESSES
REPLACED
BY OPEN
DATA
Open data promises to put public information to work,
mostly through apps for easier parking, permitting,
healthcare access, and more. What does all of this
convenience mean for those working in government?
In many government agencies, embracing open data
has led to the automation of processes that once
consumed thousands of staff hours and millions of tax
dollars. The following is a quick tour of some of the
processes replaced by open data. By Bridget Quigg
Code, Techbridge, and others working
with youth to help develop job skills
and training.” To further this mission,
the County has a strong internship
program. Recent summer interns were
found via the first Apps Challenge.
The team of CVHS students who
created the ACPR Finder app enjoyed
the process of learning about what
happens at the county level so much
that they became interns. “We have
To anyone newer to the open data movement,
or just beginning to lay the groundwork of an
open data initiative, Alameda County serves as
the gold standard of how to be phenomenally
effective in a very short amount of time.
a shuttle bus for our employees that
serves the public as well,” says Dupuis.
“Originally, the shuttle schedule was
one sheet of paper. The interns were
tasked with creating a mobile friendly
website of that schedule paper. They
went above and beyond with this
project. They tied it in with Google
Maps Street View and with the Google
routing system so users can figure out
their exact route. It combined a multi-mobile
system.” Dupuis and his team
work closely with interns, teaching
them good coding practice, how
to create an enterprise system, and
even how to market their ideas, share
vision, and get department buy-in. “As
a result of his internship, one of the
youth declared his major as computer
science. His work with the County had
an impact on his entire education and
future career,” says Dupuis.
1. BUDGET REPORTING
Raleigh, North Carolina knows its
citizens will ask for information about
how tax dollars are spent. That is why
you can go to its open data portal,
data.raleighnc.gov, and find budget
data in dynamic spreadsheets for the
current and past fiscal years. The City
also offers 140 visualizations of the
data, addressing typical questions and
requests for information from citizens.
And, these charts and graphs are
automatically updated each time the
budget numbers change.
“[Open data is] a productivity tool for
us so we don’t have to have a human
being at the end of every question or
every request for information,” says
Gail Roper, Chief Information and
Community Relations Officer for
Raleigh. “It benefits the taxpayers that
LIGHTNING FAST INNOVATION
People often assume it takes years to
see this amount of success from an
open data program. Alameda County
proves that innovation, dedication,
and collaboration drive success, not
years. The County launched its open
data portal in July of 2012, just under
two years ago. In that short amount
of time, the hard work of Muranishi,
Dupuis, and team has driven the
entire County forward, setting it apart
as a leading innovator and thought-leader
within the United States. The
County’s success is on par with New
York City and Chicago and has earned
recognition, accolades, and numerous
awards. [See sidebar]Dupuis has been
recognized by the California County
Information Services Directors
Association (CCISDA). He and his
team have developed a white paper
on how to run a successful hackathon
and Dupuis has been asked to present
at the next CCISDA conference. To
demonstrate his knowledge, Dupuis
will be running a mini-hackathon at
the conference. For now, Muranishi
and Dupuis remained focused
on learning more about how new
technologies can serve County
residents. They’ve learned the ropes
of social media, leveraging Facebook
for event promotion, Twitter for live-tweeting
hackathons, and Pinterest
to curate all the ideas that are born of
these events. Dupuis even has Google
Glass and is already identifying ways
in which wearable tech will impact
the landscape of government work.
To anyone newer to the open data
movement, or just beginning to lay
the groundwork of an open data
initiative, Alameda County serves
as the gold standard of how to be
phenomenally effective in a very
short amount of time. In the spirit of
collaboration, Muranishi and Dupuis
share their advice to those who are
taking their first steps into open data.
“It’s a matter of being committed
and open to innovation and change”
says Muranishi. “Alameda County is
fortunate because we have executive
buy-in. Our leaders have embraced
open data and encourage us to push
the envelope in regards to government
transparency. It’s a priority for us to
engage with all of our stakeholders
including our constituents, clients,
and community. The open data
initiative is a win-win for us – the
community has access to our data
and we, in turn, have engaged and
encouraged them to use that data to
help the County improve services
and be more efficient and effective,”
she says. Dupuis agrees. “Having
that leadership support opens up
the opportunities for our team to be
creative. We know we have to do this
because our leaders are asking us to
do this. We have the opportunity to
be creative, learn new things, and it’s
worked out to be a catalyst for new
ideas as a whole.”

we’re not having to provide staffing
at a level we’ve had to in the past
because of the technology.” Other
cities are either developing or already
using real-time budgeting apps, like
New York City’s Checkbook NYC 2.0
application or Boston’s CheckBook
Explorer.
Raleigh’s “Citizen Experience” Goals:
Listen to Raleigh, NC’s Gail Roper talk
about her vision of 24/7 self-service
government.
2. CAMPAIGN FINANCE
REPORTING
Before the City and County of San
Francisco (CCSF) launched an open
data portal in 2012, its leadership
promoted the idea that the portal
would be a “one-stop destination for
all approved City data.” The CCSF
Ethics Commission embraced this idea
by uploading automatically, nightly,
all campaign finance information it
received from candidates leading up to
its fall 2012 elections.
Steven Massey, Information
Technology Officer for the CCSF
Ethics Commission, not only worked
to move all campaign finance data on
to the SFCC portal, data.sfgov.org,
he had it then automatically publish
to user-friendly, embedded charts
on sfethics.org. “We’ve gotten really
good feedback from the community
about these charts, since they are
much easier to read than our PDF
financial reports. Now, when people
call in, you direct them to the site and
you’re done,” says Massey. Prior to
posting the data regularly, Massey says
the campaign finance data was most
valuable to reporters and made it into
the newspaper quite a bit. Now it’s in
demand from a broader audience of
citizens, like students and researchers.
San Francisco Saves Time:
Read the whole story the Ethic
Commission’s automation of campaign
finance data sharing.
3. SNOW PLOW UPDATES
What annual event can people in
Chicago most rely upon? The arrival of
winter snow storms. This chilly reality
makes driving extra hazardous until
snow plows appear. Since citizens have
a strong interest in snow plows and
their progress, the City decided to field
fewer phone calls and feed real-time
snow plow location updates through
their open data portal to a web and
mobile application.
Chicago has a page on its open data
portal called Chicago Shovels with
a variety of data-driven features,
like information about a mobile app
for taxi sharing called Taxi Share
Chicago and an app for finding food
and shelter called iFinditChicago.
Local civic hacking leader Derek
Eder, owner of civic app and data
visualization company DataMade,
has even created his own snow plow
tracking application using the City’s
data. “We have this website we created
called ClearStreets, which gathers GPS
data from the city about snow plows.
We plot the path of where plows have
been,” Eder explains. “You can find
out if your street has been plowed yet
and if so, when.”
4. PATENT DATA REPORTING
Peter Threlkel, Director of the
Corporation Division for the Oregon
Secretary of State, needed a way
to post data from Oregon’s small-scale
trademark program online in
a searchable database. As he says,
“People used to have to call us or
submit a public records request and
every month we’d give them a copy of
the database and all the images that
we had on CD-ROM.” Threlkel wanted
a more automated approach.
He looked at some custom solutions
from IT vendors, and one bid he
received proposed the State build a
one-off, customized $500,000 system.
That approach was too expensive for
such a small program. Fortunately,
he realized that the State’s open
data portal could host and serve the
information. As a result, the database
is now online, up-to-date, API-enabled,
and easily searchable, holding
trademark data dating back to 1920,
with Tiffany & Co.
$500,000 Saved with Open Data:
Watch our State of Oregon video case
study about moving daily request for
information to the state’s open data
portal.
5. ENVIRONMENTAL DATA
REPORTING
Many government agencies publish
annual reports. Expensive to produce,
print, and ship, these paper-based
reports are often hundreds of pages
long, take thousands of hours to
create, and are out of date by the time
they are completed.
Washington State’s Governor’s Salmon
Recovery Office (GSRO) had a report
due every two years that took six
months to produce. The data was
reported in a variety of formats and
only offered as “roll-ups” on a limited
number of species and locations. “I
wanted to move to something less
expensive, more frequently updated,
and more accessible to the public,”
says Kaleen Cottingham, Director
of the Recreation and Conservation
Office, which manages the GSRO.
By using the State’s open data portal
to host the data, the GSRO team
made the report accessible online
and created embeddable charts
and maps that could be shared and
updated automatically every time
new information came in. The
new digital report allows citizens,
students, and researchers to view
more highly-detailed, raw data by
species and tributary. The response
to the improved report has been
outstanding, including more school-aged
children looking at the data and
scientists around the world reviewing
and analyzing the data more easily.
6. FOIA REQUESTS
Chicago’s open data program predates
the majority of those in the U.S., and
has benefited from strong leadership
support from Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
As a result, the City has had the
opportunity to not only streamline
processes, but measure the results.
In a recent report “Open Data
Annual Report 2013,” the City of
Chicago announced that by making
the data available on its open data
portal, its Department of Public
Health (CDPH) has experienced a
65 percent drop in the number of
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
requests for environmental records
over a nine month period. Though
the exact numbers of staff hours and
resources saved was not reported,
this shift is clearly a time and
money saver.
Chicago’s report goes on to state
that it will continue to study which
data is most often requested via
FOIA and work to place those
datasets on the City’s open data
portal, data.cityofchicago.org.
LIMITLESS POSSIBILITIES FOR
AUTOMATION AND EFFICIENCY
Since government agencies hold so
much useful information - permit
requests, tax revenue numbers,
public pool schedules, school test
scores, crime statistics, public
parking prices, and more - millions
of citizens seek out information
from them every year. Open data
has created the opportunity to pull
that process away from the phone or
static PDF and automate it. Citizens
are empowered to use the data while
staff are free to work on other tasks
and process improvements.
What other processes have been
or should be replaced by open
data? Send your stories to
blog@socrata.com.

GROWING
CHICAGO’S OPEN
DATA ECONOMY
By Bridget Quigg
Derek Eder stays busy. In
one week he’ll work with
nonprofit groups, a city
leader on the other side of
the globe, data journalists
investigating city policy, and artists
creating installations inspired by
data. His business is booming. What’s
his specialty? Open data. Eder is
among a growing group of Chicago
developers and researchers who have
discovered new revenue streams
thanks to Chicago’s open data portal.
Some build apps, some provide policy
insights, but all of them send an
invoice when their work is done.
“The goals for our open data program
include transparency, accountability
and economic development. We like to
see businesses take the data we publish
and put it to work,” says Brenna
Berman, Commissioner and Chief
Information Officer at the Department
of Innovation and Technology for the
City of Chicago. Eder agrees. “I make
my living either developing products
with open data or teaching others
to do so. Chicago has a robust civic
hacker community and the city is very
involved in supporting it,” he says.
One of those key supporters is Tom
Schenk, Director of Analytics and
Performance Management for the City.
He’s easy to meet in person. Simply
attend one of the city’s weekly Open
Gov hack nights at startup hub 1871
and you’ll likely see him there. Schenk
was active in the local civic hacker
community before he worked for
the city. “We have the best developer

community in the country. That
community exists thanks to constant
access and clear communication
between the City and its developers.
And, Chicago is fortunate to have
strong leadership from Mayor Rahm
Emanuel,” says Schenk. He points
to Chicago’s Open Data Executive
Order signed into law in 2012 which
states, “the timely online publication
of public data will empower Chicago’s
residents...to participate in government
in a meaningful manner, to assist
in identifying possible solutions to
pressing governmental problems, and
to promote innovative strategies for
social progress and economic growth.”
“Chicago started early with a strong
commitment to open data and now
businesses and projects are emerging
that rely on machine-readable, public
data,” says Schenk.
Which ambitious companies are
putting open data to work? Find out
about five organizations that are
defining the space and the innovators
moving them forward.
1. DATAMADE
For Apps and Open Data Education
DataMade emerged out of Chicago’s
civic hacker community. In 2011,
founder Derek Eder started working
on civic technology as a volunteer for
open government and open source
technology collaborative Open City,
the group that hosts Open Gov Hack
Nights for Chicago area hackers. Some
of their most well-known and popular
apps include Chicago Lobbyists, Clear
Streets, and Second City Zoning.
In 2012, Eder started DataMade,
offering custom visualizations, civic
apps, and training for people to work
with open data. Since then, Eder has
taken on a business partner, Forest
Gregg, and hired a full time employee,
web developer Eric van Zanten.
The DataMade team only takes on
projects that hold to its “Three Os”:
open data, open source, and open
government. Eder says, “We want to
deepen and sustain the impact of civic
technology.” Their formula is working.
DataMade has about fifteen clients
right now, ranging from DePaul
University to Macoupin County, IL to
the Chicago Sun-Times. Eder says he
owes much of his success to the hard
work put in by the open data team
at the City of Chicago. He points out
that open data needs to be released by
every agency at the City of Chicago
and there has to be somebody
assigned as an open data officer for
each city agency. “The fact that the
City continues to invest in resources
and people like Tom Schenk and
his team to go out and find data to
release, and continue to maintain the
open data infrastructure, strengthens
the City’s open data portal,” Eder
says. He wants to see more companies
coming out of the open data hacking
community, turning it from “a
community of enthusiasts and people
doing this stuff part-time to people
trying to make new businesses or
doing consulting like DataMade
does,” he says.
Now that open data is Eder’s full
time gig, he spends more and more
time giving people advice on what
to do with their community to
make it more like Chicago, from a
government and policy perspective.
But, he’s not done with creating more
businesses based on open data in
Chicago. “I think there is a ton of
potential to grow something even
bigger here in Chicago,” says Eder.
“The nature of our community is an
open one. We share technology and
we share ideas. And, a lot of the stuff
that is applicable in Chicago can be
applied to other cities like New York
and vice versa.”
2. PURPLE BINDER
In Service of Others
How do caseworkers keep track of
the hundreds of services available to
their clients? Imagine a large, purple,
three-ring binder, stuffed with papers,
some dating back to the 1990s. That is
what Purple Binder founders Joseph
Flesh and Declan Frye discovered
one day and what inspired them
to find a better way to centralize
social services data. Flesh and Frye
recognized a strong need they could
build a business around. “A lot of
social workers have spent a lot of
time to gather information for their
clients. They’re excited that someone
has stepped up to put the resources
they need to serve their clients in one
place,” Flesh says. And, their work has
already pointed them towards other
opportunities, such as improving
healthcare delivery. Flesh offers the
example of a homeless man who leaves
the hospital and needs not just shelter,
but also mental health support or help
acquiring medications. “We want to
connect the worlds of healthcare and
social services. They’re part of the
same continuum of care for many
people. We’re making it much easier
for healthcare organizations to keep
patients healthy,” says Flesh.
Civic innovation enthusiasts at
the 2013 National Day of Civic
Hacking in Chicago.
We want to connect the worlds
of healthcare and social services.
They’re part of the same
continuum of care for many
people. We’re making it much
easier for healthcare organizations
to keep patients healthy.
The nature of our community
is an open one. We share
technology and we share ideas.
And, a lot of the stuff that is
applicable in Chicago can be
applied to other cities like New
York and vice versa.

Currently, Purple Binder is running
a hospital pilot at the University of
Illinois at Chicago (UIC) hospital,
and about 2500 social workers
across Chicago use their service.
They’re starting to expand outside
of Chicago with a project at the City
of Pomona, California. Frye recalls
a success story from their early
days, saying, “It was the summer of
2012, right after we’d launched. A
lot of my time was spent cold calling
caseworkers and trying to get the
word out. I called one and she said,
‘Oh, I’ve heard of Purple Binder. I
use it. Just yesterday I had a woman
in here with a newborn baby who
needed diapers. I found out that
there was a church three blocks away
giving away free diapers. I wouldn’t
have known that without Purple
Binder.’”
The company employs four people
on its core team, as well as a team
of researchers with social services
experience. And, the team is
contributing data back to the City
of Chicago about which services
are provided through which grants.
“We’re creating this data ecosystem
that is giving data back. What we
took in as grants data, we’re giving
back as services data,” says Frye.
Purple Binder is also supporting
efforts by the United Way to
standardize data used for its 211
human services hotline. When asked
how he feels about his work, Frye is
passionate. He says, “People I went to
college with are building technology
to share pictures of cupcakes. When
I talk to social workers in Chicago
and they tell me that they’ve used
Purple Binder, it’s really satisfying.”
3. ROB PARAL &
ASSOCIATES
Faster Problem Solving
Rob Paral has been in the business
of social services policy consulting
in Chicago for 15 years. But, his
career began 25 years ago. He
works primarily with governments,
philanthropic foundations, and not-for-
profits, doing demographic and
GIS work to help them understand
the populations they serve. “In
the old days, people like me wrote
30-page reports all the time, but
today things are leaning towards
apps that are user-directed and
interactive,” says Paral. The City
of Chicago is one of his clients.
Paral’s work for them has changed
since open data came along. Right
after Mayor Emanuel was elected
in 2011, Paral was hired to create a
website showing Chicago residents
where arts resources and festivals
were located in their community.
He remembers making one-off
requests, by phone and email, to
agencies for data. “Sometimes you
had to cajole the person on the
phone to give you the information,”
says Paral. Compare that to a more
recent project he’s leading for the
State of Illinois, the City of Chicago,
the United Way, and the Chicago
Community Trust. He’s creating
a map mashup to show where
human services are delivered in a
city, such as childcare, healthcare,
and domestic violence counseling.
Rather than make one-off requests
by phone for data, he’s able to use
the city’s open data portal to extract
up-to-date human service contracts
information. “For a public policy
researcher, you’re moving away from
that transactional one-off request,
agency by agency, which was very
time consuming. It could kill a
project because it took so long to
get information. Open data makes
projects more feasible. The half-life
of projects is a lot faster now,”
he says.
Paral cares about the quality
and quantity of human services
government provide. He’d love to get
his hands on even more data. “Open
data is still nascent. It needs more
government agencies to participate.
The City of Chicago is a star among
cities in the quantity, scale, and
scope of their data,” says Paral.
4. CARTOGRAFIKA
Art Made with Data
Adam Jentleson and Jose Alarcon met
at University of Illinois at Chicago
in the Urban Planning and Policy
program. They both took Geographic
Information Systems (GIS) classes
and became interested in mapping.
Before a study session in late 2011,
Alarcon showed Jentleson a framed
map of buildings in Chicago he had
created and hung on his wall. He’d
marked his building. It was art. “I
thought it was an amazing idea.
It opened up the floodgates,” says
Jentleson.
The team began making maps for
family and friends as low-cost
gifts, and soon they were getting
commissions for fresh designs from
cities as far away as Amsterdam
and Hong Kong. Jentleson and
Alarcon bring in data from various
sources, like OpenStreetMap and
city open data portals. They create
their own spatial data if a client’s
requested geographic features are
unavailable, which they eventually
intend on sharing with the open data
community. “For Chicago maps we
use a lot of the open data, specifically
the building footprints. Same goes
for other cities with portals like
New York and San Francisco,” says
Jentleson. They then use design
software to finish off the maps,
adding colors and gradients.
Once the pair completes a commission
Open data is still nascent. It needs
more government agencies to
participate. The City of Chicago is
a star among cities in the quantity,
scale, and scope of their data.
Purple Binder team members
meeting at their offices in
Chicago (left to right): Director
of User Experience Benjamin
Bertin, CTO Declan Frye, and
President Joseph Flesh.

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