There are some interesting things happening around the world, when it comes to local government opening up data for use by the general public.
In San Franciso, the city recently launched DataSF.org, a public archive of government data. Less than a month after the launch, Mayor Gavin Newsom has announced that the site will now showcase applications which manipulate that data to make it more useful and accessible to the city’s residents. Inspired by the success of Apple’s iTunes App Store and Facebook’s open developer platform (60,000 and 350,000 apps respectively), San Francisco is encouraging democratic participation by “giving residents the tools to build the kind of government that works for them.”
A number of apps are already online, with the new showcase expected to stimulate many more creations. Among those currently available, EcoFinder helps residents find out where their nearest recycling services are located, while Cabspotting—a project by the Exploratorium interactive science museum—displays a real-time map of cab locations in San Francisco.
It’s not the first step the tech-centric Bay Area has made towards ‘Gov 2.0’ (for example, they have a Twitter service for civil complaints). But this latest effort could mark the start of a sea-change in the way governments provide public information services.
New York City is also jumping on the bandwagon, and have just launched a similar concept in New York: NYC BigApps, “a software application competition to make New York City more transparent, accessible and accountable, and an easier place to live, work and play.” On offer for developers? USD 20,000 in cash prizes, plus dinner with Bloomberg. And, no doubt, some valuable media attention.
Developers can use public sets of raw data produced by city agencies, available from the newly-launched NYC Data Mine. Judges for the competition, which is taking submissions until 8 December 2009, include Fred Wilson, Esther Dyson and Jason Calcanis. No word yet on if and how the city will adopt and promote winning apps.
The open data movement in New Zealand should take heart. Perhaps Wellington, Auckland and Christchurch should be following these examples – freeing up our data and letting dedicated citizens do the hard work of turning into something useful for us and the city in general. Perhaps people such as Sam Morgan, Sam Knowles, and Richard Taylor could be persuaded to take part …
