Developers Using Government Data to Create Useful Apps

Very recently San Francisco, CA; New York, NY; and areas of Washington created contests in hopes of encouraging software developers to create applications with the data they've provided. Some are skeptical of the sudden information handover, arguing that the cities are using developers to provide citizens with services local governments should be providing themselves.

Aneesh Chopra, chief technology officer of the United States, recently implied in an interview that though this is true, it was not intentional. "We are increasingly governing in a time when the demand for services exceeds our resources," Chopra said. "If these contests spur dozens of innovative applications, then we've essentially achieved a policy objective at virtually no cost." Whether or not it is the job of our local governments to create these kinds of applications will always be contested, but one thing is certain: major cities are scrambling to get their data to the masses.

Washington was the first state to release its data, and the federal government has followed suit by creating Data.gov . That being said, it seems as if San Francisco is really pushing for more cities to release their data and has created a website of their own called DataSF : Liberating City Data, which is essentially a new Web clearinghouse that features nothing but raw government data that the public can not only view, but download as well. Some of the data featured on the website includes street sweeping schedules, seismic hazard zones, and street and campaign finance filings, among many other things. There's also New York City's Data Mine , which features property values, directories of sidewalk cafes, horseback riding trails, and historic houses, among other things.

The idea of publicizing government statistics isn't a new concept; many have been anxiously awaiting this type of access for years. As a matter of fact, requests to publicize government data go as far back as the 1960s. A lack of technology made it more difficult to disseminate this kind of information in those days, but recent technology (i.e. the Internet) has made it possible for people to use government data in ways that would have been completely impossible just a year ago, let alone forty years ago.

Much of the data being offered by cities has always been accessible to the general public, but the problem was that it was nearly impossible to find. The information, pertaining to crime, city, and pedestrian statistics, wasn't the type of data one could easily find online at a city-run website; obtaining it would have required endless phone calls, voice mails, and e-mails. The apps currently being created as a result of this information are often helpful to local residents and teach them things about their immediate area they probably wouldn't have found out otherwise.

Let's take a look at what kind of government information is being given to developers and how they've transformed a ton of otherwise boring statistics into innovative, informative, and helpful applications.