Open Data

ITBLG

January 16, 2015

Performance & Analytics Department

Today, Our Data Is...

• Closed
• Misunderstood
• Hard to find
• Unknown
• Scattered

Open Data is...

• Accessible
• Described
• Reusable
• Timely
• Complete

As a San Diegan,

Open Data Lets Me...

• Engage with my government.
• Find the information I need.
• Learn where I can open my business.
• Avoid construction in my commute.
• Find things going on this week.
• Learn about where I live.
• Build applications to help my neighbors.
• Find support services when I'm in need.

Hmm, OK.  As a director,

Why do I care?

• Improved decision making
• Decrease in PRA requests
• Streamline PRA response process
• Get data from other departments quicker
• Shine a spotlight.
• Standardization
• Increase your employees innovation

An Example

Let's Visualize Budget Data

As an interactive chart

Today...

• Download PDF
• Download Tabula
• Download Java
• Extract Page #5
• Run Tabula
• Select and Extract Table Data
• Import into Excel
• Fix headers
• Paste into viz tool
• Visualize

Total Time: 1 Hour

Tomorrow

• Copy
• Paste

Total Time: 2 Minutes

The Goal

• Automatic

Total Time: 0.003 Seconds (probably less)

Less Effort.

Same Result.

Multiplied

Open Data Policy

• Proposed Open Data Policy:

  • Draws on other existing policies.

  • Defines terms, making sure data meets "open criteria"

  • Assigns responsibilities to Chief Data Officer and to City Departments

  • Sets timeline 

  • Includes reporting requirements to Mayor and Council

Past | Present | Future

Open Data's Timeline is Open Data

OK. Open Data is Awesome.

What can I do?!?!?

• Information Coordinators
• Begin thinking of our data as a valuable asset.
• Open-Data Friendly Technology Decisions.
  • Can data be easily extracted out of this tool?
  • Does this tool expose its data in a re-usable and open format?
  • Who owns the data in this tool? Us or the vendor?
  • Call Maksim!

This Presentation

Is Open!

http://bit.ly/sdoditblg

See it in the privacy of your office

Or send it to a friend

And We're Just Starting Out

Keep In Touch!

http://github.com/cityofsandiego

maksimp@sandiego.gov

Let's Do

Something

AWESOME

Together!