Open Data Overview

Maksim Pecherskiy

Performance & Analytics Department

Who Is This Guy?

• Chief Data Officer, City of San Diego
• Performance & Analytics Department
• Lots of years doing software engineering
• Worked in Puerto Rico through Code for America
• Saw how powerful data can be when used inside government

San Diego

Open Data Policy

• Passed December 2014.
• Mayor strong support.
• Council strong support.

• 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

Let's Talk About Data

State of Data SD, 2015

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

State of Data, SD, 2015

• PRA Nightmares
• Misinterpretation
• Slowdowns
• Lack of Innovation
• Frustration

And How It Feels to Work With It

• 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

• Accessible
• Described
• Reusable
• Timely
• Complete
• Treated like asset
• Centralized
• Machine Readable

Where we can be

• Efficient PRA
• No Re-Work
• Innovation
• Empowerment
• Efficiency
• Engaged Citizens
• Minimized Misinterpretation
• Reliability
• Data Usage for decisions
• Cool apps!

"Open data is not just about putting spreadsheets on the internet.

It means being deliberate and thoughtful about what is released, how it's released, and how it's described. 

Treating data like an asset and releasing it properly goes directly hand-in-hand with making sure that it's secure and mitigating opportunities for misuse"

We Can go From This

To This

San Diego

Can Be A Leader

In This Space

What is [Open] Data?

What is Data?

"Data is something you can take, and do something else with."

(Besides print it or send it in an e-mail).

NOT Data

Data

Open Data

Open Data is

Data in an Open Machine Readable Format

• CSV (not XLS)
• ShapeFiles
• GeoJSON
• iCal
• JSON
• XML
• API

Data

Not Beautiful

[Open] Data is Not

A Website

A Dashboard or Chart

A Map

A PDF / Mobile App or E-Mail

But It Can Enable Them

Data

OR

OR

Data MUST be able to be separated from how it's shown or used in order for it to have value beyond what the visualization / tool intended

So... What do you do all day?

• Created by Mayor Faulconer in FY 2015
• Empower employees through initiatives that reward good ideas for operational improvements
• ​Facilitate data driven decisions
• Develop performance to increase accountability and transparency to the public
• Strategic planning
• Open Data ties in with a lot of that
• Recently launched http://budget.sandiego.gov

Performance & Analytics

• Work with coordinators across 35 departments to compile an initial data inventory.
• Prepare report to Mayor / Council about inventory.
• Technical Guidelines - how do we manage data & open data within the city?
  • Roles
  • Classification
  • Metadata
  • PII
  • Integration
  • Prioritization Plan
  • Publishing process
  • ...
• Work with P&A to facilitate data driven decisions, innovation.
• Engaging with the community to create joint understanding of city operations.

What I'm Doing Now

• Setting up the groundwork for open data in the city.
• Educating various people in the city about open data.
• Building relationships
• Writing guidelines and policies.
• Getting an overview of what data we have.
• Working with the community to create joint understanding of city ops.

What I want more of

• Community education on making open data actionable.
• Engaging non-technical communities in open data initiatives.
• Building great open-data based applications!
• Events, conferences, projects, activities with city's data!

What I want more of

• Community education on making open data actionable.
• Engaging non-technical communities in open data initiatives.
• Building great open-data based applications!
• Events, conferences, projects, activities with city's data!

I want your help!

Why do I care?

• Build some cool things that actually improve lives of people around you.
• Learn some new things.
• Boost your skills.
• Meet some really smart and fun people.
• Learn how your government works.

How?

• You're already here -> WIN!!!!
• Go to an Open San Diego Meetup:
  • http://www.meetup.com/Open-San-Diego/
• Get in touch with me!

See this

presentation Online!

Presentation: http://sdgo.io/ndoch-pres

Let's Do

Something

AWESOME

Together!

maksimp@sandiego.gov

@MrMaksimize