open data

Here's a bit of open data news.

Gov 2.0 advocates have been working on a ditigal version of the city's Public Data Directory, which compiles all public "computerized information" produced or maintained by city agencies. 

As Tom Lowenhaupt of Connecting.nyc explains, voters approved a city charter amendment to create the directory in 1988. But only one edition was ever published, and that was back in 1993.

1993 NYC Public Data Directory

So, Mr. Lowenhaupt writes, "In recent weeks we’ve been working with the NYC Open Government Coalition to help make a digital version of the paper Directory available. The thinking is that many of the databases still exist and that this will be a starting point for a more robust detailing of current city databases."

Here's a bit from Transparency Corps, which is spearheading the effort:

via topplabs.org/civichacker

Amid the ongoing controversy over the M.T.A.'s attempt to block a local blogger's iPhone application for Metro North train schedules, members of The Open Planning Project on Tuesday evening held a New York Public Transit Summit to discuss forging "a positive, mutually beneficial relationship between the M.T.A. and the wider New York development community."

We couldn't make it to the event, but TOPP's Civic Hacker blog has a recap. Apparently there were more than two dozen "transit advocates, mobile and web developers, urban planners, lawyers, and open government supporters" in attendance. No M.T.A. reps showed, although they did give the group a statement on the agency's current licensing policies.

If you're curious about some of the specific topics that were addressed, the group has set up a wiki. They've also taken the issue over to Twitter via the #nytransit hash tag.

When we last checked in on the city's Gov 2.0 movement, the tech community was talking about rallying around Mayor Bloomberg's Big Apps contest, which will open up certain city data sets for programmers to create Web applications out of.

The first step of the contest, which is being administered by the NYC Economic Development Corporation, is a request for expressions of interest to determine what data the city decides to release:

Respondents to this RFEI are requested to submit written descriptions of City-related data they would like to see made public. These descriptions should provide as much detail as possible about the type and level of data desired. In addition, respondents are requested to describe how they envision the data being used in software applications that provide a useful service to City residents, visitors and government. The information gathered from this RFEI will be used to help the City decide how to prioritize the release of City data to the public in a format easily utilized by application developers. City data will be released or reformatted in connection with a related software application competition where contestants will develop applications that make it easier to live, work and play in New York City.

To help people navigate this process, a few members of the OpenGovNYC meetup will be hosting BigAppsDevCamp the next two Saturdays, Aug. 15 and 22.

Topics covered will include:

Brewer.

On Monday, June 29, a few hours before Gale Brewer was to attend the first City Council hearing on her sweeping open-data legislation, Mayor Michael Bloomberg unveiled a similar initiative during his live-Skyped keynote speech at the Personal Democracy Forum Conference—a contest called Big Apps, which is challenging software developers to create innovative Web applications out of data sets the city would make available in a programming-friendly format.

The announcement came as a surprise to Ms. Brewer, who said she had no knowledge of the mayor’s plans, and it seemed to overshadow her own proposal, which, unlike Big Apps, would open up all of the city’s public data to programmers and compile it on a single Web site. (The inaugural Big Apps would open up about 80 data sets based on “expressions of interest” submitted to the New York City Economic Development Corporation, which is administering the contest.)

As it turns out, the Bloomberg administration isn’t keen on Ms. Brewer’s bill. At the hearing that day, two administration officials testified that complying with the legislation would be burdensome and expensive—around $500 million, they said.

But Ms. Brewer, who chairs the Council’s Technology in Government Committee, is forging ahead. She stopped by the monthly OpenGovNYC meet-up at the downtown co-working space New Work City on Monday night, July 27, to give an update on where the legislation stands.

Getty Images

Public Advocate candidate (and former two-term Public Advocate) Mark Green is jumping on the bandwagon with his his latest policy paper, “Government 2.0: New Technology for a New Democracy," the proposals of which generally fall in line with the good government initiatives—like open data, open 311 and universal broadband—being pushed by the city's tech community and certain elected officials.

The document includes 30 proposals for using "new technology to make government more accessible, transparent, participatory and collaborative," according to a press release sent out this afternoon.

We'll have an update on the city's open government movement later today or tomorrow, with reporting from Monday night's OpenGovNYC meetup. But in the meantime, you can read Mr. Green's full Gov 2.0 report here, or check out a few highlights after the jump.

If you’re familiar with Wikipedia, you probably know that it’s a free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit. 

But perhaps you've given less thought to the complex and evolving set of rules and best practices, upheld by a core community of a few hundred "Wikipedians," that's behind the Web site's seemingly anarchic user-generated content and editing.

Here in New York, our city government recently started to open up, so we may have something to learn from these Wiki-gurus--that's why the timing of this weekend's first ever Wiki Conference at New York University seems particularly apt.

M.Studio

Rendering of a forthcoming green
hotel at 100 Varick Street.

Two topics we've been following lately are open data and green buildings. Admittedly, we hadn't given any thought to how these topics intersect. But Bomee Jung, founder of GreenHomeNYC, has. A Web developer turned green affordable housing activist, Ms. Jung has contributed a lengthy piece on this topic to the Web site of The Sallan Foundation, a green think tank.

"Two transformative movements of our time are poised to slam together into a concoction no less delightful than the Peanut Butter Cup (particularly to green enthusiasts of geekly tendencies): the Open Data movement and high-performance green building," she writes.

Ms. Jung's analysis becomes fairly dense and, perhaps, difficult to follow at times, but her argument seems to boil down to the idea that if there was more data out there on green buildings, more green buildings would be built.

For instance, publicly available energy performance data could be used to verify performance claims:

The official way to suggest what data the city should open up for its Big Apps contest is by responding to a Request for Expression of Interest that was issued through the NYC Economic Development Corporation.

But developers have set up a forum on D.C.'s Apps for Democracy Web site to start collecting, tracking and rating ideas for New York City data applications.

So far, the top-rated idea is to build a subway car tracking system for smart phones, although, as Philip Ashlock of The Open Planning Project points out in the comments section: "I don't think the city has the ability to release MTA data since the MTA is a state run agency." In second place is a proposal for a mobile SMS crime reporting application, and in third place a proposed free-WiFi map of the five boroughs.

See the full list after the jump.

Open data has been a hot topic this week, with Mayor Michael Bloomberg's announcement of the Big Apps contest at PdF on Monday, and a Council hearing that same day on Gale Brewer's proposed legislation to make all city data available in a raw, development-friendly format.

Azi Paybarah reported from the hearing, where it became apparent that the Bloomberg administration "disagrees pretty strongly" with Ms. Brewer's bill, citing concerns over cost.

But if you're interested in seeing how the hearing went for yourself, NYFi reader Joly MacFie has posted video of the entire thing on YouTube. Here's part one:

And you can find the rest here.

openplanningproject.org

Streetsblog's Aaron Naparstek.

At the end of day one of the Personal Democracy Forum Conference, as the majority of attendees mingled with beer and wine in hand during a post-conference cocktail hour, a group of about 20 good-government advocates, Web developers and general techie types gathered for a special session called Hacking the City.

According to the conference materials, the purpose of the event—which was something of a local supplement to the more nationally focused panels that had been taking place all day—was to discuss “how online journalism, advocacy and community-building tools are being used to hack the urban political machine, rewrite city government's operating system and transform city dwellers' relationship to their local politics in New York.”

The conversation was led by members of The Open Planning Project, DIYcity founder John Geraci, and Streetsblog editor-in-chief Aaron Naparstek, who began by opening up the floor to thoughts on Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s announcement earlier in the day of a new contest for Web developers to design online and mobile applications out of city data, which will soon be made available in a programming-friendly format ("opened up").

The contest, called Big Apps, takes a cue from Washington D.C.’s Apps For Democracy challenge, Mr. Naparstek noted. But, he asked, “What can we do” with city data here in New York City?