Techies Push for Open 311

On March 8, Council Speaker Christine Quinn proposed creating a mobile application for the city's 311 information line. That way, if someone was trying to find out where the nearest library is or if his car got towed, instead of actually having to speak with an operator—a quaint and perhaps annoying step in the age of smart phones—his handheld device could just pull up the the same information that 311's call center reps would access from their database.

"You look around New York on the subway, on the ferry, you see almost everybody with some kind of hand-held device, an iPhone, a Blackberry, " Ms. Quinn told the Daily News. "The idea here is to keep growing as technology expands to be more efficient."

But members of the city's tech community want to take that idea a step further. They're proposing an Open 311 system in which the city would free up its 311 data to programmers who could develop savvy custom Web applications out of it.

"It's a hot issue right now," said Matt Cooperrider, organizer of the OpenGovNYC meetup. "And it's one that everyone can agree on, and everyone thinks it's sort of silly that it hasn't been done yet,"

Mayor Michael Bloomberg launched 311 in 2003 as a non-emergency call center for questions about everything from pot holes to human services. If New York adopted an Open 311 system, it would join Washington D.C. as one of the first American cities to do so. 

Sources said Open 311 appeared on their radar following Ms. Quinn's handheld 311 announcement back in March. But the conversation about Open 311 has picked up speed in the past month.

The most recent OpenGov meetup on May 4 focused on getting an Open 311 data policy written and passed. The following morning, Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures posted a highly trafficked item on his blog promoting the same idea. Then, Mr. Wilson's friend John Geraci, who's also been working on an Open 311 plan, took the discussion over to his Web site DIYcity, where he encouraged commenters to offer up ideas about what an Open 311 system might look like and how it could improve the city.

Last week, Mr. Geraci sent a letter to the mayor's office with the goal of setting up a meeting about Open 311 with members of Mr. Bloomberg's staff. He wrote:

Now is the time to transform 311 into a tool of even greater value, for use by elected officials, policy makers, local leaders, and everyday New Yorkers by allowing any and all software developers to freely access, work with and build web applications based on the data contained in the system. Such a transformation can be realized by implementing a simple Open 311 System for the City of New York.

The vision for Open 311 is a system which would allow the public to build applications that will transform the City's 311 data into all kinds of useful tools and information flows that can be used by government officials and citizens alike. We see Open 311 as the next frontier of transparency, accountability and civic engagement between local government and citizens. With a new political attitude toward openness at the federal level and a large creative class of technologically savvy City residents, your administration is poised to lead the country in this effort at the local level.

You can read the full letter here, but some of the examples Mr. Geraci highlighted about what sort of applications could be built on Open 311 include:

• A mapping system that allows anyone to see at a glance where the current live issues are, broken down by neighborhood, topic, date of submission, or any other criteria
• An early warning system that allows anyone to see, in real time, what issues people are reporting to 311 in aggregate
• An email alert, update and comment system that allows anyone to track a particular issue and give input on it
• A smart phone application that allows anyone to easily report new issues to 311 with their device’s camera and GPS system

In a phone interview, Mr. Geraci said the city wouldn't be expected to fund the development of 311 apps since there is an existing community of "enthusiasts who would just do it for free because they love this sort of thing." The technology required to open up 311 data to programmers could be developed in a matter of weeks, he added, speculating that the "bigger hurdles" would be dealing with potential legal issues and security concerns. But he stressed that the idea is to only open up data that could already be accessed by calling 311, rather than information that might be considered "sensitive."

"It would only create more inputs and outputs for people who want to do good things for the city," he said. "I think it's a natural step that needs to happen."

We put a call out to the mayor's office seeking comment on the possibility of opening up New York's 311 data. Nick Sbordone, a spokesman for the city's Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, got back to us to say: "We are very much supportive of it. We think it conforms fully with the mayor's ideas of a transparent government, so much so that we're already working to determine our next steps."

It's hard to say for sure how Mr. Bloomberg himself would feel about it, but his quote in the Daily News item we cited above seems to offer a clue.

"You know 311 is a great thing," he said. "It works, but that doesn't mean you can't make it better."