Local Governments Offer Data to Software Tinkerers
NYTimes
Published: December 6, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO — A big pile of city crime reports is not all that
useful. But what if you could combine that data with information on
bars, sidewalks and subway stations to find the safest route home after
a night out?
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Daniel Rosenbaum for The New York Times
Stamen Design put together the San Francisco Crimespotting site using information from the city's police department.
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DC Bikes, which shows bike paths in the Washington area, and Stumble
Safely, which shows the safest way to get home from bars at night
there, were both developed using government data.
In Washington, a Web site called Stumble Safely
makes that possible. It is one example of the kind of creativity that
cities are hoping to mobilize by turning over big chunks of data to
programmers and the public.
Many local governments are figuring
out how to use the Internet to make government data more accessible.
The goal is to spawn useful Web sites and mobile applications — and
perhaps even have people think differently about their city and its
government.
....
read rest here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/07/technology/internet/07cities.html?_r=1&ref=us
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Tracey P. Lauriault
613-234-2805
https://gcrc.carleton.ca/confluence/display/GCRCWEB/Lauriault