NY Times - Local Governments Offer Data to Software Tinkerers

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Local Governments Offer Data to Software Tinkerers 

By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER

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.

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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
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