“New York has become the epicenter for many experiments in governance,” writes Alex Howard in the O’Reilly Radar. “From citizensourcing smarter government to participatory budgeting to embracing a broader future as a data platform.”
The O’Reilly article discusses the way in which New York is opening up its wealth of data to outside developers – and how those partnerships are revolutionizing the way that government works. The article quotes a speech by Rachel Sterne, New York’s Chief Digital Officer, who considers how outside apps can help make life-saving data more easily available.
Sterne says,
How can New York City, with all of the enormous amount of data and resources that we have, think of itself the same way Facebook has an API ecosystem or Twitter does? This can enable us to produce a more user-centric experience of government. It democratizes the exchange of information and services.Sterne goes on to explain how the city’s disaster preparedness around Hurricane Irene created a test case for opening up city data to outside developers. As New Yorkers prepared for an unexpected class two hurricane, people weren’t sure if they were part of the evacuation zone, and didn’t know what measures they should take to stay safe. The city had a map of where the evacuation zones were, but not many people knew about it.
In response, outside organizations developed resources that used the city’s information, but innovated their own ways to make it more accessible. As the Radar article elaborates:
The experience in NYC during Hurricane Irene “once again proved the utility and importance of open data and the NYC DataMine, as several organizations used OEM’s Hurricane Evacuation Zone geographic data to build maps that served and informed the public,” Sterne told me via email. “This data has been public for over a year. Parties developing tools built on city platforms included WNYC, NYTimes, Google, Mobile Commons and Crisis Commons. NYC Digital was also in regular contact with these parties to alert them of information changes.” … When NYC.gov buckled under heavy traffic, the city government turned to the Internet to share important resources. “As long as the right information was getting to citizens, that’s all that matters,” said Sterne…. “It’s OK if it’s decentralized, as long as the reach is being expanded.”As Sterne mentioned, our customer WNYC was one of the leaders in developing applications to disseminate information about the hurricane. Just a few examples included a keyword that let users text in their address to find which evacuation zone they were in, and a map, in partnership with the New York Times, that let New Yorkers text in signs of the city’s preparedness. (One example: “Over 50 conEd vehicles parked in union square”
New York City actually ended up being largely spared by Hurricane Irene. But it served as an exciting test case for how new technology, combined with government openness, can improve the lives of citizens.