Open Data Success Requires Streamlining and Standardization

"On President Obama's first day in office, he signed the Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government -- a movement that already has transformed the way government and citizens communicate with one another. Shared government data sets present unlimited opportunity, said Yo Yoshida, CEO of the mobile commerce company Appallicious. But to really break open the potential of open data, streamlining and standardizing the data is key.  'We haven’t begun to see the boundaries,' he said. 'The public has very limited resources or access to government. Bringing that to the fingertips of people who are using this daily is creating a conversation and communication lines that weren’t there before.'  Making the data that government collects useful to citizens is more complex than one might initially think — it's not as simple as handing an Excel document to an application developer.  National data standardization has yet to be established, so each city — and the various departments within cities — are using and tracking data differently. When companies, such as Appallicious, use government data to create applications for public use, they must determine how the data set is being used and how it can be imported.  In San Francisco, Chief Innovation Officer Jay Nath said the city is working with civic startup Socrata to leverage its open data products, ensuring that application developers can access data in multiple formats, such as CSV, XML or JSON. 'Our goal is to reduce friction,' Nath said, 'so developers can focus on creating useful applications.'  San Francisco also is taking steps to establish open data standards. It led the effort to develop an application program interface for Open311. The application, now in more than 40 cities internationally, allows someone using a mobile device or computer to input information about a public service problem at a given location. This report is routed to the appropriate department, which can address the issue, and the information is available for anyone to access and contribute additional detail.  In the same vein, San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee recently announced the city’s collaboration with Yelp to create an open data standard for restaurant hygiene scores. Called Local Inspector Value-entry Specification (LIVES), it allows municipalities to publish restaurant inspection information directly to a restaurant's Yelp page. 'I see a future where more and more companies partner with cities on developing open data standards and new solutions,' Nath said. 'Through several hackathons, we’ve gathered hundreds of citizens to engage deeply with government in creating new solutions. We continue to grow our community and partners, and are excited to take open data to the next level with our proposed open data legislation.'  Part of the revision to San Francisco’s 2009 open data legislation would require each city department to identify an open data coordinator to establish plans, create implementation timelines and begin itemizing data collected. The creation of these positions would support companies, like the team at Appallicious, by providing data sets that are ready for use.  As a result of streamlined open data, Nath said he envisions applications that mash up data from multiple public and private sources to create a seamless experience..."