7 31 open data, open gov and community foundations

Civic data and open government: How you and your organiza6on can

get involved Susan Mernit

Community Engagement: Digital Strategies for Local Funders Workshop

July 2014

3 things we’ll talk about:

How partnerships between technologists and city, county, state and federal governments are providing greater transparency and accountability, more access to data for ci6zens, and cost-‐saving new tools.

Examples where community founda6ons have goMen involved in open government projects

Resources to use to get started 2 All rights reserved. susanmernit.com

Civic hacking, open data and Gov.2 are happening… everywhere.

All rights reserved. susanmernit.com 4

• San Francisco has the first Chief InnovaDon Officer in the country—who launched SF as an open data city

• Oakland passed a resoluDon to support data transparency in ALL departments

• Code for America, MapLight & GovFresh all started in the Bay area


Open government projects are happening all over the country, with successful ones in many places, including: • Chicago, IL • New Orleans, LA • New York, New York • Washington, DC • Raleigh, NC • Gary, IN

QuesDons to check in on before we go farther: • What is open data and open government exactly? • What’s the benefit to my organiza:on & my community to get involved?


“Transparency promotes accountability and provides informa6on for ci6zens about what their Government is doing.” -‐-‐White House


We’re talking a

“Open data is data that can be freely used, reused and redistributed by anyone – subject only, at most, to the requirement to aMribute and sharealike.”-‐-‐OpenDefini6on.org

The US Government has more than 40,000 datasets available at data.gov, and just about every state has a data repository now. Local coun6es, big ci6es and even smaller ci6es are also ge^ng involved.


Hashtags to watch for: #opengov, #opendata, #gov2.0 Related: #citycamp #github #barcamp


Open government projects oVen pair city officials with highly skilled volunteers and other community members to solve problems in ways government could not on their own.

EXAMPLE 1: Open Budget Oakland Read & understand the $1B Oakland city budget hMp://openbudgetoakland.org

Prototype: 3 days Full development: 1 year Version 2.0 underway

Who was involved? City of Oakland, Code for America, Open Oakland brigade volunteers, East Bay Economic Development Associa6on


Example 2: How’s Business Chicago from Open City Apps hMp://howsbusinesschicago.org/

This is one of several apps built by a very skilled volunteer team using city data. OpenCityApps.org hosts a weekly Open Gov hack night and creates free, Open source projects that others can implement elsewhere.


Other projects from Open City Apps include hMp://opencityapps.org/

Chicago CouncilmaDc: Interac6ve App showing what legisla6on the City Council has been passing

CAPSure: Alerts for community police Mee6ngs

2nd City Zoning: Guide to your neighborhood from a planning perspec6ve

And many more!

IMPACT: HUGE. High usage of some apps, big press awareness, lots of momentum.

hMp://www.crimeinchicago.org/

CHICAGO: “We wanted to illustrate a bigger picture out and visualize trends because crime is a social phenomenon. To understand it, you need to observe how it varies across the city and changes over 6me.”

hMp://www.donteat.at/

NEW YORK: Donteat.at parses the weekly-‐updated public data in NYC data for flagged establishments and keeps an updated list of violators users can access on their phone.

Who’s riding and where do they start?

NYC: Ci6 Bike data and gender by usage and start loca6on— NYU grad student with NYC data

NEW YORK: “32% of CiD Bike riders are women and 68% are men.”

“…Women preferred the Brooklyn residenDal neighborhoods of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill…men were overwhelmingly represented in Manhagan.” hgp://goo.gl/JqXqC6NEW

Other projects

Civic organizaDons, local government & economic development orgs are partnering with techies & the community to make change.


Community FoundaDons in some ciDes are very involved.

Hawaii Community FoundaDon and Open Data Hawaii worked together last fall To encourage ALL candidates running For Mayor to sign a pledge to vow to make Honolulu City Government transparent and to follow the prac6ces of open government.

The candidates all signed—and Open Data Hawaii says they are working with the CF to “push these ini6a6ves forward, changing policy and crea6ng opportuni6es for tomorrow’s ci6zens and entrepreneurs.”


In Oregon, the Meyer Memorial Trust, Oregon’s largest community foundaDon, built a new plalorm to connect engage ciDzens with policy & non-‐profits

For Oregon Unlimited, launched March 2013, the MMT leased a plamorm that allows complete connec6vity, community and discussion of civic projects.

They use it as both an economic development engine and a community connector. hMps://www.oregonunlimited.org


Oregon Unlimited is a follow up to Ideas4Oregon, a 2010 contest for a “million dollar” idea that got more than 200 entries and promised to spend up to $1MM to bring the best one to life.

That project was built on top of another commercial plamorm called UserVoice; they open sourced the ideas so everyone could see them (just like Knight Founda6on oqen does with their compe66ons.)

www.ideas4oregon.org/


Building a transparent process with local government & community

In South Wood County MI, the local community founda6on, IncourageCF, purchased the now-‐shuMered newspaper building and is conduc6ng a community-‐outreach process around what to do with it.

hMp://www.tribunebuilding.org/


“Managing a resident-‐centered, resident-‐led design process entrusts decision-‐making to the community and invites everyone to par6cipate. It requires more 6me, effort and resources than unilateral decision-‐making.

We’re asking community members to determine its end use. “—InCourageCF CEO

So, what’s the takeaway?


How could civic engagement processes, open data, open government and your mission in your city fit together?

Who are natural partners?

Where do you see risks & challenges?

How would you/will you address them?

Discussion


Discussion break: What kind of apps would you like to see your community build if you had access to the data and people with the skills?


How to get involved (go ahead, jump in!)

Agend a civic engagement meet-‐up, a Bar Camp, or a CFA Brigade meeDng in your town and meet folks.

Talk to your city’s IT department and lead officials about making data available in usable forms


The latest Knight Community InformaDon Challenge funded 10 civic engagement/open government projects that each involve a CF

CiDes include Lexington, KY, Chaganooga, TN, Gary, IN, Boston, MA, New Orleans, LA, and others.

Dreaming of local data……


Resources

NATIONAL Sunlight FoundaDon, hMp://sunlighmounda6on.com/ Broadly focused, na6onal non-‐profit focused on suppor6ng every aspect of government transparency.

Code for America, hMp://codeforamerica.org The “peace core” for open government tech, having a huge impact through fellows’ programs, support for city government projects, and volunteer brigades.

Business case for open data hMp://project-‐open-‐data.github.io/business-‐case/

City Camp: hMp://citycamp.govfresh.com/ How to start a City Camp and how to affiliate.


Learning & Tools NaDonal Network Indicators Project, hMp://www.neighborhoodindicators.org/ Long-‐established network of data-‐driven non-‐profits using local data and analy6cs for policy planning and program development.

Open Government stories on GitHub, hMp://government.github.com/ Space to share and read stories about #opengov and #open data projects

Civic Hacking in Pursuit of Democracy hMp://goo.gl/vupcnX

Open government: Data of the people, for the people | McKinsey & Company hMp://bit.ly/1k2COyk

VIDEO RESOURCES—FOR SHARING Jennifer Pahlka: Coding a beger government hMp://goo.gl/LTHzwB

How City of Chicago uses open standards and predicDve analyDcs for innovaDve urban management hMp://bit.ly/UvOWvU

The open data movement in California: hMps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuQVoDpFR84

Let me know how it goes! Susan Mernit, [email protected]

Technology

7 31 open data, open gov and community foundations