Alex Howard

I first met Alex Howard in Los Angeles at Gov20LA a few years ago. This was shortly before he joined O’Reilly Media as its Washington correspondent covering the open government/Gov 2.0 beat.

Since then, he has covered every inch of open government, from open source to open data and everything in between, in a way that has been key to maintaining its relevance over the past three years.

Alex is passionate about his craft and his prolificness is its byproduct.

Yesterday, as I stepped off the plane in SFO, I saw this tweet from him that caused me to reflect on not only his work but the open government movement as it’s progressed since we first met:

Personal news: today was my last day at @oreillymedia. It’s been an amazing 3 years, thanks to @timoreilly & all of my wonderful colleagues.

— Alex Howard (@digiphile) May 2, 2013

When I saw it, I was happy for him for moving on to what I assume is a great opportunity to continue his rise to journalistic stardom. Seeing it also reminded me of the great work he’s done and the important role he’s played in fostering open government’s adoption.

For those paying attention to this space three years ago, we would have never imagined the progress that’s been made since, and Alex has been a tremendous part of facilitating that.

I don’t know what his future plans are, but I’m sure he’ll play an active role in continuing to share the work of civic technologists everywhere. Like many in this community, it’s not just a job for Alex. It’s the way he sees the world.

I just wanted to take a moment and this space to thank him for all his work. Despite living on opposite coasts, I’ve had the pleasure of spending many hours talking with him about this stuff, and I hope to continue that conversation as we watch him rise to the top in his next endeavor.

This animation visualizes one week’s worth of turnstile data for the New York City Subway. The MTA compiles data weekly and makes it available here.

The data is far from usable in its raw format, and is broken into week-long chunks for a specific control area and also includes running counts for a turnstile at a given time (like an odometer).

Using a Ruby script and a lot of Excel-mashing, we can pull out a fixed number of entries and exits associated with a particular turnstile covering a set time period.

To map the data, we had to manually geocode the station UNIT IDs. This was time consuming and has been a major barrier to developers who wish to use this dataset, as the station identifiers are not referenced anywhere else, and do not match the station_id fields used in the GTFS data. A CSV with lat/lon for each UNIT ID is available on GitHub.

Each dot represents approximately 50 people. There is no aggregate number of entries and exits for each station, and some have multiple turnstiles running at multiple intervals (most of the data includes counts at 4-hour intervals, but these are offset between some stations, and some outliers do not seem to follow the same conventions).

Data for a specific turnstile for a specific time period is pulled into the map as the visualization runs. The number of entries/exits is divided by 50 and each group of 50 will be represented by a dot. To make the motions more fluid, a start and end time are picked at random from the associated time period for that data, which is used to display and animate the dot.

Entry dots are placed at random within a radius of their target station, and animated to move towards the station. Exit dots start at the station, and are animated to a random point within the same radius. This simulates the movement patterns around each station and helps to visualize entry and exit flow.

GovFresh highlights the products and start-ups powering the civic revolution. Note: This is not a product promotion or endorsement. Learn how you can get featured.

Co-founder and CEO Lily Liu discusses her civic venture, PublicStuff.

Give us the 140-character elevator pitch.

At PublicStuff we help local governments turn service requests and inquiries into tangible community improvements by connecting people directly to their city representatives from their laptop, mobile phone or tablet.

What problem does PublicStuff solve for government?

The widespread adoption of social media, coupled with recent initiatives that have opened up city data, is sparking a lot of citizen interest in city services. In response, there’s been a flurry of innovation to provide more engaging, effective ways to give residents better access to local government, however most cities are not set up to manage the resulting information flow. That’s where PublicStuff comes in. We solve this problem through a cost-effective, easy-to-use system that lets local governments manage and customize the ebb and flow of information and requests between a city and its citizens. Our customizable program allows governments to not only interact with their citizens, but truly manage the extensive amount of data they receive from inquiries and manage workflow.

What’s the story behind starting PublicStuff?

When I worked for the City of Long Beach, NY and Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office I was inspired by the idea of bringing together governments and constituents and making citizens more civic minded.  However, I saw a lot of gaps in the back-end processes and knew there had to be more efficient ways to generate civic engagement. Those experiences, coupled with the motivating stories, companies and visions of the people I met through school and work, prompted me to create something that would meet everyone’s needs.

What are its key features?

We offer the most efficient, cost effective way for city officials to communicate with their citizens, and guarantee citizens’ requests go to the right city official. We pride ourselves on providing instant access to government with the ability to confirm you’ve been heard and to track the progress of your request.

Our Citizen Engagement Management Tools enable city representatives to view issues and resolution data by geographic boundaries, date ranges, residents and department to improve their digital communications outreach to residents. Our government facing CivicApps let officials create data flows on top of the PublicStuff app. Cities are then able to customize their platforms and distribute the most important information for their individual city, for example emergency weather alerts, holiday activities, animal shelter notifications and even updated information for sports teams.

We’re the only city-to-citizen solution that offers in-app translation. Through our One Voice service, citizens have the ability to submit requests and communicate with city officials in their preferred language, making city improvements accessible to all residents, regardless of language.

What are the costs, pricing plans?

For citizens, PublicStuff is free for all platforms.

For cities, our service is sold as a subscription and priced according to population. Smaller cities can get started for as low as $1000 per year, while larger cities can choose between a number of different editions which meet their needs and may include integrations with systems they already have in place.

How can those interested connect with you?

Cities looking to bring PublicStuff to their community can visit http://www.publicstuff.com/tour for information and a free demo. People across the country that want to communicate directly with their city representatives and have a stronger voice in community improvements can download the free app, and connect with PublicStuff on Twitter and Facebook.

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We asked Chief Operating Officer Mark Nelson to share some of its experiences trying to crack the public sector market.

How has Revelstone evolved since you first started?

We’ve seen tremendous success in the marketplace, with more than 25 municipalities in New Jersey using the software, as well as cities and towns in Ohio, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. These municipalities are starting to collaborate with their peers in order to share best practices.

We’ve also held a few events to facilitate this sharing even further – we’ve held two Annual Customer & Best Practice Sharing Days, and recently held our first Service Area Group Meeting, a meeting of fire chiefs discussing what measures they track in their municipalities, and why and how they might collaborate.
As you know, we were one of seven startups in Code for America’s 2012 Accelerator program. We learned a lot through the program – for example, we’ve incorporated feedback from our customers into our newest versions of our software, Revelstone™ Compass.

Lastly, we’ve been providing the market with information on trends. We conducted a survey on service cuts and have just launched one on shared services.

What’s been the biggest challenge you’ve had in communicating your value to government?

Our challenge has not been in communicating the value of performance measurement, the challenge is the pace at which governments adopt change. There’s wide awareness of and interest in moving to a data driven approach, but organizations just move slowly.

One of the things we’ve done to help this is we’ve developed accelerators to speed up the time from when our customers begin using the software to when they are really understanding what the data is telling them. We offer performance measurement fundamentals and training, peer networking and project management best practices.

What’s your advice to other civic startups focused specifically on serving government?

Civic startups need to find ways to break down the old school thinking that exists in many municipalities. There’s a lot of “that’s the way we’ve always done it” thinking. As a result, it can be difficult to get people to want to take new approaches to running a municipality.

I’d also recommend civic startups find ways to create momentum within their target government organizations. We’ve found when city managers hold weekly meetings where they discuss the results that are being measured, it results in meaningful discussions and helps to “convert” those who are resistant to change.

It’s an exciting time to be a civic startup – even one that’s not citizen-facing. More and more governments of all sizes are realizing that new technologies can make a huge difference in how they manage their towns and cities. Better management means happier citizens.

Finally, a bike-sharing program is coming to San Francisco! What Europeans figured out years ago will be a reality in the Bay Area by this August. The plan is to put 700 bikes at 70 different stations in the City and throughout the Bay Area—where residents can quickly hop on a bicycle at one station, and drop it off at another. Appallicious is very excited about this new program, not only because we’re looking forward to hopping on these new bikes ourselves, but also in order for the program to be successful, the utilization of open data will be key. That’s why I’ll be joining sf.citi and the San Francisco Bike Coalition at Yammer on Wednesday, for a conversation about the launch of the new program and how open data and the tech community at large fits in.

Once the bike share program starts, it’s going to be extremely important to know where the heaviest demand for bikes are at certain times during the day, and certain days during the week. It’s safe to assume that on a Monday morning, you’re going to need more bikes in residential areas, and less in the Financial District, since commuters will be biking to work. But with any program like this, unexpected variables are bound to come up, and this is where open data will come in.

The bikes and bike stations will most certainly have a GPS component where the city will be able to track bikes in use, and the amount that have been checked in or out at each station. Companies like Appallicious will then be able to synthesize this data and not only help the City of San Francisco figure out where and when the heaviest demand for bikes is, but can also inform citizens through mobile applications how many bikes are available at a specific station at any given time. Just like the features on the SF Rec and Park App we developed allows you to find parks, playgrounds, dog parks, picnic tables, and more — we could also bring bicycle availability right into the app! It will be just like checking the availability of a ZipCar at a nearby parking garage.

Once this raw data is available to Appallicious, there are quite a few steps before it can be packaged and presented to bike riders in a way that will help them figure out bike availability, or to city leaders who need to know which stations need more bikes, and which ones need less. The idea of the public sector providing the private sector with information like this is nothing new. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan issued a directive guaranteeing that GPS signals would be available at no charge to the world when sucha a system became operational, in the wake of a Korean Airlines flight that was shot down after accidentally flying into Russian airspace.

The Obama administration has continued to promote the idea of “sustainable innovation” that President Reagan helped start. The GPS directive from Reagan has created a $250 billion a year navigation industry. Think about GPS companies like Garmin or applications like Google Maps that rely on GPS—without Open GPS, these companies would have never have been created, and we’d still have stacks of paper maps from AAA stuffed in our glove compartments!

With this renewed push for open data, through President Obama’s Open Government Initiative, there is a chance for the United States to build a new, thriving and successful industry through information released to the public by city governments. As more and more information is released by cities all over the country and the world, companies are going to be able to step up and provide new technology that allow citizens to access and benefit from this information.

In San Francisco, open data advocates like Mayor Ed Lee and Supervisor David Chiu have just passed new open data legislation that will allow companies like Appallicious to create apps and change the way in which cities and governments are able to operate for years to come.

The possibilities are endless, and I am extremely excited to see how innovators and entrepreneurs find revolutionary ways of using this data to make bike sharing easier in San Francisco. Wouldn’t it be cool to integrate the bike-sharing program into the SF Rec and Park App? You could reserve a bike with your app and then take it for a tour of Golden Gate Park or see all the incredible art available throughout the city using the app. The open data movement has the potential to create a thriving, sustainable industry that can create millions of jobs, and a symbiotic relationship between the private and public sectors that could make both more effective, efficient, and profitable.

Despite open government calls for performance metrics and financial transparency in government, you’d be hard-pressed to find any of this for the movement behind it.

Over the past four years I’ve followed the contests, challenges, apps, projects, hackathons and people, and there’s been tens of millions granted to organizations and individuals with little structured insight into the movement’s inner workings or even its return on investment.

There’s no visualization or centralized, accessible open data platform that highlights how much is granted to whom, and how these individuals are affiliated with one another. There’s no Influence Explorer or Clear Spending for open government. There’s no regular feedback loop or “OpenGovStat” review that publicly reviews satisfaction or effectiveness to evaluate whether these efforts are solving issues of real importance.

Perhaps we make the assumption that because this is open government “the movement,” it is free from politics, connections or influence, but even the most well-intentioned people and professions fall victim to these traps, especially when unchecked.

As we watch the Knight Foundation News Challenge process begin to allocate millions of dollars to open government efforts, I’d like to see them “double down” on viability and financial clarity within the movement.

Here’s my “GovFresh Challenge” to open government movement leaders and those who fund it: heed your own philosophical approach to metrics and transparency and be more open and collaborative in providing better insight into how you’re leveraging resources.

By doing this, the movement as a whole is better able to assess what’s working and what’s not so that millions more aren’t wasted on pet rocks or efforts that, as they say in government, are non-mission critical. We’ve seen too many projects come and go with a sense of naivete, fanaticism and meme-making to not begin to honestly and publicly evaluate their effectiveness, learn from their mistakes and openly contribute to a better approach.

There’s a solid case to be made on open government’s return on investment. It’s now time for the movement to be more true to itself so we can better evaluate its own ROI.

I hope the open government movement takes me up on my challenge.

I don’t have millions to hand out, but I can guarantee you everyone will win.

SF Mayor Ed Lee introduced open data legislation on October 15 that would create a chief data officer and promote the use of open data in city government. (Photo: City of San Francisco)

Today, open data and its power to transform a city and a nation by engaging tech savvy citizens will be on display at San Francisco City Hall. And just as importantly, companies that have been successful because of forward thinking open data policies will testify to our elected leaders about its importance. As a founder of one of these sustainable companies, Appallicious, I am proud to be speaking on behalf of the open data movement.

After hearing testimony from myself and others in the open data industry, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors will review and vote on new legislation that will strengthen the city’s open data initiatives and allow San Francisco to appoint a Chief Data Officer (CDO) to manage the City’s open data efforts.

More than three years ago the City of San Francisco launched DataSF.org, the city’s one-stop shop for government data. San Francisco was the first city to follow the federal government’s open government effort, Data.gov when it launched DataSF.org. Since then, more than 70 apps have been developed for city residents by civic innovators and companies– countless other cities and towns have been inspired to follow San Francisco’s lead and have enacted similar policies, providing residents with greater accessibility to government data.

San Francisco’s open data efforts have helped spur the creation of apps for citizens that makes it easier for residents to receive government services, actively participate in city policy and have saved the city a substantial amount of money. Behind these open data apps are new, civically minded companies, and a new industry that is starting to emerge in the land of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.  Companies like Appallicious, 100Plus, Routesy, and Zonability, that would not have been possible just a couple years ago are popping up in cities all over the country supported by amazing organizations like Code For America.

Back in October 2012, I was proud to join San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, Supervisor David Chiu and San Francisco Rec & Park GM Phil Ginsburg as they introduced the revised open data legislation. These Gov 2.0 leaders used the event to highlight companies like Appallicious that are using open data to create apps and re-imagine our city. They launched the San Francisco Rec & Park app that Appallicious created using over 1,000 datasets for parks, playgrounds, and dog parks, along with transportation datasets so residents can get directions to all of the City’s attractions. All of these datasets are available on DataSF.org.

The SF Rec & Park app makes it easy for anybody to find city parks, playgrounds, museums, picnic tables, gardens, restrooms, news and events and more in the palm of your hand. Information is displayed with descriptions and pictures on a GPS enabled mobile map.

The SF Rec & Park app, which was recently named by Mashable as one of 7 open data apps every city should have, also will soon make it easier for residents to make reservations for a soccer field or picnic table, or apply for a permit when they need to host an event in a public park. All of this will be available through a mobile device or on the web, saving taxpayers and government workers time and money. No longer will you have to wait on hold or send multiple emails to confirm a picnic table reservation for a birthday party.

Open data apps like this are only the beginning of something much bigger that is being made possible by open data policies and government leaders that get its importance.

On his first day as President, Obama signed the memorandum on Transparency and Open Government to spur innovation at the Federal level for private sector development. This move inspired progressive cities like San Francisco, Chicago, New York and Philadelphia to create their own open data legislation at the local level.  This has led to an emergent new industry, unparalleled innovation, job creation, revenue, and collaboration between government and the private sector not seen since President Reagan’s decision to open up the Global Positioning System in the 1980s.

Organizations like Code for America and Citizenville, as well as private companies like Appallicious and the SF Rec & Park app are living, breathing examples of the new industry first created by President Reagan in the 1980s and rejuvenated by President Obama.

Stay tuned, a whole new industry is starting to take form powered by open data on a local level, creating jobs, revenue, and never before seen citizen and government.

If your city is new to the open data movement, please ask your elected leaders to take the Citizenville Challenge and bring open data policies and innovation to your community. And take a second to support the open data movement by applauding Appallicious’ submission to the Knight Foundation News Challenge and others that are transforming the way government and citizens engage and communicate.

Corrections: “Open Government Act” was changed to “memorandum on Transparency and Open Government.” Reference to “Open GPS” was changed to “Global Positioning System.”

Walkonomics founder Adam Davies shares the vision for crowdsourcing street friendliness.

Give us the 140-character elevator pitch.

The new Walkonomics mobile app rates and maps the pedestrian-friendliness of every street in San Francisco, Manhattan and England!

What problem does it solve for government?

Local and national governments are increasingly becoming aware of citizens and businesses demand for walkable streets and areas. Walkable streets bring many benefits including increased home values, higher footfall for business, reduced CO2 emissions, healthier residents, lower levels of obesity, less crime and fewer road accidents.

Identifying, measuring and improving a streets walkability is not always easy, and it can be hard to know where to start. Unlike other walkability apps that just measure how many destinations are within walking distance, Walkonomics uses open data and crowdsourcing to rate each street for eight categories that actually affect how pedestrian-friendly a street is.

These categories include:

• Road Safety
• Crossings
• Sidewalks
• Hilliness
• Navigation
• Fear of Crime
• Smart and Beautiful
• Fun and Relaxing

Users can add their own reviews and even suggest ideas for improvement. With more cities being launched soon, Walkonomics provides a great tool for government to analyse, engage and improve walkability in their city or region.

What’s the story behind starting Walkonomics?

Walkonomics was founded and launched as a web-app in 2011, by Adam Davies, a sustainable transport consultant based in the UK, the Android App was launched in October 2012, and the iPhone App has just launched. The idea behind Walkonomics is to harness the power of open data and crowdsourcing to rate the walkability of every street in the world. It came out of a frustration with existing walkability apps and the lack of real information about which parts of different cities are walking friendly, particularly when looking for somewhere to live or a holiday location.

What are its key features?

Users can:

• Check the walkability of nearby streets and areas;
• Search by location, place name or post code;
• View search results on a map with colour-coded markers;
• Discover new walk-friendly areas and streets;
• Instantly get detailed walkability reviews and ratings of streets based on real data and people’s views;
• Add your own ratings, reviews and ideas for improvement;
• Undertake walkability audits and crowdsource local people’s ideas for improving streets.

What are the costs, pricing plans?

The Walkonomics App is free to download and use.

How can those interested connect with you?

• Email at: hello@walkonomics.com
• Twitter: @Walkonomics
• Facebook

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You can help him by completing his open data survey.

Here’s part of the email I received from Steve:

My name is Steve Reitano, and I am conducting a research project on the benefits of Open Data. I am writing to request your help with my project by asking you to complete my survey and to please share my request with your members.

To complete the survey, please go to the following URL: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/OpenDataSurvey

The purpose of this research project is to conduct a cost-benefits analysis that will identify the advantages of an Open Data Portal. It is a requirement for my Master’s Degree in Executive Management at Royal Roads University.  Additional information for my final research report will also be drawn from interviews and/or focus groups with Open Data experts from both government and the private sector. I will be sharing my findings from my research activities at the following URL: http://beautifuldata.ca

In addition to submitting my final report to Royal Roads University in partial fulfillment of my degree, I will also provide it to officials from the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat who are responsible for the Government of Canada’s Open Data portal (data.gc.ca). It is my hope that the report may help public organization’s make sound and informative decisions for extending their Open Data initiatives, and hopefully create a more cost effective, transparent, efficient and responsive government.

Start the survey here

Code for America is starting a weekly hack night at its San Francisco headquarters.

Lessons learned from the Kenya Open Data Initiative.

Four lessons learned launching Code4Kenya.

Emer Coleman is leaving UK’s Government Digital Service. Here’s what she learned.

I really enjoy TechPresident’s weekly podcast, especially this week’s critique of Gavin Newsom and his new book Citizenville from Sarah Lai Stirland.

See also Beth Noveck’s review of Citizenville.

For these urban mechanics, city hall is a place to experiment.

Vegas Hack disrupts open data.

Japan launches an open data portal.

The EU also launched an open data portal, powered by CKAN.

San Diego’s open government department has its limits.

Open Data Day 2013 wrap-up from Open Knowledge Foundation.

OKF will host an Open Data on the Web Workshop April 23-24 “to discuss how we can realize the promise of open data on the web.”

Philadelphia publishes an open data guidebook For city departments.

“From Fairy Tale to Reality: Dispelling the Myths around Citizen Engagement”

NYC BigApps is coming soon.

Is New York City the best place in the world for open data? Find out March 7.