#ThisWeekInData February 5, 2016

Each week we will bring you a summary of what happened this week on our site, on Twitter, and in the wider world of civic data. Suggest stories on Twitter with #ThisWeekInData.

San Francisco announced two civic tech updates this week: a traffic data sharing partnership with Waze and an expansion of its free WiFi network #SFWiFi. The city will now be able to use real-time data from Waze to better manage traffic, and in turn Waze users will be able to see city-provided information on road closures and construction. #SFWiFi will now cover several high-traffic areas of the city and five subway stations. The announcements and rollouts come as San Francisco prepares to host the Super Bowl this weekend, which the city says will serve as a high-traffic test of its tech infrastructure and will hopefully help to pinpoint areas in need of improvement.

Mexico City is crowdsourcing its bus route mapping, reports GovLab. The city partnered with 12 organizations to develop a cost-effective Android app that tracks bus routes through GPS data, and a citywide game is now underway. Users earn points as they track more routes, and prizes will be awarded to the users with the highest score. The game will run until February 14, at which point the resulting bus route data will be openly available to the public.

Esri launched the ArcGIS Open Data Initiative for Law Enforcement, in support of the White House Police Data Initiative. Esri’s new platform helps law enforcement agencies nationally to visualize and publicly share their data. Maps ranging from crime to citizen complaints to community outreach can be created and quickly shared with the public, which Esri hopes will increase transparency, public trust, and police legitimacy.

GovTech outlined the five Google Government Innovation Lab Projects currently underway in San Joaquin County, CA. The projects include using data analytics to better place foster children in homes and creating centralized “virtual teams” to provide better help to youths on probation. Google began consulting San Joaquin County last year as part of its Government Innovation Lab, which hopes to help governments innovative through new technologies.

The White House announced the Department of Commerce’s Commerce Data Usability Project (CDUP) to help ensure its open data is easily usable. The project comprises a series of wide-ranging tutorials on government databases, providing much needed context and explanations for how researchers can effectively use government data. CDUP will be expanded further in the next few months, and the project is also seeking feedback and tutorials from any researchers currently using Department of Commerce data.

Randy Komisar wrote at TechCrunch about the importance of building relationships between Washington D.C. and Silicon Valley. He cites Healthcare.gov and the U.S. Digital Service as positive examples of collaborations between government and tech, and illustrates the need and importance for government agencies to continue working closely with Silicon Valley to use the latest technology to solve our country’s most pressing issues.

Syracuse’s innovation team (i-team) is deploying new technology to fight its current infrastructure problems, including new water main sensors to detect when water lines start leaking and street quality identification devices to better collect and map information on potholes or cracks in roads. Once these technologies are deployed and integrated, the Syracuse i-team will pivot away from infrastructure and tackle another topic in the city.

Living Cities CEO Ben Hecht wrote about using technology as an accelerant for change in cities. He points out four steps towards fighting inequality that technology currently enables: measuring city analytics in real-time, understanding our current problems and predicting future trends, providing better access to services, and connecting people to each other. He reminds us that technology alone cannot be the answer, but that it is a key tool to help cities move forward in 2016.

Next City highlighted Houston’s use of a new online system for its annual Point-In-Time count of the homeless population. Based on information that volunteers collect via tablet, the system assesses risk and prioritizes the most vulnerable individuals for service and housing outreach.

TOPICS