That’s exactly what San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom wanted to find out to support the launch of DataSF.org. The new site publishes data from the City & County of San Francisco and provides access to everything from police records to restaurant inspection reports. With DataSF the city aims to increase the transparency of government data and to foster innovation in the bay area.
And so when Mayor Newsom wanted to find out which data should be included on the site, he turned to the Trulia Voices community with his inquiry:
The Mayor’s question received answers from almost 100 members of the Trulia Voices community. 58% of the responses came from California residents and 31% from those who reside in San Francisco. Though the answers were wide-ranging, there were definitely some commonalities among the requests for information.
Crime data, proximity to points of interest and school information topped the list on a national level. These features were important to San Francisco residents as well, however those in SF differentiated themselves from the group at large with numerous requests for information about access to transportation and street parking, indicating a clear need to navigate the city with ease. San Francisco dwellers were also more likely than others to request information about parks, verifying the outdoorsy culture that is prevalent in the city.
“Since the launch of DataSF.org a couple weeks ago, we’ve had nearly 10,000 visitors from 104 countries and every state in the nation,” said the Mayor, “Thank you for taking the time to suggest ways to improve San Francisco and what additional data you want to see on the site.”
From the looks of it, the Mayor has taken these suggestions seriously. DataSF.org already boasts crime statistics, transportation data as well as information about recreation and park lands. They’ve also already tackled another common request from San Francisco residents:
“We are working city departments to make as much non-confidential government data available on DataSF as possible,” he said. “With that in mind, I am pleased to announce that we have just released the most requested dataset on DataSF - our street sweeping schedule. We look forward to seeing how this and other data is used in ways to make government work better for all of us.”
Popularity: 10% [?]
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