9 ms·

The City of Chicago is on Github

156 points by adamstac 14y ago

HNLogInShit 14y ago
That's pretty cool. Not mentioned: the locations of the shitload of surveillance cameras. Guess we'll have to add those ourselves. Also not mentioned: street dimensions, so you can sue assholes like E&T Towing or Lincoln Towing for illegally seizing your car from public property.
jarvuschris 14y ago
So is Philly: https://github.com/PhillyCDO https://github.com/PhillyCDO
- adamstac 14y ago
  Thanks for sharing. We're gonna work on a list post sharing links to all known large states and cities in the US on GitHub and embrace open source the way that Chicago and Philly are.
- jimktrains2 14y ago
  There really isn't any data there though. Pittsburgh has a lot of good data too, it's just not on github: http://pittsburghpa.gov/dcp/gis/ http://pittsburghpa.gov/dcp/gis/
  - adamstac 14y ago
    Thanks for sharing we'll be compiling a list.
  - mcginleyr1 14y ago
    http://www.opendataphilly.org/ http://www.opendataphilly.org/
- PhillyCDO 14y ago
  The City of Philadelphia has a GitHub organization too - https://github.com/cityofphiladelphia https://github.com/cityofphiladelphia. We use the org to share some of our official city apps. These are usually simple web apps built with tools like Bootstrap and jQuery. We'll be open sourcing more of these going forward. Not only are we interested in sharing the code for these apps, we're actively encouraging people to fork, improve and send pull requests.
dquigley 14y ago
Glad to see my city in the news for a good reason!
- enjo 14y ago
  I'm going to be visiting it for the first time this week (on business), I'm really excited. Except for the cold:)
  - vxNsr 14y ago
    Yeah for some reason it's still snowing and below 30 most days. About the topic though: I'm really excited to see what people come up with... I might even have a few ideas
stblack 14y ago
This is a very nice initiative! A question: as a non-american, in view of America's current levels of paranoia, does this really have much potential beyond, say, bike-racks and street-lines? I'd love to know, for example, which areas are served by fibre, which have a high numbers of wireless communication towers, which are serviced by new (as opposed to ancient) utilities? I can imagine some bureaucrat deeming many game-changing datasets as "security risks". If that's true, then what's left to publish? I'd also like to know, what commitment is there to keeping datasets updated? My guess: GitHub makes this much easier. For example, how long before hundreds of privately owned bike racks get added? How long before pathways get crowd-sourced into the data? We'll see.
- dfc 14y ago
  Sean Gorman did a lot of work around critical infrastructure and national security at GMU.[1] He ruffled a few feathers at the time. His research at GMU later turned into GeoIQ/[2]. I am not sure if you are interested in actual fiber mapping or the level of paranoia. If its the former there are some publications listed in the research section specifically about fiber mapping.[3] [1] http://gembinski.com/interactive/GMU/ http://gembinski.com/interactive/GMU/ [2] http://www.geoiq.com/ http://www.geoiq.com/ [3] http://gembinski.com/interactive/GMU/research.html http://gembinski.com/interactive/GMU/research.html
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- adamstac 14y ago
  On this note, I see a great application for small business to capitalize on knowing where more humans have accessibility to non-car parking so to speak. Having access gives the would be business owner to see ahead where bike access is and provide services to those areas.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
sokrates 14y ago
Github is ridiculously unsuited for one-time publication of blobs. Seriously.
- yellowbkpk 14y ago
  As the person that convinced them to use GitHub, I suggested it to them because they were looking for an extremely easy way to bring changes from the community back in to the city's data. I suggested GitHub and GeoJSON because I envisioned them taking pull requests from citizens interested in adding more detail to their data or correcting existing data. You're right, though: GitHub is horrible for large blobs of data like this. At the time I didn't know how big the data releases would end up being. Tom and I have plans to talk more about future data releases and how they might be made with a more appropriate tool.
  - adamstac 14y ago
    Can you keep us in the loop with how this progresses so we can cover it?
  - rpd9803 14y ago
    There are far better solutions, including things like http://ckan.org. http://ckan.org.. sounds like very little research was done before this decision was reached.
    - yellowbkpk 14y ago
      Thanks for your constructive feedback. When I was searching for suggestions I didn't see any way for people to submit changes to the released data back to the organization releasing the data. Getting community feedback is what they cared about the most so I suggested GitHub.
  - rburhum 14y ago
    At AmigoCloud, we are building a platform that can also be used to disseminate/crowdsource geodata. We have delta exports and a dashboard to review edits. Users can use our Android/iOS apps or apis (geojson) to edit the geodata. The system can sync the deltas back as 50+ different formats including ArcGIS Server. Full disclosure: I am the founder of AmigoCloud http://www.amigocloud.com http://www.amigocloud.com
polemic 14y ago
Merging user contributions comes with a number of problems. It'll be interesting to know how they'll manage it. Or, they won't, and this is entirely token. For example, if the city tenders for engineering works, they will likely be required to supply the consultant with source data like road centrelines and road reserves, as-built water networks, etc. That has to be the official, verified, accurate data. User supplied just won't cut it. I'm also dubious that GitHub is the right way to release data. There are a huge number of people interested in civic data, and GitHub is probably one of the least accessible ways for 99.9% of people to get it. For example, a number of city and regional councils in New Zealand publish their data via Koordinates.com. Wellington City Council alone publishes over 50 key datasets: http://koordinates.com/maps/wcc/layers/ http://koordinates.com/maps/wcc/layers/ (disclosure: I work for Koordinates)
- corresation 14y ago
  Why is any website less accessible than any other website? Further being realistic anyone who doesn't know how to navigate Github (or can't figure it out), is very unlikely to ever care about this data. The people who do care are the intermediaries who put it in a more consumable form (e.g. mobile apps, etc)
  - polemic 14y ago
    That isn't true. As another commenter noted, I work for Koordinates. Our top data users, by far, are Engineering and planning consultancies, architects and universities. The first step to releasing data is releasing the data. 3rd party applications are nice to have, but they second-guess the use case. A developer can grab some data and use it to build an app, regardless of the source. But github is a blocker for the vast majority of the audience that is interested in ad hoc analysis, for whatever reason.
    - saraid216 14y ago
      OTOH, GitHub does have an API and automate-able mechanisms for submitting pull requests. An app could definitely be built simply for displaying relevant (say, nearby location of mobile device) information and allowing the user to correct any mistakes they see and pushing that as a request for fixing it.
samgranieri 14y ago
Chicago and most cities have had their GIS data available to the public for years, so this seems like a nice progression
- yellowbkpk 14y ago
  Two key differences here: 1. The data is now available under the MIT license. This is important because (a) it is a predictable, well-known license that allow businesses to interact with the data without fear of the unknown (license) and (b) it does not have the "you must remove our data if we ask you to" clause that their data portal has [0]. 2. They're actively seeking contributions from the community. None of the existing data portal tools have a built-in way of doing this, so they went with GitHub because it's a step in the direction of taking feedback. Is the data wrong or lacking something? Add it yourself and submit a pull request. [0] http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/narr/foia/data_disclaimer.html http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/narr/foia/data_disclaim...
moderation 14y ago
Cool initiative. Quick import of the bike rack data into Fusion Tables and then into map view - https://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?docid=1KXdOsALBG05LR_M11odqNaLA6CnvbYDuHi9jDdk#map:id=3 https://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?docid=1KXdOsA... I don't believe it is possible to have Fusion Tables refer to the raw Github CSV. The ImportData in Google Spreadsheets first and them import into Fusion Tables isn't working.
thefuturewasnow 14y ago
Absolutely wonderful birthday present for the greatest city on planet earth.

156 points by adamstac 14y ago

That's pretty cool. Not mentioned: the locations of the shitload of surveillance cameras. Guess we'll have to add those ourselves. Also not mentioned: street dimensions, so you can sue assholes like E&T Towing or Lincoln Towing for illegally seizing your car from public property.

jarvuschris 14y ago

So is Philly: https://github.com/PhillyCDO https://github.com/PhillyCDO

adamstac 14y ago
Thanks for sharing. We're gonna work on a list post sharing links to all known large states and cities in the US on GitHub and embrace open source the way that Chicago and Philly are.
jimktrains2 14y ago
There really isn't any data there though. Pittsburgh has a lot of good data too, it's just not on github: http://pittsburghpa.gov/dcp/gis/ http://pittsburghpa.gov/dcp/gis/
- adamstac 14y ago
  Thanks for sharing we'll be compiling a list.
- mcginleyr1 14y ago
  http://www.opendataphilly.org/ http://www.opendataphilly.org/
PhillyCDO 14y ago
The City of Philadelphia has a GitHub organization too - https://github.com/cityofphiladelphia https://github.com/cityofphiladelphia. We use the org to share some of our official city apps. These are usually simple web apps built with tools like Bootstrap and jQuery. We'll be open sourcing more of these going forward. Not only are we interested in sharing the code for these apps, we're actively encouraging people to fork, improve and send pull requests.

dquigley 14y ago

Glad to see my city in the news for a good reason!

enjo 14y ago
I'm going to be visiting it for the first time this week (on business), I'm really excited. Except for the cold:)
- vxNsr 14y ago
  Yeah for some reason it's still snowing and below 30 most days. About the topic though: I'm really excited to see what people come up with... I might even have a few ideas

stblack 14y ago

This is a very nice initiative! A question: as a non-american, in view of America's current levels of paranoia, does this really have much potential beyond, say, bike-racks and street-lines? I'd love to know, for example, which areas are served by fibre, which have a high numbers of wireless communication towers, which are serviced by new (as opposed to ancient) utilities? I can imagine some bureaucrat deeming many game-changing datasets as "security risks". If that's true, then what's left to publish? I'd also like to know, what commitment is there to keeping datasets updated? My guess: GitHub makes this much easier. For example, how long before hundreds of privately owned bike racks get added? How long before pathways get crowd-sourced into the data? We'll see.

dfc 14y ago
Sean Gorman did a lot of work around critical infrastructure and national security at GMU.[1] He ruffled a few feathers at the time. His research at GMU later turned into GeoIQ/[2]. I am not sure if you are interested in actual fiber mapping or the level of paranoia. If its the former there are some publications listed in the research section specifically about fiber mapping.[3] [1] http://gembinski.com/interactive/GMU/ http://gembinski.com/interactive/GMU/ [2] http://www.geoiq.com/ http://www.geoiq.com/ [3] http://gembinski.com/interactive/GMU/research.html http://gembinski.com/interactive/GMU/research.html
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
adamstac 14y ago
On this note, I see a great application for small business to capitalize on knowing where more humans have accessibility to non-car parking so to speak. Having access gives the would be business owner to see ahead where bike access is and provide services to those areas.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

sokrates 14y ago

Github is ridiculously unsuited for one-time publication of blobs. Seriously.

yellowbkpk 14y ago
As the person that convinced them to use GitHub, I suggested it to them because they were looking for an extremely easy way to bring changes from the community back in to the city's data. I suggested GitHub and GeoJSON because I envisioned them taking pull requests from citizens interested in adding more detail to their data or correcting existing data. You're right, though: GitHub is horrible for large blobs of data like this. At the time I didn't know how big the data releases would end up being. Tom and I have plans to talk more about future data releases and how they might be made with a more appropriate tool.
- adamstac 14y ago
  Can you keep us in the loop with how this progresses so we can cover it?
- rpd9803 14y ago
  There are far better solutions, including things like http://ckan.org. http://ckan.org.. sounds like very little research was done before this decision was reached.
  - yellowbkpk 14y ago
    Thanks for your constructive feedback. When I was searching for suggestions I didn't see any way for people to submit changes to the released data back to the organization releasing the data. Getting community feedback is what they cared about the most so I suggested GitHub.
- rburhum 14y ago
  At AmigoCloud, we are building a platform that can also be used to disseminate/crowdsource geodata. We have delta exports and a dashboard to review edits. Users can use our Android/iOS apps or apis (geojson) to edit the geodata. The system can sync the deltas back as 50+ different formats including ArcGIS Server. Full disclosure: I am the founder of AmigoCloud http://www.amigocloud.com http://www.amigocloud.com

polemic 14y ago

Merging user contributions comes with a number of problems. It'll be interesting to know how they'll manage it. Or, they won't, and this is entirely token. For example, if the city tenders for engineering works, they will likely be required to supply the consultant with source data like road centrelines and road reserves, as-built water networks, etc. That has to be the official, verified, accurate data. User supplied just won't cut it. I'm also dubious that GitHub is the right way to release data. There are a huge number of people interested in civic data, and GitHub is probably one of the least accessible ways for 99.9% of people to get it. For example, a number of city and regional councils in New Zealand publish their data via Koordinates.com. Wellington City Council alone publishes over 50 key datasets: http://koordinates.com/maps/wcc/layers/ http://koordinates.com/maps/wcc/layers/ (disclosure: I work for Koordinates)

corresation 14y ago
Why is any website less accessible than any other website? Further being realistic anyone who doesn't know how to navigate Github (or can't figure it out), is very unlikely to ever care about this data. The people who do care are the intermediaries who put it in a more consumable form (e.g. mobile apps, etc)
- polemic 14y ago
  That isn't true. As another commenter noted, I work for Koordinates. Our top data users, by far, are Engineering and planning consultancies, architects and universities. The first step to releasing data is releasing the data. 3rd party applications are nice to have, but they second-guess the use case. A developer can grab some data and use it to build an app, regardless of the source. But github is a blocker for the vast majority of the audience that is interested in ad hoc analysis, for whatever reason.
  - saraid216 14y ago
    OTOH, GitHub does have an API and automate-able mechanisms for submitting pull requests. An app could definitely be built simply for displaying relevant (say, nearby location of mobile device) information and allowing the user to correct any mistakes they see and pushing that as a request for fixing it.

samgranieri 14y ago

Chicago and most cities have had their GIS data available to the public for years, so this seems like a nice progression

yellowbkpk 14y ago
Two key differences here: 1. The data is now available under the MIT license. This is important because (a) it is a predictable, well-known license that allow businesses to interact with the data without fear of the unknown (license) and (b) it does not have the "you must remove our data if we ask you to" clause that their data portal has [0]. 2. They're actively seeking contributions from the community. None of the existing data portal tools have a built-in way of doing this, so they went with GitHub because it's a step in the direction of taking feedback. Is the data wrong or lacking something? Add it yourself and submit a pull request. [0] http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/narr/foia/data_disclaimer.html http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/narr/foia/data_disclaim...

moderation 14y ago

Cool initiative. Quick import of the bike rack data into Fusion Tables and then into map view - https://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?docid=1KXdOsALBG05LR_M11odqNaLA6CnvbYDuHi9jDdk#map:id=3 https://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?docid=1KXdOsA... I don't believe it is possible to have Fusion Tables refer to the raw Github CSV. The ImportData in Google Spreadsheets first and them import into Fusion Tables isn't working.

thefuturewasnow 14y ago

Absolutely wonderful birthday present for the greatest city on planet earth.