Data By the Bay

Open data is not just an end but a means to broadening participation in our ongoing acts of self-government. While certainly important, voting in elections is just one act we take in our collective pursuit toward a more perfect union. Data can have a broader impact on the individual acts we take day to day. It can even redefine what it means to participate in a modern democracy. At DataSF, we seek to empower the use of data from the City and County of San Francisco across a spectrum of uses. I’ll discuss ways we are encouraging people to “gather around the data table” to collectively understand and address some of our most pressing challenges. And I’ll highlight projects and initiatives that demonstrate this, including:

• How we’re putting our data users and data publishers at the center of our program to make sure we’re driving the program around actual needs
• How we participate in our local San Francisco civic hacking group nearly every week
• How we raised a digital barn called the Housing Data Hub to provide more context and insights on housing data in San Francisco
• How we’re beginning to work with existing community institutions to make use of the City’s many open data assets