Society | DOI: 10.1145/2184319.2184326
Leah Hoffmann

Data Mining
Meets City hall

Local and national governments are turning to open data to cut their costs, increase transparency and efficiency, and respond to the needs of citizens.

By noW, the refrain is famil- iar to many New Yorkers: “In God we trust. Everyone else, bring data.” It is a phrase— and a mind-set—the city’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, tirelessly promotes. Over the course of his 10- year term, Bloomberg has transformed a domain where statistical analyses are confined to opinion polls into one where data-driven transparency is hailed as a means of cutting costs, increasing government efficiency, and engaging often-jaded citizens.

The Bloomberg administration has tracked its performance through indicators like infant mortality rates, which have fallen by nearly 20% since Bloomberg took office in 2001, and responses to reported emergencies, which took a minute longer in 2011 than in 2001. It has also used predictive analytics to investigate potential fire risks. Locations flagged as high risk are investigated within 48 hours, and six months after the program’s implementation, fire department personnel and buildings inspectors found seriously hazardous

new york City’s chief digital officer Rachel sterne, right, at the opening press breakfast during the first day of internet Week ny, which occurred in June 2011.

open data

PHotoGraPH by Gary He/InsIder IMaGes

“democratizes
the exchange of
information and
services,” says
Rachel sterne.
“it empowers citizens
to collaboratively
create solutions.”

living conditions in more than 75% of their inspections, an increase of 400% over the previous two years. And last year the Bloomberg administration created NYC Digital, an office whose goal is to “realize New York City’s potential as the world’s leading digital city.” Led by the city’s first chief digital officer, Rachel Sterne, NYC Digital has organized hackathons, app competitions, and other initiatives to encourage the use of municipal data.

“It democratizes the exchange of
information and services,” Sterne ex-
plained at the 2011 O’Reilly Strata
Conference in New York. “It empowers
citizens to collaboratively create solu-
tions. It’s not just the consumption but
the coproduction of government ser-
vices and democracy.”
Increasingly, New York is not alone
in its commitment to open data and
transparency. North American cities
like Chicago, Portland, San Francisco,
and Vancouver have begun to release
their datasets. The U.S. government
has also done so, as have the govern-
ments of Australia, Estonia, New Zea-
land, Norway, and the United King-
dom, along with global organizations
like the United Nations and the World
Bank. The catalysts for their change
are varied, but recession-squeezed
budgets often play a significant role.