tv [untitled] February 15, 2013 2:00pm-2:30pm PST
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much as he does. >> great. who can be the other start-ups, people using the data to make products. you already talked about what you actually made. i'd love to hear more about the experience of working with the city's data like, you know, other things, like services or data points you would actually like -- would make it better and you can sort of take that. whoever has an answer ready can go first. >> and i have a microphone. i wanted to say this earlier and it kind of slipped my mind. we have the most amazing experience working with the city over the past just really the few weeks in building this application about urban growth. one at the data portals, it has a rich repository of information. but working with -- we had lots of questions, right. something maybe there were attributes or information that wasn't necessarily documented to the extent we wanted. and we asked the question, we would get these immediate
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responses with really insightful conversations that would come out of it. i think that type of collaboration is only going to make the portal better. the more people use it the better it's going to get. we also experienced some challenges, you know. we did a lot of work with the data. we did a lot of data, put things together. we did things like added value, added certain locations. and i would love to be able to pull that back up to a shared community portal. from what i can tell it wasn't necessarily promoted at this time, but i think there is a lot of value in that. and shannon, interrupt me if i'm speaking -- if that's -- if i'm stating anything that's incorrect. you know, i know that they went through a special process. maybe we make it a little easier, a little more seamless so that anybody is pulling down data and doing things, they can't push it back up. that was one of the things we
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would love to see. >> probably shouldn't have been in public, but we were very naive about the whole process and we were actually trying to feed content locations around the city. and started to do this and started to think there must be a list out there. there must be a list of every park in san francisco. i would find it in wikipedia. we stumbled into the sf data website and started looking. it was unbelievable, actually. so, some of the data sets we really needed were already there in very, very good format. and random things that i would never think of like movie set locations in the city of san francisco or every piece of civic art that was there, just really interesting things all with, you know, latitude-longitude, tags and information about them. it was really interesting. and then in my first meeting, in our first meeting with the innovation group, the city i heard of 10 other things that i clearly should have been using and didn't even know existed, literally within the first 15
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minutes of the meeting. ss things like street safety, sidewalk safety scores and quality scores so we could wrap people around places. * route people around places. really unbelievable. we availed ourselves of resources going forward. we had the same -- like any data set, you find great things about it. then there's missing values or is thisxtion that got auto populated. we fixed a lot of things. we fixed a lot of gps coordinates. we would love the ability to post that back up * . even if you're not crowd sourcing new things, you can definitely crowd source quality of a data set that way. >> yeah, it's been a really great experience working with 100 plus and motion loft. just to respond, i think that this is a whole new opportunity actually what you're talking about.
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in addition to reaching out to the private sector to generate more data sets as you just mentioned, there's also the opportunity to have better data sets from the work that you've done, scrubbing them and harmonizing them. i think there is also this really great opportunity to generate whole new types of data sets like motion loft is doing. and i think that this is going to present something kind of back to the city, showing where some of our gaps are and hopefully filling in some of those gaps with those data sets. so, i think that there is something about having more city data sets, existing data sets as well as creating new types of data. this is really exciting for us. >> we're going to tell a quick story on how private data can stimulate civic innovation. this summer in singapore, we had about 30 data sets opened p. up. one data set was about a
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million or so records of taxis all over town. typically taxi data stuff, it's hard to get, private companies, they don't want to open it up competitively. one taxi company at the last minute opened up, motion loft made it efficient to see what would happen. because they contributed to the stuff, we had five separate teams working on could we do collaborative consumption of sharing taxis, build a dash panel for companies to know where to go. had i hatch i had been working on a model to see how much overlap there was. they sent us to tokyo to work on that. so, this one set, a million records of where the taxis were not only led to a lot of innovation, but people realized 15% of all taxi routes kind of where people went, about 15% of that was all overlapped. so, a city that never really thought about collaborative consumption or sharing suddenly is looking at that. parking data was opened up similarly about a million records of where people weren't parking and within a couple of
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days predictive analytic app was written. go to a parking reservation thing. the carrier local phone company released pairs of where people were all over town. a lot of privacy issues. we wrote a contract around that. all of that led to a huge amount of innovation and new forms of thinking. and even as i look at what goes on with teams working in san francisco stuff, the minute for example i saw the esri data that has tons of economics and social behavior behind t i realized sometimes you come together and work on something, and lacking that stuff you make assumptions, you make things up. you don't have a rich set of data. the fact there is a place to turn either because it's free or you can go pay for it, but it's kind of normalized and available i think just speeds things up, reduces redundancy and that's going to be the thing that leads it a real burst of innovation and value both financial value for developers, but also civic value for where we live and clearly we're at the very beginning of that. and i think san francisco has been pushing ahead and that's why it's exciting. >> i'm going to give you a
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chance to talk about his experience in a second. first i'll open it up for questions from the audience in just a second. think of anything you want to ask our many panelists up here. all san franciscans. i'll give the panel to ask each other questions if they want. talk about your experiences working with san francisco. >> sawyer, i could barely here you. >> sure, could you talk a little what your experience is like working with san francisco and, you know, other things that you'd like to see that have become available in start-ups that aren't already. * sorry >> so, we started navigating the city of san francisco or working with the city of san francisco close to 2-1/2 years ago after our initial concept. we realized about two years ago we discovered the innovation office. we discovered sf data sets, and we were absolutely delighted to have the resources available to us through these offices.
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and they really were the driving factor behind our development moving forward. obviously they weren't exactly where we needed them to be at that time, and we had worked with multiple departments now on cleaning up the data sets obviously. and then putting that back out there. one of our biggest pin points or struggles has been with the legislation and the old models of the [inaudible] the regulations and laws which are being slowly worked on through the legal departments and the san francisco's legal department. but essentially we found the experience through innovation office has been driving the initiatives through and helping us develop and the data sets have bon become cleaner. they have become easier for us to use and the process has become a lot more efficient. >> school.
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-- cool. i was told if you have a question you should line up at that microphone right there. if you're coming up -- no, he did youant [speaker not understood]. >> i don't have a question. i wanted to comment on this. i think something else is really unique and maybe one of the untold stories or not told so much stories about the impact of open data is really the companies that are being formed. and as you mentioned earlier, they're a sustainable company and this is being powered by open data and motion loft is figuring out how they can share the asset that sort of your business model is built on. so, i think that this is presenting a whole new type of question for sort of apps built with government data or public data. >> i guess i'll jump in once here, too, while people are stepping up. we've been doing this for awhile now. one thing we've learned in this innovation space, people
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matter. like you can build technology you want, platform you want, that's great. it's the people who are doing it that matter and they're going to get stuff done. this has some of the best people, shannon and jay are doing t. they've been doing it awhile so they know what they're doing. it's great. last year i was building this adopted tree app and i found it on the data portal. it had like some weird geo data like it was in some form i couldn't use. i just dropped jay a note and like within 24 hours i got the data fixed and it was perfect. so, it's those kind of relationships that matter and having the right people in place. so, i think the chief data officer, these guys will end up joining a rock star team. >> not a question, but just a comment to say thanks to the city's innovation office. we're a small company from ireland called building i. we take permit data from cities and show it to anyone who wants to see it. we started off in ireland, discovered the san francisco data and came over here and now we've got an office up and
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running here with san francisco data. so, it's great to be able to do that. just one note of caution of how do you prevent kind of third-party data integrators from owning that data. i think jay was talking about it earlier on. it's just a note of caution for you guys. >> how do we prevent vendors from holding the data? >> yes. >> we're still working on this piece with our legal department. we're looking to do and this is very exploratory right now, really looking at the contracting process itself and how we can use that as a mechanism. basically we want to do business with you if you're willing to share your data. as jay mentioned we don't want to be held hostage. we don't want our data to be held hostage to the companies. as we figure this out, we'll continue going about it and providing updates. yeah, i think that there's actually a lot of companies out there that are being powered right now with our open data program.
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so, if there's any that aren't represented here today, please let us know. we would love to feature you. because this is the other story that i was talking about. open data is demonstrating economic growth and job creation. so, yes, it's about transparency, yes, it's about openness, but it's also about creating jobs and this is a really exciting piece of the story. >> we have another question. >> thanks, everybody, great panel, great things going on. i have a question around strategies that you guys are facing to monetize somehow this data. of course, having companies that create applications and then they sell these somehow is fantastic. but is government thinking about ways in which they can directly monetize these data sets? >> can i say one quick thing first? i remember we were at the white house innovation panel and there was this exact conversation came up because we are looking to monetize
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everything we do. and the city is also looking to monetize this and make revenue. one of the biggest conversation pieces that came out of the talk and some of the questions from the crowd was opening up apis for transactions, permitting, reservations and those type of things, which would be an incredible influx of private industry working with governments and also providing incredible efficiency for the public to be able to make these transactions. i'll probably say that ian might want to talk more on this, but that would be something that would be highly encouraged from the private sector and from my company specifically. >> that's a great point. and i'll say the short answer to your question is the federal government is trying to not charge for this data. the way we did was with tax dollars. you already paid for it, we're trying to give it back to you. and, so, we take a wholesale retail. we want to be the providers of the data as a fuel, but fuel, gasoline is useless to get you from point a to point b unless
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you consume that ultimately drives value to the american economy. our customer, i can completely agree with what shannon said in terms of our business objective, so to speak, is to empower entrepreneurs and innovators, to create jobs. that's a metric of success, not revenue generated per data set or some other per ifervance metric. the other piece of that looking back to the example of weather and gps, my monetization, is that together they contribute $100 billion to the american economy last year. last year alone from just those two data liberations. so, that is the way in which we are approaching from a strategy perspective, the ultimate impact to our customers. >> one super quick. one thing the city of san francisco or big cities or federal, right, the other smaller cities, smaller cities have smaller budgets. having a structure to support all this open data takes a lot of money.
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so, when these small cities are thinking about this, they should think about a way of somehow equalizing because they are putting into having these open data team, right? so, what does make sense? this is kind of an open question to get your point of view. >> do you want to take that, shannon? >> i think that there is actually quite ah few examples. we can probably talk to this more with smaller cities that are making open data efforts. but what i would say is that it's proven more than the value of the investment. the return that we've gotten just by opening up the data has actually given back more. so, that would be my short answer to it, but i think you probably have more experience working directly with some of the cities. >> so, i grew up in a small city so i care about small cities a lot, 15,000 people, southern illinois. i'm a card nastionv fan.
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-- cardinals fan. i should say that. the city of santa cruz, for instance, it's a smaller city. they're a leader in open data. they've been doing this for a long time. the working with the city of make on, georgia, they're doing it as well. * macon. the smaller cities are taking advantage of easily reusable solution thextion, right, so open source technologies that make it easy for them to make a data catalog, and they're bag borrowing and stealing whatever they can from the bigger cities. whenever we get the chief data job description up, we should put that online and the city can take that. you can see cities sharing resources so that way even if they don't have the resources themselves, they can work together and pool those resources. >> maybe just to add one more thing to that, when we passed our legislation in 2009, we actually documented and shared our best practices for how we laid forth this program for other cities to use as well. >> great. so, i think we've actually already gone significantly over what i was hoping.
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i was hoping to [speaker not understood] also. we're going to wrap it up. thanks to all our panelists and the hatchery for hosting us. anything else you need to say before we wrap up? okay, wrap up. (applause) >> >> oh. >> if anyone would like to support the federal open data movement please follow us at twitter project open data all one word, or check us out on data.gov. (applause) >> thanks.
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>> we came to seven straight about 10 years ago. -- 7th street about 10 years ago. the environment is huge. it is stronger than willpower. surrounding yourself with artists, being in a culture where artists are driving, and where a huge amount of them is a healthy environment. >> you are making it safer. push, push.
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that is better. when i start thinking, i see it actually -- sometimes, i do not see it, but when i do, it is usually from the inside out. it is like watching something being spawned. you go in, and you begin to work, excavate, play with the dancers, and then things began to emerge. you may have a plan that this is what i want to create. here are the ideas i want to play with, but then, you go into the room, and there maybe some fertile ideas that are becoming manifest that are more interesting than the idea you had initially set out to plan. so there has to be this openness for spontaneity. also, a sense that regardless of the deadline, that you have tons of time so the you can keep your creativity alive and not cut it
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off and just go into old habits. it is a lot like listening. really listening to watch what is going to emerge. i like this thing where you put your foot on his back. let's keep it. were your mind is is how you build your life. if you put it in steel or in failure, it works. that works. it is a commitment. for most artists, it is a vacation and a life that they have committed themselves to. there is this notion that artists continue to do their work because of some kind of the external financial support. if that was taken away, artists would still do their art. it is not like there is a prerequisite for these things to
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happen or i will not do it. how could that be? it is the relationship that you have committed to. it is the vocation. no matter how difficult it gets, you are going to need to produce your art. whether it is a large scale or very small scale. the need to create is going to happen, and you are going to have to fulfill it because that is your life.
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>> feel like it really is a community. they are not the same thing, but it really does feel like there's that kind of a five. everybody is there to enjoy a literary reading. >> the best lit in san francisco. friendly, free, and you might get fed. ♪ [applause] >> this san francisco ryther created the radar reading series in 2003. she was inspired when she first moved to this city in the early 1990's and discover the wild
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west atmosphere of open mi it's ic in the mission. >> although there were these open mics every night of the week, they were super macho. people writing poems about being jerks. beatty their chest onstage. >> she was energized by the scene and proved up with other girls who wanted their voices to be heard. touring the country and sharing gen-x 7 as a. her mainstream reputation grew with her novel. theses san francisco public library took notice and asked her if she would begin carrying a monthly reading series based on her community. >> a lot of the raiders that i work with our like underground
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writers. they're just coming at publishing and at being a writer from this underground way. coming in to the library is awesome. very good for the library to show this writing community that they are welcome. at first, people were like, you want me to read at the library, really? things like that. >> as a documentary, there are interviews -- [inaudible] >> radar readings are focused on clear culture. strayed all others might write about gay authors. gay authors might write about universal experiences. the host creates a welcoming environment for everybody. there is no cultural barrier to entry. >> the demographic of people who
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come will match the demographic of the reader. it is very simple. if we want more people of color, you book more people of color. you want more women, your book more women. kind of like that. it gets mixed up a little bit. in general, we kind of have a core group of people who come every month. their ages and very. we definitely have some folks who are straight. >> the loyal audience has allowed michelle to take more chances with the monthly lineup. established authors bring in an older audience. younker authors bring in their friends from the community who might be bringing in an older author. >> raider has provided a stage
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for more than 400 writers. it ranges from fiction to academics stories to academic stories this service the underground of queer fell, history, or culture. >> and there are so many different literary circles in san francisco. i have been programming this reading series for nine years. and i still have a huge list on my computer of people i need to carry into this. >> the supportive audience has allowed michele to try new experiment this year, the radar book club. a deep explorationer of a single work. after the talk, she bounces on stage to jump-start the q&a. less charlie rose and more carson daly. >> san francisco is consistently
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ranked as one of the most literate cities in the united states. multiple reading events are happening every night of the year, competing against a big names like city arts and lectures. radar was voted the winner of these san francisco contest. after two decades of working for free, michelle is able to make radar her full-time job. >> i am a right to myself, but i feel like my work in this world is eagerly to bring writers together and to produce literary events. if i was only doing my own work, i would not be happy. it is, like throwing a party or a dinner party. i can match that person with that person. it is really fun for me. it is nerve wracking during the actual readings. i hope everyone is good. i hope the audience likes them. i hope everybody shows up. but everything works out.
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