Tag: citycamp

PUMS areas? We got ’em.

by justin

After some great brainstorming and the helpful feedback of folks at CityCamp, I’m happy to report that the core concept of MCIC‘s first web service is now emerging.

There are tons of APIs that will return the zip code, neighborhood, city, county, or state of a lat/long or address, but none that also offer police beats, police areas, wards, community areas, census tracts, census block group, and PUMS areas as well. These geographies are at the core of many MCIC data sets, and such a service would not only be useful in and of itself but at the heart of the still-in-the-works data service.

What has excited me the most about working with MCIC is the care and feeding provided to the data they work with. After they’re done, it’s not uncommon to see a 7-8% improvement in geocoding success. These are the folks who meticulously clean the boundaries of every arcane geography, ensuring that the each side of a street is in its proper place and overlaps/gaps are removed. And they’re excited to see what you will do with it.

Your thoughts and comments on the details are welcome:

-What formats to you want to see?
-What additional information should we provide?
-How can we design the API and write documentation to make your lives as developers easier?
-What kinds of data should we prioritize next? (vote here)

We’ll be testing this API soon; if you’re interested in early access please let us know in the comments.

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more on PUMS areas

Supporting Public Purpose Applications

by justin

This month, I began working with the Metro Chicago Information Center (MCIC) to help them figure out how to share their treasure trove of data about the Chicago region with the rest of the world – more than 100 data sets covering more than a decade. They’ve seen the promised land on the horizon, a rich world of “public purpose applications” powered by data and empowering all sorts of folks to make better decisions in a wide variety of contexts.

But MCIC knows that without access to quality data and technical assistance to understand what the data can and can’t ‘say’, the dangers Lessig has pointed out will limit the impact of this emerging field. Developers should be free to focus on building rich, engaging, and useful applications rather than poring over non-standard metadata or trying to match seasonally with non-seasonally adjusted data sets.

MCIC is uniquely situated to provide both data and technical assistance for many of these applications; from their boilerplate description:

Metro Chicago Information Center (MCIC) is an independent, non-profit organization that provides the highest quality data collection, analysis and consultation to institutions dedicated to investing in communities and enriching lives. Though MCIC does not advocate specific public policies or policy choices, we strive to provide critical information and insight necessary to support human services, cultural programs and overall economic growth. MCIC was founded in 1990 by a consortium of regional business and philanthropic leaders at the Commercial Club of Chicago. MCIC works from a fundamental philosophy that better information produces better decisions.

As a self-described ‘legacy organization’, MCIC has a great deal of work to do in order to start sharing their data library. Figuring out the various licensing requirements based on their sources, standardizing all of the metadata, and building and creating documentation for an API will take a while. There’s also the matter of figuring out how to pay for this new and as of yet unfunded program (suggestions welcome).

MCIC is actively seeking your feedback on what to share, how to share it, and how to provide technical assistance. Below is a list of the data keywords from their catalog – please vote for which you think should be shared first.

Additionally, please leave a comment about how you think the mechanics of this sharing should work; as a developer of public purpose applications, what would make your life easier? How should we provide technical assistance on using this data? Finally, if you have a specific data set you’ve been searching for, drop us a line. If we have it and can, we’ll be happy to share.