Drawing from the wildly successful “App Stores” by companies like Apple, the City of San Francisco has announced the creation of DataSF Application Showcase. The focus of this new initiative is to centralize and standardize the effort to make public data accessible by the public. On launch, the city has made available over 100 datasets from Transporation, Public Safety, Public Works and others.

To quote the Mayor: “In San Francisco, we are trying to turn government into an organizing platform for civic engagement by giving our residents the tools to build the kind of government that works for them.”

From Mayor Newsom’s press release:

Announcing the Open 311 Platform
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Today, I am pleased to announce that we are going to transform 311 into a tool of even greater value by building an Open 311 platform. Open 311 will allow software developers to write web applications that do two things: 1) get service request data from the 311 system, and 2) submit new service requests to city departments.

Making an Open 311 API (Application Programming Interface) available to our tech savvy citizens will open the current 311 service to those who wish to build applications on top of it.

We hope that many applications will be built from Open 311. For example, a smart phone application that allows citizens to easily report new issues to city departments with their device’s camera and GPS system. This would create mapped and photographed issues that make it easier for the city to locate, investigate and resolve problems.

The success of DataSF and the DataSF App Showcase has proven that the public will create innovative applications when given access to the information they need. We anticipate the same response and innovation from Open 311.