San Francisco Opens Its Data; Haku Wale Joins the Conversation

Monday, 08. 24. 2009  –  Category: Featured

Haku Wale founder Alan Wells talks with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom about DataSF and EcoFinder for iPhone.

On Wednesday, August 19th, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom announced the launch of DataSF.org. DataSF, a resource for developers, provides links to and information about San Francisco city data streams. Some of these feeds were available before the launch of DataSF, but this marks the first time all San Francisco data streams have been made available in one centralized, easy to use website.

The Haku Wale team participated in the launch event because our EcoFinder for iPhone application is one of the first apps to make use of a city datastream. Although Haku Wale designed and produced the application, it would not have been possible without the use of the SF Environment EcoFinder XML feed, which is listed on the new DataSF site. Several other developers were also present at the event, including Stamen Design, creators of the excellent tool San Francisco Crimespotting.

The launch event began with comments from Chris Vein (San Francisco’s CIO), Matt Mullenweg (founder of Wordpress and Automattic), Tim O’Reilly (founder of O’Reilly Media), and Mayor Gavin Newsom. Following the comments, the four speakers led an open conversation about DataSF and what it means for city government, local developers, and San Francisco citizens.

The DataSF Conversation

Mayor Newsom asked Haku Wale founder Alan Wells about the story behind the EcoFinder for iPhone application. As Alan explained, the Haku Wale team saw an opportunity to make the EcoFinder data available on an anytime, anywhere platform that would make it more convenient for citizens to access.

Challenges with Open Data

Alan also brought up one of the issues that is bound to appear as the trends of open data and Government 2.0 continue to gain traction – the challenge of data in various formats. Since we launched the EcoFinder for iPhone application, the Haku Wale team has been contacted by citizens of many other cities, asking about bringing the EcoFinder to their city. There is no technical reason this can’t be done – except that the app was built specifically for San Francisco’s EcoFinder XML feed. To create the EcoFinder for iPhone application for another city, that city would have to match San Francisco’s XML formatting, or the app would have to be rebuilt to match the new data set. As more government agencies open their data, this issue of standards and interchangeability will need to be addressed.

Standardized data formats are critical for developers because data issues can constrain two critical parts of our business – cost of development, and total market size for our products. For example, Haku Wale would love to develop a recycling application that could be used all over the nation (if you’re looking for an app like this, check out iRecycle). However, many cities don’t have the data set required to power the EcoFinder application, and those that do format it differently than San Francisco. In this situation, we are forced to choose between the extremely high cost of translating data sources into a consistent format, or releasing an application that works only in a specific area.

The production of the EcoFinder for iPhone application was possible because all parties involved donated their time and resources to help build it. We’re extremely happy with the success of the application, and are proud to help the City of San Francisco and it’s citizens. However, if we had to make a business case for building the application, it would be difficult because of the small size of the market it serves. In a world where web applications often need tens of millions of users to reach profitability, the small market for local data poses a problem. It will be interesting to see if developers can build sustainable businesses out of these local datasets.

DataSF and EcoFinder in the Media:

• San Francisco Opens The City’s Data (TechCrunch)
• City data Web site premieres (SF Chronicle)
• DataSF: Mayor Officialy Kicks Off the Data Mining Gold Rush of Aught-Nine (SF Appeal)
• The new tech start-up – US government (BBC News)