#civic data

[authorsaramarks]

In honor of National Poetry Month here in the US, I’ve composed four special Stupid Haikus in a series I’m calling “My Work Computer.” Guess where I found these pictures!  Yep... my work computer.  They will go up up on Instagram and Twitter starting tomorrow. You can see the entire collection right here, right now.  

[readwritelibrary]

Read/Write Library Chicago has had tons of inquiries into replicating our model over the years, even hosting the National Library of Singapore in our tiny 600 sq ft space. We’re super excited to propose a package of open source software and complementary IRL toolkits to help libraries of any scale implement this model in their own community for this year’s Knight Libraries Challenge. Check it out, and share any comments, questions, or support in the comments on the page. Thanks!

[superbigtree]

I'm working on a tool that would replace using tabletop.js with Google Spreadsheets

Have you ever used Google Spreadsheets with something like Tabletop.js to create a miniature ad-hoc CMS?

I'm working on something named Flatsheet that is intended to solve that problem more effectively.

Flatsheet is a tool for managing tabular data with a friendly editor and a simple JSON API. The editor allows the creation of rows and columns of data, similar to a spreadsheet. The JSON API exposes that data so it can be easily utilized by websites and applications.

The current goals are to improve the editor UI to create the simplest possible editing experience, to create integrations with other tools, like syncing with Google Spreadsheets and dat, and to allow group collaboration on a dataset through the UI.

The prototype is built with Rails, Postgresql, Backbone, and modules from npm.

How can I use it?

Right now you can test out Flatsheet by creating an account and uploading a CSV file or a JSON file that contains an array of flat objects.

When you view your sheet you'll see a link for the API endpoint for that sheet. Make a GET request for that endpoint and you're ready to integrate the dataset into your app.

Check out the documentation.

Important: This is a prototype, so while we'll preserve any data that exists on the system when upgrading to new versions of the app, remember that Flatsheet is in heavy development and may change at any time. The project is open source, so you can set up your own instance of Flatsheet if you wish.

So this is open source? Can I contribute?

Heck yeah, bud.

Fork the repo here: github.com/flatsheet/flatsheet-prototype

There's also the beginnings of a javascript API client here: github.com/flatsheet/flatsheet-javascript-client

The parts that make up Flatsheet will always be open source, so you'll be able to run your own instance on your own server if needed.

What happens next?

Conducting user testing with the existing proof of concept version of the project, and iteratively creating new versions of flatsheet based on what's learned from each round of user testing.

Writing documentation, developing API client libraries (the javascript client is in development), creating example projects that show usage of the API, and integrating with related tools.

If you'd like to stay updated you can sign up here and I'll let you know when big things happen with Flatsheet

Let me know what you think

You can email [email protected] or plop your thoughts on the issues queue for the prototype.

[openseattle]

This week's civic hacking night is at Socrata! Join us!

Join us for civic hacking night at the Socrata office! Do your part to increase civic engagement through technology. Help with SeattleWiki.net, work on your own Seattle-oriented project + learn about the state of Seattle's civic technology. Not a coder? Attend to learn programming or get involved other ways.

[openseattle]

These are the search statistics from seattle.gov over the month of July.  Hopefully these numbers can form a starting point for prioritizing high impact projects, and figuring out what data is currently the least accessible!

[openseattle]

SeattleWiki edit-a-thon: May 4 at Jigsaw Renaissance.

Seattle’s Hack for Change event is almost a month away! Help with preparations at this meetup: http://www.meetup.com/Code-for-Seattle/events/115836162/.

After the Hack for Change planning, we’ll transition to doing some editing of SeattleWiki.net.

Consider adding/editing info about your local makerspace, library, or park, or anything else about Seattle that interests you.

http://seattlewiki.net/Hackerspaces

http://seattlewiki.net/Libraries

http://seattlewiki.net/Parks

More information about Seattle’s Hack for Change event:

http://www.meetup.com/Code-for-Seattle/events/113040382/

http//codeforseattle.org/hackforchange

http://hackforchange.org/hack-change-seattle

[caravanstudios]

What comes after the day of civic hacking?

We love the day of civic hacking called for by the White House:

National Day of Civic Hacking is a call to action for anyone who wants to make a positive impact on their town, city, and country.  A coalition of leading organizations, companies, and government agencies have banded together to issue this challenge with the goal of promoting transparency, participation, and collaboration among governments, startups, and citizens. These partners will support Civic Hacking Day by hosting activities across the country that invite anyone to become part of the civic hacker community—whether you’re a newbie or an expert—and by  connecting people in person or online during the weekend celebration.

Bringing people together to solve real world problems is always a powerful idea. But what happens to the code after the day is over? How do we get communities to genuinely adopt the changes that are possible once these resources are unleashed? How do we improve the work over time?  Those are also important questions that need to get answers.

Of course, we do have a few ideas of our own.

[en-nouncements-blog-blog]

PBS Thirteen.org: Civic Data at New York Tech Meetup

"Keya Dannenbaum, founder and CEO of ElectNext, a civic engagement start-up,  said “We want to help people connect to politicians, political events and the issues that they care about in the way that’s meaningful to them every day. We are at a place that we can be an incredibly useful tool to people for this November’s election.""

Full article here.