The Next Web has an excellent tutorial on how to use Google Analytics to track social media interactions on your website. I know a good many of you utilize Google Analytics, and if you want to see how successful your social media campaigns are, try this out.
New York City is having its second app challenge, known as BigApps. According to the BigApps website:
The NYC.gov Data Mine can be found at http://nyc.gov/data. You are required to use at least one data set from the Data Mine in your application. NYCEDC and DoITT coordinated with over 40 City agencies and commissions to provide the datasets, with 15 new city agencies, including the Department of Environmental Protection, School Construction Authority and Campaign Finance Board, participating in DataMine for the first time. CompStat and City budget data, taxi and limousine trip data, complaints to the Department of Buildings, and real-time traffic information.
The best apps in the challenge will win $20,000. Last year’s winners were Big Apple Ed, Taxihack, WayFinder NYC, and NYC Way.
Governing had an article recently about better aligning budget with IT innovations. I thought one portion was especially insightful about the need for data initiatives:
Budget for cross-program initiatives, especially sharing data with communities of interest and the public. Standardized data can allow agencies and the public to report once for many purposes, rather than suffering under requirements for multiple and repeated “single purpose” reports. For example, corporate financial reporting in the Netherlands is now considerably more efficient and effective because firms make available real-time data feeds to replace a series of required reports. Closer to home, the D.C. data feeds and federal Data.gov initiatives are releasing government data to encourage transparency and feedback for better productivity and civic trust. To find these cross-boundary opportunities, the budget process must search for them.
Sunlight Labs is opening up a contest called Design for America that encourages the public to create data visualizations with open government data. See news of the contest at Wired and govfresh.
Twitter recently posted a case study of the U.S. Geological Survey’s use of Twitter for earthquake detection (which we recently covered here). The brief description:
One of the U.S. Geological Survey’s unique responsibilities is the monitoring and reporting of earthquakes, which affect the daily lives of people around the world. By mining real-time tweets, the USGS expands its suite of seismically derived information and obtains first-hand accounts of shaking seconds after an earthquake occurs.
As part of Sunshine Week, the nation’s new Freedom of Information Act ombudsman, Miriam Nisbet, took part in an exclusive interview with the Associated Press. This question-and-answer really struck me:
Q: Why is this important to the average citizen, someone who doesn’t work for a newspaper?
A: “If people are going to know how their government is operating, what they are doing that affects them, what they are doing on behalf of the people, they have to be able to see the records that reflect that. The documents that are being created, the data that are being produced. Particularly, you look at huge government programs and all the data that come out of that. Those data belong to the people, and they should have a right to see them and then do with them what they want.”
This stuck out to me because we as public administrators often think of only the media, local newspaper, or kooky citizen as requesters of open records. In reality, “Those data belong to the people.”
Governing has a short piece on using Google’s great new Public Data Explorer.
How Technology Can Transform Cities from Newsweek.
Craig Newmark, founder of craigslist, links to a great CNN article about mobile apps and gov 2.0.
Here is the list of apps submitted in New York City’s BigApps contest.
Five predictions for government 2.0 in the next three years, including innovation coming from local governments, rise of Citizen 2.0, more video, and always on the record.
Social Computing Journal has 7 government 2.0 predictions for 2010, which include: self-service integration (and mashups), increased transparency and citizen involvement (due to apps), and incorporating more social media.