Cool.
The City of Houston launched a website Monday pulling from a massive database of 311 service requests that allows visitors to create custom graphs counting everything from bad tasting water and missed yard waste pickups to storm sewer odors and traffic signal timing.
The site also includes links to the most recent quarterly performance report to the mayor, the site’s Data Portal website where it hopes to inspire civic-minded programmers and a partnership with a community group, Open Houston, dedicated to innovation.
“Through the Performance Insight report and the Performance Improvement Portal, citizens are now able to see how the City measures its own performance, participate in civic innovation projects and join in an ongoing conversation about government improvement,” read a city press release.
City officials also touted the soon-to-be expanded site as an important transparency measure.
“There are currently over 200 datasets available through the online portal, and the City is finalizing an Administrative Procedure that will lay the groundwork to make all non-exempt data publically accessible in the future,” the release said.
The website is here and the data portal is here. That has a bunch of GIS data sets, which even now are sending out a siren call to folks like Greg Wythe. I don’t know how much this site will be used by most normal people, but it’s an impressive piece of government transparency. Check it out.
I’ve been impressed with the 311 system. Every time I’ve called I’ve seen action taken swiftly to fix the problem.