Introducing Open Referral Greg Bloom | bloom@codeforamerica

1. Introducing Open Referral Greg Bloom | bloom@codeforamerica.org Chief Organizing Officer, Open Referral Initiative @greggish | #openreferral www.openreferral.org

2. PREFACE:

3. PREFACE: Open Referral is not scraping your data.

4. PREFACE: Open Referral is not scraping your data. Open Referral is not trying to sell your data.

5. PREFACE: Open Referral is not scraping your data. Open Referral is not trying to sell your data. Open Referral is not trying to build a national database.

6. PREFACE: Open Referral is not scraping your data. Open Referral is not trying to sell your data. Open Referral is not trying to build a national database. This is not a trap.

7. Free / Open Source : Some Terms

8. Free / Open Source : Some Terms Public Information Stuff that everyone has a right to know.

9. Open Data Free / Open Source : Some Terms Public Information Stuff that everyone has a right to know. Organized sets of data that can be freely accessed, taken, "remixed" with other data, etc.

10. Open Data Open Source Free / Open Source : Some Terms Public Information Stuff that everyone has a right to know. Organized sets of data that can be freely accessed, taken, "remixed" with other data, etc. Media (applications, content, etc) that can be seen, modified, repurposed.

11. Open Data Open Source Free Speech Free / Open Source : Some Terms Public Information Stuff that everyone has a right to know. Your constitutional liberties. Organized sets of data that can be freely accessed, taken, "remixed" with other data, etc. Media (applications, content, etc) that can be seen, modified, repurposed.

12. Open Data Open Source Free Speech Free Beer Free / Open Source : Some Terms Public Information Stuff that everyone has a right to know. Your constitutional liberties. Hey, thanks! Organized sets of data that can be freely accessed, taken, "remixed" with other data, etc. Media (applications, content, etc) that can be seen, modified, repurposed.

13. Open Data Open Source Free Speech Free Beer Free Puppy Free / Open Source : Some Terms Public Information Stuff that everyone has a right to know. Your constitutional liberties. Hey, thanks! Organized sets of data that can be freely accessed, taken, "remixed" with other data, etc. Media (applications, content, etc) that can be seen, modified, repurposed. Got a mop?

14. No really, what is ‘Open Data’? It’s an ambiguous term. Let’s clarify.

15. No really, what is ‘Open Data’? It’s an ambiguous term. Let’s clarify. Open means ‘free,’ as in ‘free speech’: we are all entitled to it by fundamental right. Open does not necessarily mean ‘anything goes’: you’ve gotta return books to the library, and in good condition too. Even on open roads, there are speed limits, and eventually there are tolls, plus construction and cleanup crews, etc. Open does not necessarily mean ‘free’ as in without cost. For something to exist in an open state, a lot of energy and resources must go into keeping it so.

16. No really, what is ‘Open Data’? It’s an ambiguous term. Let’s clarify. Open indicates accessibility: We have “open access” to things like roads and libraries — these are public goods, and anyone should be able to use them. In the context of the internet, ‘open’ means that information can flow freely between systems.

17. No really, what is ‘Open Data’? It’s an ambiguous term. Let’s clarify. Open Data is provided under terms that permit reuse and redistribution, including the intermixing with other datasets. This means data must be machine-readable and interoperable. The data can be licensed to prevent changes and/or to ensure clear documentation of changes, and even to require payment for certain kinds of use. This is a modified version of the Open Knowledge Foundation’s Open Data definition.

18. To review: what is ‘Open Data’? Open data is crediteddata. Open data can be licensed with various conditions. Open data can generate revenue. For the purposes of Open Referral, the concept of ‘open data’ is itself open to some degree of interpretation. Essentially, we are asking: how should this data be open?

19. Another term: Community Organizing Community organizers create space and time in which groups of people with shared interests come together to think differently, dream bigger, develop a sense of themselves, and take action to build the world that they want to live in.

20. The Democratic Arts of Combination “In democratic countries, knowledge of how to combine is the mother of all other forms of knowledge; on its progress depends that of all the others.” –Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

21. A commons is… A shared resource that is subject to dilemmas.

22. A commons is… A shared resource that is subject to dilemmas. Community resource data is a commons: • Public information but not a ‘public good’ • Non-subtractive and non-exclusive (can be used by multiple parties for multiple purposes without being depleted) • Decays rapidly, costly to maintain

23. A commons is… A shared resource that is subject to dilemmas. Community resource data is a commons: • Public information but not a ‘public good’ • Non-subtractive and non-exclusive (can be used by multiple parties for multiple purposes without being depleted) • Decays rapidly, costly to maintain Tragedy of the community resource data commons: • Enclosure (institutional ownership) • Not interoperable (not readable by external systems) • Grassroots collection efforts are unsustainable. • So: redundant, fragmented, inefficient, etc

24. Tragedy Drama of the commons "At any time that individuals may gain from the costly action of others, without themselves contributing time and effort, they face collective action dilemmas for which there are coping methods.” ~ Nobel Laureate Elinor Ostrom

25. Okay. Story time!

26. The District of Columbia: In the late 90s, a consortium of service providers tried to develop a city-wide resource directory system. The project failed due to power struggle over data ownership. The DC Government assumed responsibility. In 2004, the DC government certified as a 2-1-1 system. The government merged 2-1-1 into its 3-1-1 calling center. There was never an investment in updating the data.

27. Community-produced Resource Directories: At Bread for the City: Resource directory with 1500 services – in Access. 2 out of 3 “walk-ins” just get referred elsewhere. Many come just for referrals. Intake Referral 'Walk-ins'

28. Key point: Social workers and other service providers deal with this information every day. In any given community, some of them take time to aggregate it. This knowledge, when aggregated, is valuable.

29. Community-Driven web-based I&R projects Open 211 DC Food Finder BRIDGE Project

30. Vendors flooding the space:

31. Vendors: Pros: Innovative, service-oriented features User-friendly design Both long overdue! Cons: Each vendor creates their own database, treats data as competitive advantage More privatization and fragmentation!

32. Key point: These vendors are emerging, and finding success. They are finding success because people and institutions need this data in their own workflow. Some of them are willing to pay money to access it.

33. Code for America Founded in 2009 to address the widening gap between the public and private sectors in their effective use of technology and design. Embed ‘fellows’ (geeks) in city and county governments for year-long residencies where they try to solve problems.

34. Government as platform Public information as open, machine-readable, re-usable and re-mixable data. Citizen contribution and collaboration Transparency Lightweight development practices Cloud computing (O’Reilly 2009)

35. Civic hacking Hacking is not criminal activity. Hacking means ‘creative problem solving.’ Many creative people out there want to help solve problems.

36. “Open” Civic Technology: Open211 vs Open311 Open211: FAIL Open311: Success • 211: data on decentralized social sector, not one gov system • Open211: just a database app • I&Rsare mostly private orgs, don’t fall under executive mandate • I&R Data is labor intensive • “The crowd” isn’t great at generating this data. It’s obscure, complex, and sensitive. • 311: municipal service requests • Open311 = a set of standards and protocols for opening 311 systems via ‘API’ • “Government as platform” • External applications can read fromand even write to a city’s service request system. • See: SeeClickFix, other apps.

37. What is an API? A set of instructions that enable information systems to ‘talk’ to each other. A contract. (‘You give me this, I’ll give you that.’) A web page used by software

38. Draw an API: MAAAAGIC

39. Draw an API: Robot orifices

40. Draw an API: a friendly server

41. Draw an API: Cake Factory

42. Draw an API: Robot Bartender

43. Draw an API: a church

44. API - Ohanapi.org Produced by Code for America’s 2013 fellows. For San Mateo County in California.

45. Ohana API is a ‘reference implementation’ of the Open Referral model. A reference implementation is an example. It’s Open Source – you can download it for free you can see the source code you can adapt it to fit your needs.

46. Schema.org: ‘Civic Services Schema’ “A new vocabulary… has been proposed to improve search engines’ understanding of these services. It is intended to provide enough information to determine the service, the area covered by the service, and relevant information for using the service.” http://blog.schema.org/

47. HTML markup language proposed by Google For search enginesand associated products Designed for federal/city services, but extensible to social services Could be interoperable with AIRS? Diff schemas for diff purposes: AIRS XSD W3C Civic Services schema ??? • XML developed by AIRS • For exchange of data between 211 systems • Also used by HUD and HMIS systems

48. Back in DC: Intake Referral 'Walk-ins'

49. STEP 1: MERGE THE DATA UNIQUE ID for every service, to be recognized by every database.

50. STEP 2:Open the DATA COMMONS Cloud-based data catalogue with Open API (Application Programming Interface)