OPEN GOVERNMENT — San Francisco today announced the launch of DataSF Apps Showcase, a site that boasts free innovative applications created by citizens using city and county data, reports Karen Stewartson for Government Technology.
"We are trying to turn San Francisco's government into an organizing
platform for civic engagement by giving our residents the tools to
build the kind of government that works for them," said Mayor Gavin
Newsom in a press release. "This is just the beginning. We hope
creative developers will build countless more apps never dreamed of in
City Hall."In August, San Francisco launched DataSF.org —
a clearing-house of data sets available from the city and county —
which aims to help the community create innovative applications. At
that time, city CIO Chris Vein told Government Technology the vision of the site.
"What we're thinking about doing is having an apps store,' if we
can legally do this. It would be showing on the portal Web site those
solutions that are created, and highlighting the names and the work of
the people that did it."
Today the city reached that goal with the launch of DataSF Apps
Showcase. The site features 10 applications, such as CleanScores, which
lists health inspection scores of city restaurants and EcoFinder, which
tells users how and where to dispose of recyclables.
DataSF.org and the apps store are a part of the mayor's Open Gov
initiative, which focuses on open data, open government and open
source, according the press release.
