Madisonians could soon find themselves saying "there's an app for that" for many things city-related.
Legislation being introduced Tuesday would make Madison an open-data city, meaning that most data kept by city agencies — including information on buses, traffic, construction, home valuation and police and fire calls — would be made available to the public through a single Web page.
Supporters of the change say it has potential to improve government transparency and function, provide new public services through computer and phone applications, and spur economic growth in tech industries.
"Tech and IT services have been so far under the radar for so many municipalities," said Ald. Scott Resnick, 8th District, who worked with the city's chief IT officer, Paul Kronberger, and the city attorney's office to author an open-data resolution.
People are also reading…
Resnick also works as vice president at Hardin Design and Development, a local company that builds mobile applications for Android and iOS. He said his company doesn't venture into apps that would be benefited by open data, but said because of his profession, he recognizes the needs of the IT community.
Most of the data is information already available through open records requests, often for a fee, or on various city websites. But pending city approval, the data would be made available on a self-serve and anonymous basis through the city's website.
"Because of the huge expansion of smartphone applications, there's more public interest than ever in something like this," Kronberger said. "We have a highly educated technical community in Madison and this could be a great resource to them. It's really only limited by their imagination."
Erik Paulson, a doctoral candidate in the UW-Madison Department of Computer Sciences, said Madison is the latest city adopting what's being called "Government 2.0" — a movement where government provides resources to developers that can result in accelerated technology gains.
"Government shouldn't just be the vending machine model where you put taxes in and get services out," he said. "Government should think about enabling people to do lots of things and not just doing it themselves. If they take an approach where they say let's put the data out there for everyone to use and build something on, it allows governments to do things they couldn't have built otherwise."
The data would likely be of little use to the general public, but Mayor Paul Soglin agreed with the idea that releasing the data could eventually help people, businesses and government.
"Let's get as much out there as possible. There's some very talented developers out there that may help us in management of the city and help the public access city services," he said.
Paulson said he thinks developers would initially gravitate to more obviously useful data, such as current lists of licensed bars, restaurants or transportation information.
"People can build apps to review local bars, but the challenge is keeping them current because these businesses come and go. There are app developers who want to add some functionality to the data so it can be used for more than reports to the (Alcohol License Review Committee)," he said.
City data has already been used in several specific examples to create applications, such as Metro Transit's tracker, available at www.mymetrobus.com/mobile. The Web application provides real-time information on bus schedules, based on city data.
Recently the Madison Streets Division rolled out its "My Waste" app, which allows residents to set custom reminders for their collection days, holidays and special collections on their phones.
As practical as those applications may be, Paulson says there's more obscure data being kept by cities that is potentially useful.
Code for America, a nonprofit group that works with cities, started an Adopt-a-Hydrant program in Boston. Adoptahydrant.org allows citizens to claim responsibility for shoveling out fire hydrants in their neighborhoods, based on locations the city tracks.
Open 311 applications started in a number of larger cities allow citizens to easily report non-emergency problems such as potholes, damaged street signs and uneven sidewalks. "Essentially you're able to take a picture of a pothole and send it through the application with geographical data," Resnick said.
Under the legislation, Madison would make the data available by July 21, 2013. From there, what the data would be used for would be in the hands of developers.