Helping people get and use data

Part of the success of an Open Data program can be evaluated by whether people, both inside and outside of the City, are using the data. City staff participates in community events to promote the Open Data Portal and teach people how to use the portal to download and analyze data.

Public speaking

ODI camping trip

Chief Data Officer Maksim Pecherskiy was invited to join the Ocean Discovery Institute on a trip to Mexico to talk to high schoolers about why data matters.

Strata

Pecherskiy spoke on a panel at the Strata Data Conference about how the City used Alation, a cataloging tool that can help City staff share knowledge about databases with each other, to help build the City’s StreetsSD map of street repair projects.

Forbes Smart City conference

A panel called “Hacking the City” at the Forbes Digital Revolution Summit featured Pecherskiy along with the CIO of San Francisco and a director at 1776 Startup Incubator. The panel addressed how data analytics and Smart City technologies are changing cities.

UCSD data science lecture

Pecherskiy spoke to data science students about the budding analytics practice in the City of San Diego.

Presentation to Dutch healthcare executives

A group of about 40 executives in the Dutch healthcare industry visited the City after attending an Exponential Medicine Conference. This group heard a presentation about the Performance & Analytics Department in general, with a special focus on the City’s use of data.

Smart Cities Connect Conference & Expo

Data Scientist Arnaud Vedy participated in a panel about how to leverage the work of open data users to enrich the understanding of datasets by adding metadata.

City Clerks Association of California & California Park & Recreation Society

P&A Director Almis Udrys spoke at two state association meetings, focusing the presentation on how the City operationalizes the buzzwords of efficiency, transparency, and accountability through efforts like the open data program.

Open Source Governance

Udrys also spoke on a panel in Sacramento about the City’s model approaches to open data and transparency.

Award ceremony for StreetsSD

The American Public Works Association gave an Honor Award to the StreetsSD interactive map.

League of California Cities

The City of San Diego was awarded the prestigious Helen Putnam Award in the Internal Administration category based on transparency and accountability efforts, including the open data inventory and portal.

San Diego County Taxpayers Association (SDCTA) Award

The SDCTA presented the City with a Golden Watchdog Award for work by the Performance & Analytics Department.

Governing Institute Equipt to Innovate designation

The City was recognized by Governing Institute with a 3rd place national ranking as a city that is Equipt to Innovate based on 7 benchmarking elements in this inaugural designation, with the City earning special mention as being data-driven.

Hands-on training and advising

Workshops at Open San Diego

City Data Scientist Arnaud Vedy offers a monthly workshop to teach community members techniques for analyzing data. So far, workshops have focused on using Lidar data and on performing a spatial join on two datasets to determine number of businesses in the El Cajon Business Improvement District and put the results on a web map.

Alation customer advisory board

Alation is a cataloging tool that can help City staff share knowledge about databases with each other. This tool helped automate data extraction for street repair projects that are featured on the City’s StreetsSD map. Chief Data Officer Maksim Pecherskiy participated as an advisor at an Alation event that involved sharing best practices.

Zoo hackathon

The San Diego Zoo participated in a hackathon event along with zoos in Seattle, Sydney, London and Washington, D.C. The hackathon aimed to develop technology to help solve problems in animal conservation, including wildlife trafficking. A team of people from the City came up with an idea for detecting poachers, and the San Diego Zoo is further developing this idea along with colleagues in London.

UCSD data science contest

Data Scientist Arnaud Vedy judged projects submitted to a UCSD Data Analytics Student Challenge alongside alum DJ Patil, who served as Chief Data Scientist in the White House. Students in the challenge were tasked with analyzing data available on the Open Data Portal and using findings to create a project that improved life in San Diego. The winners used data on requests for pothole repairs made through Get It Done.

Open San Diego data day

Members of Open San Diego, a local Code for America brigade, held a data day where Pecherskiy spoke about data available on the Open Data Portal.

Civic Analytics Network

The Civic Analytics Network is a project of Harvard’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance & Innovation. The group consists of chief data officers from various cities who meet biannually to discuss issues facing the government open data community. Twice annually, Pecherskiy participates in the group’s roundtable meetings.

Advising other governments

The City of San Diego is a leader in Smart City technologies and data analytics. The Performance & Analytics Department regularly fields questions from other governments about our programs. In the past fiscal year, P&A has advised the State of California on Open Data portals and data automation, the City of Atlanta on Smart City technology, and the City of San Francisco about online public records requests, among others.

Code for America Summit

People from across the City attended the 2016 Code For America Summit, including staff from Economic Development, Performance & Analytics, and Information Technology departments, as well as COO Scott Chadwick and DCOO Ron Villa. The Summit brought technologists and government together to discuss collaborations and solutions to problems.

Hour of Code

Hour of Code is a collection of small events across the world that are designed to introduce children to computer science. Vedy and Pecherskiy presented to students at the The Child's Primary School in Clairemont for this event.

Metadata Standards Advisory board for California

CDO Maksim Pecherskiy participated in an advisory board for the State of California to create metadata standards for the open data the state releases.

Other Internal Project Support

Promise Zone Indicators

A section of San Diego received the Promise Zone designation from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. To help the City track improvements in this area, Data & Analytics is working to automate collection of key metrics.

Budget book scripting

The Performance Management section of Performance & Analytics would spend a significant amount of time collecting numbers for Key Performance Indicators that are published annually in Volume II of the City’s budget. Data & Analytics helped develop an online form departments can use to submit KPIs and automated creation of KPI tables for budget book publication.

ESD python scripting

Bryan Olson with Environmental Services Department met with the Data & Analytics team for help on a Python script. The team provided him with tooling and training to complete his project. He has gone on to win a San Diego Startup Week hackathon just a few months later.

Waze data collection

The City of San Diego announced a data sharing partnership with Waze, a navigation app. The City sends Waze information about road closures and special events, and Waze shares traffic data with the City. This data helps the City with analyzing traffic patterns in support of the City's Climate Action Plan.