L&I, Office of Innovation & Tech release enormous mountain of wonderful, wonderful data

Do we gush? Yeah, maybe -- but it isn't every day (or every year, or every administration) that the public suddenly gets access to vast sets of tremendously useful data, and some congrats are in order here.

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L&I, Office of Innovation & Tech release enormous mountain of wonderful, wonderful data

POSTED: Thursday, August 16, 2012, 2:18 PM
Filed Under: News

Do we gush? Yeah, maybe -- but it isn't every day (or every year, or every administration) that the public suddenly gets access to vast sets of tremendously useful data, and some congrats are in order here.

This week, the city's Department of Licensing and Inspections, along with the city's Office of Innovation and Technology unveiled all kinds of new web features, including the ability to review a history of L&I visits to a given property. (Until now, getting this information required taking a trip to the L&I service counter at the Municipal Services Building or, in the case of a few lucky journalists, pestering overworked city officials or Council sources to run endless queries into city databases on our behalf.)

The site also features new mapping technology that lets users scan a map of Philly for permits, licenses, zoning variance applications, vacant properties, bike trails -- it's really quite impressive.

The site, for those data-heads already asking the question, does not provide the raw data for these maps and queries; hopefully, that will be made available sometime soon. And those looking for zoning variance data going back more than a couple of years will have to use the Zoning Archive (which should probably be pointed out somewhere on the new website).

But overall, it's a huge, huge step in the direction of transparency, access, and just plain old good government -- so good job, city.

Posted by Isaiah Thompson @ 2:18 PM  Permalink | Post a comment
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