Somerville launches first Socrata-powered Open Data Portal in New England

On August 30, 2012, in Latest News, by The Somerville Times

Several City databases, including 311 work order tracking, now available to all residents; Mayor Curtatone to participate in September 20th webinar on municipal applications of open data model

Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone unveiled New England’s first Socrata-powered Open Data Portal, adding Somerville to a select group of trail-blazing Open Data innovators committed to delivering municipal data to any interested resident. Located at data.somervillema.gov, the new web-based portal includes robust self-service access to the city’s 311 call center data, improved information delivery infrastructure through data-rich tables and charting features and enhanced reporting capabilities. The success of the initiative will be highlighted during an hour-long webinar presented by Somerville representatives on September 20^th, 2012, at 11:00 a.m. EST. You can register for the webinar here or at Socrata.com.

The new Open Data Portal leverages the latest data experience technologies from Socrata to build upon Mayor Curtatone’s commitment to transparency in city government.

“As we continue our efforts to provide the best possible customer service, including transparent government management practices, we’ve been fortunate to find a innovative partner like Socrata.” said Mayor Curtatone. “This partnership will give residents and community members much deeper access to City data and work order tracking systems -and will deliver that access on a more consistent basis. It’s a great new way for residents to understand the way their government works, and to hold us accountable to our goal of making Somerville a great place to live, work, play and raise a family.”

The initial launch of data.somervillema.gov includes but, is not limited to:

Operational data from the city’s 311 call center, which includes data sets from:
- Department of Public Works
- Traffic & Parking
- Inspectional Services
- Results of the 2011 Wellbeing Survey, visualized and analyzed by ward
The City Operating Budgets for Fiscal Years 2010 – 2013
Results of the latest ACE (Accurate Courteous Easy) Service Scorecard, visualized by department

The City of Somerville and Socrata will participate in an hour-long webinar on September 20, 2012 at 11am EDT that will detail how a city of 78,000 residents has been able to deliver a comparable Open Data experience to that of New York City, San Francisco, and Chicago.

“The City of Somerville is one of the nation’s first cities to leverage population-based pricing from Socrata,” said Kevin Merritt, CEO, Socrata. “We’re excited to be working with Somerville to customize our product in ways that will make it more useful and attractive to small and mid-sized communities”

About Socrata

Socrata is the leading developer and provider of Open Data cloud services, a category of Web 2.0 solutions that enable public sector organizations to dramatically improve citizen access to information and online services, while reducing costs.
The Socrata Data Experience Cloud^TM optimizes the management and speeds up the dissemination of data-driven interactive content to citizen, professional and internal government audiences, through multiple interfaces: Web, social, mobile, API, apps, voice, SMS. Information assets include tabular data, geospatial data, unstructured content and real-time data from government transactional systems of record.
Socrata customers include cities such as Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago and New York City; states such as Oregon, Illinois and Oklahoma, and federal agencies such as Medicare, SAMHSA and GSA (Data.gov). Socrata is a private company, based in Seattle, Washington, with venture financing from Frazier Technology Ventures and Morgenthaler Ventures. To learn more about Socrata, visit www.socrata.com.