What is NYC Open Data?

The NYC Open Data Portal allows the public to access data published by New York City agencies and partners for free. This initiative aims to make city government more transparent, accountable, and accessible. The portal provides a collection of datasets produced by the government, which are compatible with machines and can be utilized by anyone for research, analysis, or app development.

Intro

NYC Open Data, an initiative spearheaded by the City of New York, is an avant-garde endeavor aimed at rendering government data accessible to the general populace. Serving as a web-based gateway, this platform furnishes gratuitous and unrestricted entry to an extensive assortment of datasets emanating from various municipal agencies and departments. NYC Open Data confers upon individuals, researchers, developers, and enterprises the capacity to delve into and harness the copious troves of intelligence propagated by the city.

The datasets encompassed within NYC Open Data span a vast gamut of subjects, encompassing public health, transportation, education, housing, environment, public safety, finance, and a myriad of other domains. Endowing users with the convenience of downloading these datasets in sundry file formats, including CSV, JSON, XML, among others, this portal facilitates the seamless analysis and manipulation of data.

By bestowing access to such invaluable information, the NYC Open Data initiative strives to foster a culture of transparency, accountability, and innovation. It empowers citizens, endowing them with the ability to apprehend the inner workings of the metropolis, thereby enabling them to arrive at well-informed decisions. Moreover, it kindles collaboration between the government and the public, as they collectively endeavor to surmount civic challenges.

Augmenting the utility of the NYC Open Data portal are an array of tools and resources designed to facilitate the visualization and analysis of data. Additionally, application programming interfaces (APIs) are provided, affording developers the means to fashion applications and services leveraging the available datasets.

NYC Open Data occupies a pivotal role in nurturing a governance model characterized by openness and public participation. It empowers the populace to harness data for purposes encompassing research, civic engagement, and the incubation of pioneering solutions that redound to the city's welfare and the well-being of its inhabitants.

NYC ACRIS data is available on the NYC Open Data Portal. The ACRIS - Real Property Master dataset can be found on the portal, which provides information on property records and transactions in New York City. This dataset can be used for research and analysis purposes. Additionally, you can explore other related datasets on the NYC Open Data Portal, such as 311 service requests, construction projects, MTA data, NYPD arrest data, and more.

Citations:
[1] https://data.cityofnewyork.us/City-Government/ACRIS-Real-Property-Master/bnx9-e6tj
[2] https://guides.library.newschool.edu/c.php?g=553307&p=7848879

Purpose

The purpose of the NYC Open Data Portal is to provide free public access to data published by New York City agencies and other partners. It is part of an initiative to improve the accessibility, transparency, and accountability of city government. The portal offers a repository of government-produced, machine-readable datasets that can be used by anyone to conduct research, analysis, or create applications.

This platform enables users to better understand the services provided by City agencies and promotes engagement with the information produced and used by City government.

Citations:
https://opendata.cityofnewyork.us
https://opendata.cityofnewyork.us/overview/

Innovative Project

Some examples of civic innovation projects that have used NYC Open Data include:

1. I Quant NY: This project, led by Ben Wellington, analyzes NYC open data to find surprising facts and stories about the city. Some of the findings include discovering software in half of NYC cabs that generates $5.2 million a year in extra tips, ideas on how to fix NYC's no-cabs-at-4PM problem, and how NYC Open Data and Reddit saved New Yorkers over $55,000 a year by detecting fire hydrants that generate too many parking tickets.

2. NYC Open Data Project Gallery: This gallery showcases examples of open data in action and provides inspiration for projects. It features projects by activists advocating for change, entrepreneurs developing products, teachers building analytics skills in the classroom, government agencies making data more accessible, and more.

3. BetaNYC's 2021 Civic Innovation Fellows: During NYC Open Data Week 2021, BetaNYC's class of Civic Innovation Fellows hosted ten "Introduction to NYC Open Data" sessions, including one delivered entirely in Spanish.

These projects demonstrate the potential of using open data to create innovative solutions, improve government transparency, and engage citizens in the decision-making process.

Citations:
https://datastori.es/66-iquantnyc/
https://directory.civictech.guide/listing/nyc-open-data-project-gallery
https://medium.com/@NYCMayorsOffice/looking-back-at-nyc-open-data-week-2021-6e5824d1b600

Get Involved

Individuals can get involved in civic innovation projects that use NYC Open Data in several ways:

1. Attend workshops and events: Participate in workshops, hackathons, and events related to NYC Open Data. These events provide opportunities to learn about open data, network with like-minded individuals, and collaborate on projects.

2. Join a civic tech community: Become a member of organizations like BetaNYC, which is dedicated to improving lives in New York through civic design, technology, and data. By joining such communities, you can collaborate with others on civic innovation projects and learn from their experiences.

3. Take online courses: Enroll in online courses offered by organizations like BetaNYC to learn about the fundamentals of NYC Open Data and how to use it for civic innovation projects.

4. Explore the NYC Open Data Project Gallery: Browse the NYC Open Data Project Gallery to find examples of open data projects created by others and gain inspiration for your own projects.

5. Participate in hackathons: Join hackathons focused on using open data for civic innovation, such as the Mini Hackathon organized by OpenHub. These events provide an opportunity to collaborate with others, brainstorm ideas, and develop solutions to critical regional issues.

6. Create your own project: Use the resources available on the NYC Open Data Portal to develop your own civic innovation project. You can access datasets, tools, and tutorials to help you get started.

You can contribute to the development of innovative solutions that use open data to address various challenges faced by New York City residents.

Citations:
https://2023.open-data.nyc/events
https://hvtechfest.com/open-data-ai-mini-hackathon-2023
https://www.eventbrite.com/d/ny--new-york/hackathon/
https://www.meetup.com/nyc-open-data/
https://beta.nyc
https://beta.nyc/products/nyc-opendata-classes/
https://opendata.cityofnewyork.us/projects/
https://opendata.cityofnewyork.us

Submit Project - NYC Open Data

To submit a project to the NYC Open Data Project Gallery, follow these steps:

1. Review the Official Rules for project submissions on the NYC Open Data website.
2. Fill out the project submission form available here.
3. The Open Data Team will review your submission using specific evaluation criteria, such as whether the project improves understanding of a specific NYC Open Data dataset, helps New Yorkers answer a question or solve a problem using NYC Open Data datasets, features compelling and user-friendly visuals and design, engages with an NYC Open Data dataset using a novel format or perspective, or provides an instructional overview, shares code, or explains design choices of the analytics work behind it.

Please note that projects do not need to meet every criterion to be considered for publication, but they must use and link to NYC Open Data. Once your project is reviewed and approved by the Open Data Team, it may be published in the NYC Open Data Project Gallery.

Citations:
https://opendata.cityofnewyork.us/project-submit/

NYC Open Data Visualization

The NYC Open Data Portal provides a wealth of data that can be used for creating visualizations. Here are some examples of projects that have used NYC Open Data for visualization purposes:

1. An Interactive Visualization of NYC Street Trees: This project visualizes the variety and quantity of street trees in all five New York City boroughs using data provided by NYC Open Data.

2. Stop, Question, and Frisk Visualized: This project allows users to look at the rates of stop, question, and frisk actions in NYC by race/ethnicity and see the exact location of each stop over the course of 2003 to 2016 in an interactive visualization.

3. Popular Baby Names, Sonified: This project allows users to visualize trends in names across time and among racial groups, and explore novel techniques in data visualization using multiple sensory outputs.

4. NYC Restaurant Violations: This project visualizes restaurant health inspection data, including violations and grades, to help users understand the cleanliness and safety of dining establishments in the city.

5. Data Visualization of NYC High Schools College Enrollment: This project visualizes college enrollment data for NYC high schools, providing insights into the post-secondary education outcomes of students in the city.

These projects demonstrate the potential of using open data to create innovative visualizations that help users better understand various aspects of life in New York City.

Here's one simple example of NYC open data visualizatin using 311 service request data. The visualization below shows top NYC compliant types. The visualization shows "Noise - Residential" with 3+ million 311 service request, followed by Illegal Parking, Heat/Hot Water, Blocked Driveway, Street Condition and more.

Citations:
https://opendata.cityofnewyork.us/projects/an-interactive-visualization-of-nyc-street-trees-contest-winner/
https://opendata.cityofnewyork.us/projects/stop-question-and-frisk-visualized/
https://opendata.cityofnewyork.us/projects/popular-baby-names-sonified/
https://opendata.cityofnewyork.us/project-category/data-journalism/