For our previous open datasets of the week, FutureGov has selected data released on national government portals. But we don’t want to ignore the wealth of data available from state and city governments.
This week’s open dataset comes from Melbourne in Australia. The city has released data from its parking sensors across the central business district dating back to 2009. It is comprehensive, accurate and enormously useful.
Want to know which areas of the city are most parked in? The dataset can allow developers to do that.
Want to track the changes in parking violations, to see if the government has successfully cracked down on illegal parking over time? The dataset can do that too.
The portal itself, data.melbourne.vic.gov.au, is one of the best examples of a data portal that FutureGov has seen. Updated with timely information, easy and simple to use, comprehensive data displayed in the same browser window, and built-in functionality to filter the data. It also displays charts and datasets created by users who have filtered the data to make it into more useful information.
An obvious improvement would be to release real-time parking information, to allow developers to build an app that helps citizens find places to park. But this could have a negative impact on traffic flows, or indeed create unwanted apps that allow citizens to auction their spaces to the highest bidder.
Nevertheless, this dataset is a useful one, as are many others on the excellent portal.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Joshua Chambers
Quelle/Source: futureGov, 09.01.2015
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