In Taipei, though, an app uses the government’s real-time transport data to notify people when they are approaching their destination. It is just one of the many ways that government data has been used since the city started releasing data four years ago - making it the leader in the Asia Pacific.
In an exclusive interview with FutureGov, Chang Chia-sheng, the Mayor’s Consultant and a Former CIO of the Taipei City Government, discussed how open data is making Taipei a more liveable city, and the continuing challenge of getting government departments to release their datasets.
How it started processing government data
When the city government first started its open data drive, it found it had a huge volume of raw data, Chang said. The government decided to focus on transport data first, as it believed it would have the quickest impact on the lives of citizens.
The city government experienced two challenges, however: coping with the volume of data, and ensuring that it is sufficiently accurate. “One of the first steps we took was to create a real-time bus information system. It was a complex system because we had over 5000 public buses, more than 1000 bus stations and 500 routes. Moreover, we needed data accuracy to be within 3 minutes,” said Chang.
Keeping data accurate takes additional time and effort, Chang explained, but it worth it: the government receives complaints from the public when there are errors in the published data, and developers rely on the information to build their services.
How open data has been used by the public and private sectors
Published datasets have proven extremely popular with the public, and also with officials who use them to improve processes in government.
The real-time bus information is particularly useful for citizens, and has also been adapted by private developers. For example, a group of university students created the mobile app that alerts users when they are reaching their destination. “It is common for students to sleep on long bus journeys and miss their stop. So they came up with the ‘Bus Ring Ring Ring’ app using the government’s open data,” Chang said.
Another popular open dataset is call centre records, Chang added. “We make public the data on the calls the city government receives and how quickly the problems were dealt with. This helps us to also identify problems or areas of improvement. For example, if illegal parking is common in a certain area, perhaps the city government should consider adding more parking lots.”
In total, Taipei has released around 300 datasets so far, including the allocation of the government’s budget, real-time parking availability and charges, wifi hotspot, traffic conditions on the highway and public toilet locations.
Challenges: The police won’t publish more data
The city government is continuing to publish more, and Chang’s team regularly reviews data that the city government currently holds to identify the next datasets to release. However, some government departments are reluctant to publish their data, he said.
The Taipei City Police Department, for example, is still in discussion with Chang and his team on whether crime data should be open. “Many cities, such as New York, have released crime data and it has been very well-received by the public. However, there has been concerns here that information on crime hotspots may adversely affect property prices and thus upset the locals,” said Chang.
But Taipei has made big strides so far. Its efforts show that publishing data can be rewarding both for local app developers, but also for officials trying to improve public services.
---
Autor(en)/Author(s): Kelly Ng
Quelle/Source: futureGov, 06.08.2014
Bitte besuchen Sie/Please visit:
