Bringing public records home: EveryBlock makes public data relevant to people's lives
This is a cool new pilot project that could have amazing ramifications for freedom of information and news: www.everyblock.com. This Web site, launched earlier this year, provides people daily updates of news, crime, new businesses, road construction plans, movie filming permits, and tons of other information within blocks of their own homes. Led by Adrian Holovaty (major guru in online journalism who did great work for washingtonpost.com), EveryBlock is starting with Chicago, San Francisco and New York City. Adrian presented his Web site at the NFOIC conference Saturday in Philadelphia. They have collected a ton of data for each city, including building permits, business licenses, zoning, crime logs, etc., and people are provided daily updates for their neighborhood and within blocks of their own homes. What is amazing is they have gotten the police departments and other agencies to provide the information daily so it's always fresh. Their Web site also finds stories that mention addresses, providing citizens news that his hyper-hyper local. Adrian said that when the initial two-year Knight Foundation-funded (no ads or pop-ups!) cycle is over, the software will be available to anyone. While some news organizations and government agencies have done similar types of online displays (e.g., location of sex offenders), I have not found them to be as comprehensive and useful as this.
The other neat thing about this, which could bolster open records laws, is that citizens are demanding more information. They find out about, say, a burglary next door, but because the data rely on basic blotter data (date, block number, and a few words describing it), citizens are asking for more information, such as the full incident report with narrative. People want to know the details to protect themselves. The Web site suggests they contact the agencies to request the records. Also, Adrian said, the Web site might start allowing people to sign a petition asking for more information to be public. So no longer is it a few journalists and commercial information providers demanding public records - it will be thousands of citizens. That speaks loudly to elected officials. People do support FOI when they see the benefits!