Introducing Open Referral Greg Bloom | [email protected] Chief Organizing Officer, Open...

Introducing Open Referral

Greg Bloom | [email protected] Organizing Officer, Open Referral Initiative

@greggish | #openreferral www.openreferral.org

PREFACE:

PREFACE:

• Open Referral is not scraping your data.

PREFACE:

• Open Referral is not scraping your data.• Open Referral is not trying to sell your data.

PREFACE:

• Open Referral is not scraping your data.• Open Referral is not trying to sell your data.• Open Referral is not trying to build a national

database.

PREFACE:

• Open Referral is not scraping your data.• Open Referral is not trying to sell your data.• Open Referral is not trying to build a national

database.• This is not a trap.

Free / Open Source : Some Terms

Free / Open Source : Some TermsPublic

InformationStuff that everyone has a right to know.


Information

Open Data

Stuff that everyone has a right to know.

Organized sets of data that can be freely accessed, taken, "remixed" with other data, etc.


Information

Open Data

Open Source



Media (applications, content, etc) that can be seen, modified, repurposed.


Information

Open Data

Open Source




Free SpeechYour constitutional

liberties.


Information

Open Data

Open Source




Free Speech

Free Beer

Your constitutional liberties.

Hey, thanks!


Information

Open Data

Open Source




Free Speech

Free Beer

Free Puppy

Your constitutional liberties.

Hey, thanks!

Got a mop?

No really, what is ‘Open Data’? It’s an ambiguous term. Let’s clarify.

No really, what is ‘Open Data’?

Open means ‘free,’ as in ‘free speech’: we are all entitled to it by fundamental right.

Open does not necessarily mean ‘anything goes’: you’ve gotta return books to the library, and in good condition too. Even on open roads, there are speed limits, and eventually there are tolls, plus construction and cleanup crews, etc.

Open does not necessarily mean ‘free’ as in without cost. For something to exist in an open state, a lot of energy and resources must go into keeping it so.

It’s an ambiguous term. Let’s clarify.


Open indicates accessibility:

We have “open access” to things like roads and libraries — these are public goods, and anyone should be able to use them.

In the context of the internet, ‘open’ means that information can flow freely between systems.



Open Data is provided under terms that permit reuse and redistribution, including the intermixing with other datasets. This means data must be machine-readable and interoperable.

The data can be licensed to prevent changes and/or to ensure clear documentation of changes, and even to require payment for certain kinds of use.

This is a modified version of the Open Knowledge Foundation’s Open Data definition.


To review: what is ‘Open Data’?

Open data is credited data. Open data can be licensed with various conditions.Open data can generate revenue.

For the purposes of Open Referral, the concept of ‘open data’ is itself open to some degree of interpretation. Essentially, we are asking: how should this data be open?

Another term: Community Organizing

Community organizers create space and time in which groups of people with shared interests come together to think differently, dream bigger, develop a sense of themselves, and take action to build the world that they want to live in.

The Democratic Arts of Combination

“In democratic countries, knowledge of how to combine is the mother of all other forms of knowledge; on its progress depends that of all the others.”–Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

A commons is… A shared resource that is subject to dilemmas.


Community resource data is a commons: • Public information but not a ‘public good’• Non-subtractive and non-exclusive (can be used by multiple

parties for multiple purposes without being depleted)• Decays rapidly, costly to maintain


Community resource data is a commons: • Public information but not a ‘public good’• Non-subtractive and non-exclusive (can be used by multiple

parties for multiple purposes without being depleted)• Decays rapidly, costly to maintain

Tragedy of the community resource data commons: • Enclosure (institutional ownership)• Not interoperable (not readable by external systems)• Grassroots collection efforts are unsustainable.• So: redundant, fragmented, inefficient, etc

Tragedy Drama of the commons

"At any time that individuals may gain from the costly action of others, without themselves contributing time and effort, they face collective action dilemmas for which there are coping methods.” ~ Nobel Laureate Elinor Ostrom

Okay. Story time!

The District of Columbia:

In the late 90s, a consortium of service providers tried to develop a city-wide resource directory system.

The project failed due to power struggle over data ownership. The DC Government assumed responsibility.

In 2004, the DC government certified as a 2-1-1 system.

The government merged 2-1-1 into its 3-1-1 calling center.

There was never an investment in updating the data.

At Bread for the City: Resource directory with 1500 services – in Access.

2 out of 3 “walk-ins” just get referred elsewhere.

Many come just for referrals.

'Walk-ins'

Referral

Intake

Community-produced Resource Directories:

Key point:

Social workers and other service providers deal with this information every day.

In any given community, some of them take time to aggregate it.

This knowledge, when aggregated, is valuable.

Community-Driven web-based I&R projects

Open 211

DC Food Finder

BRIDGE Project

Vendors flooding the space:

Vendors:

Pros: • Innovative, service-

oriented features• User-friendly design• Both long overdue!

Cons: • Each vendor creates

their own database, treats data as competitive advantage

• More privatization and fragmentation!

Key point:

These vendors are emerging, and finding success.

They are finding success because people and institutions need this data in their own workflow.

Some of them are willing to pay money to access it.

Code for America

Founded in 2009 to address the widening gap between the public and private sectors in their effective use of technology and design.

Embed ‘fellows’ (geeks) in city and county governments for year-long residencies where they try to solve problems.

Government as platform

• Public information as open, machine-readable, re-usable and re-mixable data.

• Citizen contribution and collaboration• Transparency• Lightweight development practices• Cloud computing

(O’Reilly 2009)

Civic hacking

Hacking is not criminal activity.

Hacking means ‘creative problem solving.’

Many creative people out there want to help solve problems.

Open211: FAIL

● 211: data on decentralized social sector, not one gov system

● Open211: just a database app

• I&Rs are mostly private orgs, don’t fall under executive mandate

• I&R Data is labor intensive

• “The crowd” isn’t great at generating this data. It’s obscure, complex, and sensitive.

“Open” Civic Technology: Open211 vs Open311

Open311: Success

• 311: municipal service requests

• Open311 = a set of standards and protocols for opening 311 systems via ‘API’

● “Government as platform”

• External applications can read from and even write to a city’s service request system.

• See: SeeClickFix, other apps.

What is an API?

• A set of instructions that enable information systems to ‘talk’ to each other.

• A contract. (‘You give me this, I’ll give you that.’)

• A web page used by software

Draw an API: MAAAAGIC

Draw an API: Robot orifices

Draw an API: a friendly server

Draw an API: Cake Factory

Draw an API: Robot Bartender

Draw an API: a church

API - Ohanapi.orgProduced by Code for America’s 2013 fellows.For San Mateo County in California.

Ohana API is a ‘reference implementation’ of the Open Referral model.

A reference implementation is an example.

It’s Open Source – you can download it for freeyou can see the source codeyou can adapt it to fit your needs.

Schema.org: ‘Civic Services Schema’

“A new vocabulary… has been proposed to improve search engines’ understanding of these services. It is intended to provide enough information to determine the service, the area covered by the service, and relevant information for using the service.” http://blog.schema.org/

Diff schemas for diff purposes:

• XML developed by AIRS

• For exchange of data between 211 systems

• Also used by HUD and HMIS systems

AIRS XSD

• HTML markup language proposed by Google

• For search engines and associated products

• Designed for federal/city services, but extensible to social services

• Could be interoperable with AIRS?

W3C Civic Services schema???

'Walk-ins'

Referral

Intake

Back in DC:

STEP 1: MERGE THE

DATA

UNIQUE ID for every service, to be

recognized by every database.

STEP 2: Open the DATA COMMONS

Cloud-based data catalogue

withOpen API

(Application Programming

Interface)

SUCCESS???

STEP 3: INSTITUTIONA

L REALIGNMEN

T

Building a better system.

Building a healthier ecosystem.

These are dilemmas.

There are solutions.

We need to discover them.

Enter: the Open Referral Initiative


Goal: develop the means to ensure that all this stuff is open, interoperable, reliable, sustainable.

• A common language for structuring community resource directory data, and protocols for exchanging it.

• Demo open platforms that can integrate existing and new referral systems.


Scope:

• Service directory data (organizations -> services -> sites) – that’s it.

• Designed in accordance with AIRS XSD and W3C schema.

• Supporting local implementations of this model


Process:

• Multi-stakeholder engagement

• Participatory action research

• Iterative user testing

• Tiers of Local/global governance


Local Teams:

• Stakeholders at center: organizations and civic groups that make referrals daily

• Vendors as partners, implementing according to user prerogatives.


Working Group

• Subject matter specialists: academics, vendors, people with expertise in interoperability

• Reviewing and advising local teams• Researching options for

governance/sustainability


Values

• Accessibility • Interoperability• Reliability• Sustainability

Thanks for listening.

Let's talk!

[email protected]://openreferral.org

Icons by the Noun Projecthttp://thenounproject.com

Application by Kyle Sasquie Klitch

Data File by iconoci

Groupby Tonielle Krisanski

Libraryby libberry

Databaseby Romeo Barreto

Category by Berkay Sargin

Community Mappingby Iconathon

Databy United Nations OCHA

Tagby Ian Hamilton

Community Health Advocateby Edward Boatman

Introducing Open Referral Greg Bloom | [email protected] Chief Organizing Officer, Open...

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