Citygram is a notification platform designed to improve citizen engagement by utilizing open data to provide timely and relevant information about city activities. It aims to proactively inform citizens, reduce the workload on city staff, and showcase the capabilities of open data portals. The document outlines its goals, guiding principles, integration processes, and offers a case study on its application in Lexington, KY.

1. Making Open
Data Useful
BY 2014 CODE FOR AMERICA FELLOWS
Danny Whalen // @invisiblefunnel
Erik Schwartz // @eeeschwartz
Livien Yin // @livienyin

2. Here’s what we’re talking about today!
● What is Citygram?
● How does it work?
● Why was it built this way?
● How can you get involved?
● How did this work in Lexington?

3. This is about designing
for the community.

4. Get ya awesome on
Citygram is a notifications platform for
subscribing to your city. It uses the power of
open data to inform you of the things you care
about, where you care about them.

5. 3 GOALS FOR CITYGRAM
01 // increase citizen engagement
by providing automated, meaningful info about what the city is doing
02 // be proactive, not reactive
reduce the burden on staff to respond to repetitive requests
03 // demonstrate the capabilities of
city open data portals
build trust with citizens through openness and accessibility

6. UNDERSTANDING THE CONSTRAINTS
USE CASE // civic apps are not the intended
use case for open gov data
SPEED // gov data systems are not designed
for speed
CADENCE // data reflects the processes
through which it was created

8. Screen Shot
The Open Data Site

9. FOUR KEY GUIDING PRINCIPLES
1. User Experience Design: start with user needs to transform
data in a way that is accessible to citizens.
2. Agile Development: a process of iterative, incremental
software development that values constant learning and
building.
3. Flexibility: be able to hook into machine-readable data
sources in common formats.
4. Generalizable: across cities, for the greatest possible
impact.

10. BACK-END ARCHITECTURE SKETCH

11. HOW IT WORKS

12. How can you integrate your
open data with Citygram?
citygram.org

13. HOW DOES A DATASET BECOME A CITYGRAM TOPIC?
CRITERIA WE’RE LOOKING FOR:
#1 meets citizen needs
is there interest? does the city receive a lot of requests about this?
#2 consistently updated
anywhere from every three minutes to once a month.
#3 accessible via API
any standard, machine-readable format. JSON / CSV preferred.
#4 has both time + geo component
notifications are sent in real time if the event location is in the
citizen’s area of interest.

16. DATA TRANSFORMATION // extract, transform, load to geoJSON
{
"Y_COORD": "535574",
"PROJECTNAME": "Auto Sales",
"X_COORD": "1499638",
"RECORDOPENDATE": "2014-02-07T00:00:00",
"TASK": "Info Received",
"COORDINATORNAME": "Alice Christenbury",
"PROJECTDESCRIPTION": "Construct retail auto sales facility on vacant parcel. Grading permit, tree
review, storm water detention, and PCCO review is required.",
"PROJECTTYPE": "Commercial (Regular 15 business day Review)",
"URL": "https://aca.accela.com/charlotte/Cap/CapDetail.aspx%63Module=
LandDevelopment&TabName=LandDevelopment&capID1=14LDC&capID2=00000&capID3=00012",
"OWNERNAME": "FRANCIS BROTHERS INVESTMENT GROUP LLC",
"RECORDSTATUS": "Approved",
"OWNERADDRESS": "6831 PINE LAKE LN",
"PROJECTNUMBER": "LDC-2014-00012",
"PARCELNUMBER": "11116306",
"PROJECTMODULE": "LandDevelopment",
"ADDRESS": "9907 ALBEMARLE RD, CHARLOTTE, NC 28227",
"RECORDSTATUSDATE": "2014-08-07T00:00:00",
"CONTACTADDRESS": "",
"_id": 8032,
"OWNERPHONE": "7045023809"
}

17. CURATION // what elements are important to the citizen?
{
"Y_COORD": "535574",
"PROJECTNAME": "Auto Sales",
"X_COORD": "1499638",
"RECORDOPENDATE": "2014-02-07T00:00:00",
"TASK": "Info Received",
"COORDINATORNAME": "Alice Christenbury",
"PROJECTDESCRIPTION": "Construct retail auto sales facility on vacant parcel. Grading permit, tree
review, storm water detention, and PCCO review is required.",
"PROJECTTYPE": "Commercial (Regular 15 business day Review)",
"URL": "https://aca.accela.com/charlotte/Cap/CapDetail.aspx%63Module=
LandDevelopment&TabName=LandDevelopment&capID1=14LDC&capID2=00000&capID3=00012",
"OWNERNAME": "FRANCIS BROTHERS INVESTMENT GROUP LLC",
"RECORDSTATUS": "Approved",
"OWNERADDRESS": "6831 PINE LAKE LN",
"PROJECTNUMBER": "LDC-2014-00012",
"PARCELNUMBER": "11116306",
"PROJECTMODULE": "LandDevelopment",
"ADDRESS": "9907 ALBEMARLE RD, CHARLOTTE, NC 28227",
"RECORDSTATUSDATE": "2014-08-07T00:00:00",
"CONTACTADDRESS": "",
"_id": 8032,
"OWNERPHONE": "7045023809"
}

18. TRANSLATION // turn machine-speak into human speak
ELEMENTS
> project name
> project description
> URL
> address
TEMPLATE
Hi! A new land development
permit has been submitted near
you at [ADDRESS]. The project is
called [PROJECTNAME] and
proposes to [PROJECT
DESCRIPTION]. Find out more at
[URL].

19. ➜

20. Citygram as
a platform

21. SpyGlass:
API adapters
AKA
INTRODUCING...
“web content transformation proxy” (lolz)

22. Lexington, KY
Citygram Integration: a case study

23. MOST BASIC REQUIREMENTS
Create a geoJSON file for each dataset

24. WHERE WE WANT TO END UP
Perfectly flowing data
(go back in time for a great
session at 9am today!)

25. GET LEAN
We inched our way towards automation
Kept system continually integrated

26. SHORT VERSION
Pentaho Data Integration to update
the data portal
We schedule it 2x’s per hour

27. SIDE NOTE // geocoder to find address and parcel info

28. You can use many
other geocoders

29. OPEN DATA PORTALS
We’re still evaluating best approach

30. Extremely flexible: Beauty of Citygram
Save a geoJSON file to a webserver
Citygram picks it up!

31. MORE FLEXIBILITY // more better
Use whatever automation/ETL
processes at your disposal

32. VERY IMPORTANT
Get to know and love each dataset.
Evaluate the possible messages for the available information.

33. Let’s make this meaningful!
Woo

34. Try it out!

35. thank you.
questions, comments welcome
citygram@codeforamerica.org
#citygram
@invisiblefunnel // @eeeschwartz // @livienyin