Info

for Ac)vism session 1: Naviga)ng city data resources

Susan Mernit, Barbara Grady Oakland Local

City info resources:

City main site: hDp://oaklandnet.com City council & city council commiDees calendar, agendas and reports/memos, hDp://oakland.legistar.com/calendar.aspx Mayor Quans site, hDp://www2.oaklandnet.com/Government/o/Mayor/ index.htm Oakland Police site, hDp://www.oaklandpolice.com/ City Auditor, hDp://www.oaklandauditor.com Oakland City ADorney, hDp://www.oaklandcityaDorney.org/

Cri)cal links to nd stu

Index page: Oakland city government: hDp://www2.oaklandnet.com/Government/index.htm Legistar calendar with all commiDees, agendas, report links: hDp://oakland.legistar.com/calendar.aspx Business index page: hDp://www2.oaklandnet.com/Business/index.htm Quality of life index hDp://www2.oaklandnet.com/Residents/index.htm

Work arounds
Search the web: pdf + date range Search the city sites Request public informa)on: hDp://www.oaklandcityaDorney.org/ Resources/PubInfoRequest.html Sign up for email updates (new):
City memorandums: hDp://bit.ly/O4RZnF City news room(last updated April): hDp://bit.ly/NIaa02

Challenges
Poor taxonomy/structure to site Poor search; confusing results, not able to search by date PDFs are uncopyable; hard to nd; incomprehensible naming structure Weak alerts, no RSS feeds, so hard to track, monitor or keep up Security by obscurity/best kept secrets

Solu)ons
Open data pla]orms RSS-enabled fees Readable PDFs BeDer search structure More tutorials on using the site Use cases

Preso on scribd: hDp://www.scribd.com/oakloc