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TODD LIghtning Talks

TODD 2016 Lightning Talks

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Raleigh, NC – The lightning talks for Triangle Open Data Day have been announced and this is a great line up of speakers! There is still time to register for TODD.

Lightning Talks

TODD and Lightning Talk Details

The lightning talks are scheduled from 11 am to 12:30 pm on Saturday, March 5, 2016.

  • TODD Website
  • When: Saturday, March 5, 2016 at 8:30 AM – Sunday, March 6, 2016 at 5:00 PM (EST)
  • Where: College of Engineering Engineering Building II, NCSU Centennial Campus, 890 Oval Dr, Raleigh, NC 27606
  • Why: Help our cities and counties by using open data
  • TODD Registration Site
Lightning NOAA by C. Clark – NOAA Photo Library

Picture from Triangle Open Data Day 2014 - pictures by Mitch Amiano

TODD2016 – Keynote and Schedule

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Raleigh, NC – The Schedule and Keynote for Triangle Open Data Day 2016 (TODD) have been announced: Read more →

Citygram Triangle Logo

Citygram Launches in Research Triangle, NC

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Research Triangle, NC – The Code for Cary brigade of Code for America has led the launch of the first regional instance of the civic app Citygram, Citygram Triangle, NC.

What is Citygram?

Citygram is a civic engagement app that takes open data and transforms it into timely, highly localized updates on topics of importance to citizens. It was developed during the 2014 Code for America fellowship program in Charlotte, N.C., and refined through a strong collaboration between the City of Charlotte and the Code for Charlotte brigade. It later won a Code for America Technology Award.

Citygram Triangle launched with the most requested open dataset, crime incident data. Citygram Triangle combines the stream of crime incident data from the Durham open data and Raleigh open data portals along with Cary crime incident data collected by Code for Cary through public records requests and processed on their brigade open data portal.

How Do I Subscribe to Citygram Triangle?

First, bring up the Citygram site in your browser and select “Research Triangle, NC” from the pull down menu of “your city” (https://www.citygram.org/)

Citygram Triangle NC Registration

  1. Select the data stream that you want to be notified of. As of now this is only crime incident data, but additional data streams will be added soon by the Triangle Code for America Brigades.
  2. Enter your address.
  3. Select the city where you live. Note, this step is only to resolve your address. It will not limit your access of data to the city you have selected. If you live on the boundary of an adjoining city, you will receive alerts from both cities.
  4. Select the notification diameter of your request. You will see some information appear below the map of how often you would have been notified in the past week which will give you an idea of how big you want your notification diameter
  5. Select if you want to be notified by text or e-mail.

A very simple process! You will be notified as data is updated in the triangle area open data portals.

What about crime incident data from Apex, Chapel Hill, Morrisville, Wake Forest, etc? When will you be able to be notified of activity in these parts of the Triangle? The answer is that Citygram can only alert you to information that is streamed into the app from open data portals. We would encourage you to discuss this with your elected officials to see if this can become a priority for your town.

Want to See More From Citygram Triangle?

The best way is to attend one or more of the Code for America brigade meetups in the Triangle and get involved. There are brigades in Cary, Durham and Raleigh and one of our ongoing projects will be to add additional datasets to Citygram Triangle.

If you don’t live in the Triangle, please look at joining a brigade nearer to you. There are existing brigades in Asheville, Charlotte, Greensboro, and newly forming brigades in Wilmington and Winston-Salem.

Previous Tech Tank Articles on Code for America and Open Data

All Things Open 2015

All Things Open – A Huge Success!

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Raleigh, NC – All Things Open 2015 continues the series of this very popular event in Raleigh, NC with another huge success:

  • Attendance reported at over 1,750.
  • A great lineup of thought leaders in the Open fields.
  • Great networking opportunities.
  • A “Who’s Who” of the vendor community.
  • etc…

If you are not here, I bet you wish you were.

Day 1 was phenomenal and Day 2 looks just as good. This is not a conference where you attend a session because it mildly interests you, this is a conference where you are torn between 2 or 3 options that you really want to attend.

Make sure that All Things Open is on your calendar for next year!

Previous Articles on All Things Open

NC Emergency Management Hackshop

Emergency Management Hackshop – Wilmington Nov 6-7

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Wilmington, NC – The State of North Carolina, UNC Wilmington, US Census Bureau, Presidential Innovation Fellows, ESRI and Waffle.io are teaming up to hold the NC Emergency Management Hackshop in Wilmington on November 6-7, 2015. This is a free two day event for social good, to improve community response during an emergency.

NC Emergency Management Hackshop Details

  • What: NC Emergency Management Hackshop
  • When: Friday, November 6, 2015 from 6pm to 10pm and Saturday, November 7, 2015 from 9am to 7pm
  • Where: UNC Wilmington, Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 803 S. College Road, Wilmington, NC 28403
  • Why: Help to improve community response during an emergency.
  • NC Emergency Management Hackshop Registration Site

Hackshop History in NC

This is the second Hackshop run in North Carolina. The Hackshop is part hackathon and part lean workshop with a format created by the team at Waffle.io.

In September, the US Census Bureau ran an Open Data Hackshop in Raleigh. Information about that Hackshop can be found in the following Tech Tank Articles:

Civicon 2015 - Nov 6-8 in Greensboro

Civicon 2015 – Greensboro Nov 6-8

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Greensboro, NC – Think that Tech events only happen in the Triangle in NC? Think again as Code for Greensboro launches Civicon 2015 in the shiny new HQ Greensboro entrepreneurial hub and the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering in Greensboro, NC. Civicon will be held November 6-8 and looks to be a great event. This is an easy day drive from the Triangle and Metrolina. Register soon before the early bird tickets are all gone!

If you want to go to just check out the really cool venues, please do that another time as this is for participants not tourists! (The Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering (JSSN) is a partnership between UNCG and NC A&T and has some really cool labs and research going on. Hopefully we will get a chance to take a tour during the weekend.)

Civicon 2015 Details

All Things Open 2015

All Things Open 2015

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Raleigh, NC – The world’s top developers, technologists and decision makers will gather on October 19-20 in Raleigh, NC for the third annual All Things Open conference.

Join the world’s top developers, technologists, and decision makers as we explore open source, open tech, and the open web in the enterprise.

Two days of keynotes, talks, tutorials, workshops and networking opportunities in Raleigh and the Research Triangle area.

Why Attend All Things Open?

  1. All Things Open is all about EDUCATION
  2. The content is world-class
  3. Nearly 90% of all organizations use open technology and it’s
    driving innovation
  4. The networking is incredible
  5. The value and ROI are tremendous

All Things Open Details:

Previous Articles on All Things Open:

NC Datapalooza Logo

NC DataPalooza Finale is September 21

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Raleigh, NC – The six month long NC Datapalooza competition is coming to a close on September 21, 2015. The competition started on May 16th with a day-long TechJam. Teams from TechJam, teams from CityCamp NC and others entered into the competition. Last week there was a pitch day and 3 teams were selected for a 30 day sprint prior to the final pitch day on September 21st.

NC Datapalooza Finalists

  • Open 511 – Automate exchange of road closure information from government (and possibly individual reporters) back to navigation systems such as Waze and Google Maps.
  • Bernie Sez – The objective is to create more transparency in our judicial system.
  • Points of Note – Building off the CityCamp NC 2015 winning proposal.

Besides seeing the pitches and hearing from distinguished judges and panelists the event will also feature remarks from Rob Burns, CEO of Predictify.me and a Keynote Speaker – Lee Congdon, CIO at Red Hat.

NC Datapalooza Finale Details

  • What: Join us on September 21st for the third annual NC DataPalooza Finale!
  • Where: Red Hat Annex, 190 East Davie Street, Raleigh, NC 27601
  • When: Monday, September 21, 2015 from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM (EDT)
  • Why: NC DataPalooza is a regional open-data competition that connects local entrepreneurs with relevant, clean data drawn from national, state, and local resources to develop applications and solutions that catalyze positive community and economic impact.
  • NC DataPalooza Website
  • NC Datapalooza Final Event Registration

Previous Articles on NC Datapalooza

Disclosure: Tech Tank Managing Partner Ian Henshaw is a member of the NC Datapalooza finalist team, Open511.

NC Datapalooza Logo

NC Datapalooza Kicks Off on May 16

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Durham, NC – NC Datapalooza kicks off on May 16th with the NC Datapalooza DataJam. This is the third year of NC Datapalooza, an open-data startup competition to catalyze positive community and economic impact.

What is Datapalooza?

In 2009 Todd Park was appointed CTO of the of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). At HHS, Park launched the Community Health Data Initiative, a developer conference and showcase to encourage the development of innovative healthcare applications using open government data – this event became Health Datapalooza and has grown to over 2000 attendees. The White House has grown the Datapalooza brand to include many other areas than just health.

In 2013, leaders in Raleigh including, Christopher Gergen, Jason Widen and Zach Ambrose brought the Datapalooza concept to Raleigh in support of the Innovate Raleigh initiative. NC Datapalooza is a 6 month-long competition to develop new economic activity through the use of open data.

DataJam Details

  • What: NC Datapalooza DataJam – Creating innovation through open data
  • Where: American Underground @Main, 201 W. Main Street, Durham, NC 27701
  • When: Saturday, May 16, 2015 from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM (EDT)
  • Why: A competition to catalyze positive community and economic impact
  • 2015 Datapalooza themes: Public Safety, Health, and Economic Development
  • NC Datapalooza DataJam Registration site
  • NC Datapalooza Website

DataJam Agenda

  • 8-8:30am: Check-in and coffee + light breakfast
  • 8:30-9:00am: Intro to the Competition
  • 9:00-10:00am: Ideation session moderated by data experts
  • 10:00-11:00am: Idea presentation and team formation
  • 11:00am-3:00pm: A hackathon for attendees to work on teams around their ideas (lunch will be served during this time, as well)
  • 3:00-5:00pm: Pitches and feedback session with a panel of judges, plus a Panel Discussion from experts in public safety, health, and economic development

Previous Articles on NC Datapalooza

Open Data Portals in NC

Open Data Portals in NC

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Cary, NC – The open data movement is gaining traction in North Carolina. This month both the Durham City/County portal and the Wake County portal have come on line. Here is a summary of the open data portals currently in operation in North Carolina.

Asheville
Asheville was the first city in North Carolina with an open data portal. The portal was developed in 2012 in support of Asheville’s first Open Data Day. The Asheville portal is powered by Azavea, a B-Corporation out of Philadelphia that specializes in the creation of geographic web and mobile software.

Cary
Cary put up an open data site in support of Cary Open Data Day in 2013. This site consisted of 6 datasets in .csv format and was kept updated for some time following the event. The site is no longer active but we understand that Cary is undertaking an open data program soon so we will wait to see what portal Cary uses.

  • http://data.CaryNC.gov

Charlotte
Charlotte launched their open data portal in late 2014 in conjunction with their Code for America Fellowship program. The Charlotte portal is powered by ESRI, a US company providing geospacial mapping tools.

Durham City and Durham County
Durham City and Durham County released their open data portal in time for Triangle Open Data Day 2015. The Durham portal is powered by OpenDataSoft, a French company providing open data portals.

Raleigh
Raleigh launched their open data portal early 2013 which has been recognized with a 2013 Web 2.0 Award from the Public Technology Institute (PTI). The Raleigh open data portal is powered by Socrata, a US company that provides open data portals.

Wake County
Wake County has just released a Beta open data portal and is looking for public feedback. The Wake County portal is powered by ESRI, a US company providing geospacial mapping tools.

Open NC
Open-NC.org is a catalog of digital public data created by state and local governments in North Carolina. It was created by Ryan Thornburg, an Associate Professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with funding from a Knight Foundation News Challenge grant.

NC Datapalooza
NC Datapalooza is a 6 month long open data competition in NC with 2015 being the third year of this program. The NC Datapalooza open data portal is powered by Socrata, a US company that provides open data portals.

Open Data Portal Location Visualizations

We wanted to give our readers some idea of the power of embedding visualizations into their stories. First we created a simple .csv file that included the pertinent data about the open data portals in NC. We used the geocordinates from GeoHack. Since the writer has access to a Socrata and OpenDataSoft portal, the csv file was uploaded to the portals and the resulting visualizations were embedded in this post.

Changes to the underlying data set in the portal will be immediately available to the visualizations on your post. This means that your visualization will always be current and there will be no need to republish based on updated information. Of course if you want a snapshot in time you can always embed a screen shot of the visualization.

Socrata

OpenDataSoft

Previous Articles on Open Data

Disclosure: The writer is an organizer of NC Datapalooza (which has a full Socrata portal) and a Brigade Captain of Code for Cary (which has a full OpenDataSoft Portal as well as a brigade level Socrata portal)