Chattanooga, Tennessee has launched a new open data application called City Insider. The application uses data from the Chattanooga Public Library’s Open Data Portal and offers it in an interactive map that allows users to see city services and understand data points like crime statistics.
Users can see where their neighborhood associations are located and learn about which City Council district they are in as well as view a heat map that visualizes recent crime data. “The City Insider will be an asset to individuals and neighborhood associations in Chattanooga who want info about crime or 311 reports,” said Gwenda Gregory of the Lake Hills Neighborhood Association in a statement on the launch of the application.
Chattanooga partnered with open data software provider Socrata to create the tool.
A statement from the Mayor’s office noted that more data will be added in the future, although few details were provided about what types of data or where it would come from.
The Office of Performance Management and Open Data is supporting the tool and will be responsible for keeping the data up-to-date. Website users can create a personal account and get alerts when data they are interested in is updated.
The Office of Performance Management and Open Data was established in 2015 and manages all of the city’s open data work. This is just the third year for Chattanooga’s open data policy. The city recently released its annual report detailing efforts to improve transparency. That report showed that citizen engagement with the city’s open data tools is high, but overall views are down dramatically since last year.
