Back in August, we organized a few get-togethers in New York for those interested in the mayor's BigApps contest. During those sessions, we dug around and found that the city already publishes a LOT of data: GIS maps, 311 information, event calendars, crime data...

Tomorrow at 1 pm--a few hours after Michael Bloomberg's keynote at the PdF Conference--the New York City Council will hold a hearing on a proposed bill to open all city data. Quoting Sam Wong,

The bill will require the City to create a centralized online repository of all publicly available information that is either produced or retained by the City. Furthermore, data published under this legislation will be done so in a format that will be readable by any computer device, whether that is a laptop or a phone. Not only will this collection of information be invaluable to elected officials, other government agencies and public advocates, but it can also be used by private citizens who could use the information in ingenious and unforeseen ways.

While national attention on swine flu seems to have dwindled, the issue has new life in New York City this week following the Sunday death of a Queens assistant principal. Attendance rates at New York schools are still down, and 24 schools were closed yesterday. The NYC Department of Education has posted attendance statistics on its Web site in an apparent effort to track the virus.

If the department continues to do this (and provides the numbers in XML), this could become a handy tool for spotting the rise, spread and decline of future viruses. Over time, the data could also help spot previously unnoticed attendance patterns: do certain neighborhoods have lower attendance on certain days of the week? Does the weather affect some schools more acutely than others? While the city has the data necessary to answer these questions themselves, they don't necessarily have the resources that make such answers easy. I hope the DoE continues posting this information, because requesting the public's help can only make their hard jobs easier.

New York State's Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees NYC subways and buses and two metro train systems, faces a $1.2 billion deficit this year. A quarter of the deficit is caused by the reduction of corporate and real estate tax revenue, which make up about 15% of the MTA's total budget. These revenue sources are going to keep falling for the next few years.

So the New York Senate is asking the public how to shore up the MTA's budget. (This appears to be the work of Andrew Hoppin, the Senate's new Chief Information Officer.)

I think this has great potential--not just to engage citizens, but as an actual means of helping the MTA.