• May 6, 2022
• Civic Data

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Boston’s New CIO To Focus on Unlocking City Data

Santiago Garces, the incoming Chief Innovation Officer for Boston, outlines his plans to expand on the city’s open-data and analytics capabilities, as well as increase internet access in low-income and underserved communities. Garces has experience rolling out open-data platforms in his former CIO roles with South Bend and Pittsburgh and is a member of the Civic Analytics Network at the Kennedy School.

BRADFORD TODAY: New Interactive Tools Maps Out Internet Speeds Across Simcoe County

In Simcoe, Canada a new online tool helps residents and public officials see internet options, speeds, and connectivity around the county. This tool can help quickly spot disparities and gaps in service and is based on open data from the federal government.

NEWS 4 SAN ANTONIO: City Discusses How to Include People with Disabilities as They Move to “Smart” Technology

At the Texas Smart Cities Summit this month, there was an important discussion around disability and access to civic technology. With hundreds of thousands of people in San Antonio living with disabilities, local leaders underscored the importance of including their voices and enabling their participation in city matters. To that end, San Antonio rolled out a new city website that scores up to 99 percent for accessibility, a significant improvement compared to their prior website which scored 60-70 percent.

GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY: Wyoming Dashboard to Use Data to Bolster State Workforce 

Employers and job seekers in Wyoming have a new data tool dedicated to workforce building in the state. The Business Occupational Outlook Tool Sets dashboard has a suite of tools, data, and job postings that support local economic growth and encourage skills-matching for job seekers.

JOURNALIST RESOURCE: How They Did It: Propublica Reporters Expose Hot Spots Of Toxic Air Pollution Across The US 

This interview outlines the massive data project underlining the recent “Sacrifice Zones” publication, that exposed extreme air pollution and toxicity near industrial facilities nationwide. The authors used a supercomputer to analyze more than seven billion rows of data from the Environmental Protection Agency and create one of the most detailed maps of cancer-causing air pollution ever created, with a specific focus on Texas and Louisiana.   

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE: S.F. Chronicle Sells out its First Ever “Datathon”

San Francisco, California held an all-day event to educate attendees about data journalism. Unique to this event was the involvement of city employees including presentations by San Francisco’s Chief Data Officer and an analytics engineer who explained what their roles are and how to make use of the city’s open data.