Author: Greg Bloom

  • New research finds urgent needs for interoperability across health, human, and social service sectors

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    Greg Bloom
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    It often doesn’t matter how clever or well-designed a new technology is – if it can’t easily work with other technologies (and other organizations and people) then it may not accomplish much good at all. In the last month, three significant reports have underscored this reality – one each from the US (produced by the Social…

  • Open Referral’s 2018 Year in Review

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    Greg Bloom
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    We are pleased to share our Year in Review report for 2018! This was the Open Referral Initiative’s fifth year – and in several ways, 2018 stands as a culmination of all the work we’ve done to date. Continue reading →

  • The Florida Legal Aid Resource Federation: Pilot Report

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    Greg Bloom
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    After two years of development, we’re pleased to share details of our successful Florida Legal Aid Resource Federation pilot! Initiated in 2016 (see our original post here) and completed in 2018, with support from the Legal Services Corporation and the Florida Bar Foundation, the Florida Legal Aid Resource Federation (FLARF) was a complex project with a…

  • Open Referral receives fiscal sponsorship from Aspiration

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    Greg Bloom
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    Happy new year! In celebration, I’m excited to share news about a big milestone in the evolution of the Open Referral Initiative: Open Referral is now fiscally sponsored by Aspiration, a 501c3 organization that provides facilitation and capacity-building support to nonprofit technology initiatives. Continue reading →

  • Our 2017 Year in Review

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    Greg Bloom
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    Happy new year! (We’re less than three weeks in, so we can still say that – right??) Open Referral’s 2017 Year in Review is available to read here, and embedded below. (See our previous year-in-review reports here in our public document gallery.) Continue reading →

  • Meet The Human Service Data API Protocols

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    Greg Bloom
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    Open Referral’s Human Service Data API protocols (HSDA v1.2) are ready for use! Check out our documentation site here. Use our live developer portal here. Finally (for geeks and non-geeks): read the report on this phase of our development. And read more about this exciting new chapter below: Continue reading →

  • Our Video: Open Referral in Three Minutes

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    Greg Bloom
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    Open Referral is grappling with a complex, systemic issue – so we made an animated video to explain the problem and our approach to solutions in just a few minutes. Check it out here: The Open Referral Explainer from Open Referral on Vimeo. Continue reading →

  • Miami Open211 Phase One: Our Report

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    Greg Bloom
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    Last year, the Miami Open211 project set out to demonstrate that an information-and-referral helpline operator can evolve into an open platform — providing machine-readable data as a service to its community — in ways that are both technically efficient and institutionally sustainable. This project, which began in partnership with Switchboard of Miami, was Open Referral’s first formal pilot with…

  • Talking Open Referral at Stanford’s Data on Purpose

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    Greg Bloom
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    Last month I visited Stanford to speak at the 2017 Data on Purpose conference, sponsored by Stanford’s Center for Philanthropy and Civil Society, the Stanford Social Innovation Review and Digital Impact (née Markets for Good). From Possibilities To Responsibilities: Unlocking Data and Unleashing Its Potential (Jake Porway et al) from Stanford PACS. Much of the…

  • The Open Referral API project

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    Greg Bloom
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    The Open Referral Initiative’s next chapter starts now! Open Referral has helped over a dozen community organizations find new ways to share resource directory information about the health, human, and social services available to people in need. Our Human Services Data Specification provides a common ‘machine language’ that any technology can be programmed to understand.…