Author: Greg Bloom

  • Our 2017 Year in Review

    Our 2017 Year in Review

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    Greg Bloom
    in

    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

    Meet The Human Service Data API Protocols

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    by

    Greg Bloom
    in

    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

    Our Video: Open Referral in Three Minutes

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    by

    Greg Bloom
    in

    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

    Miami Open211 Phase One: Our Report

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    Greg Bloom
    in ,

    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

    Talking Open Referral at Stanford’s Data on Purpose

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    by

    Greg Bloom
    in ,

    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

    The Open Referral API project

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    by

    Greg Bloom
    in ,

    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.…

  • Our 2016 Year in Review

    Our 2016 Year in Review

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    by

    Greg Bloom
    in

    I’m pleased to share Open Referral’s 2016 Year in Review. (You can browse the document here, download the complete PDF here, or skim through the document embedded at the end of this post.) Continue reading →

  • Welcoming Benetech to Open Referral!

    Welcoming Benetech to Open Referral!

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    Greg Bloom
    in

    We’re pleased to announce a new strategic partnership with Benetech, one of the world’s leading non-profit software development organizations. Benetech was formed in 1989 and in the time since has developed a series of products that have improved lives and transformed industries around the world — starting with Bookshare (the world’s largest online library of…

  • Leveling up: documentation improvements and spec upgrade

    Leveling up: documentation improvements and spec upgrade

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    by

    Greg Bloom
    in

    Last year, Open Referral introduced Version 1.0 of the Human Services Data Specification — an open data exchange format designed to make it easier for different organizations to share standardized information about the health, human, and social services available to people in need. Since then, a broad range of organizations have used the HSDS to…