Author: Greg Bloom
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2015 In Review: Much Progress and Many Thanks
As we wrap up 2015, I’ve taken a moment to review our progress over the course of the year. It’s been a long journey with lots of moving pieces, and I’m so inspired by the many people who are playing roles of all kinds in this collective effort to reimagine a safety net for the…
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Data for Good Exchange: a new paper with an old concept
In late September I had the privilege to discuss our work at the Data for Good Exchange, a symposium hosted by Bloomberg. As part of the event, I presented a paper which you can read here. Much of the paper recaps the thinking and work behind the Open Referral initiative to date…. Then, taking into…
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New Partnerships up North: Open Referral in Canada
[UPDATE: The Ontario Non-Profit Network has posted its ‘Data Strategy,’ which specifically references the emerging partnerships described below. Check it out!] Canada is an international leader in the field of open data, especially in the non-profit sector. The Canadian Revenue Agency was the first government entity of its kind to publish open, machine-readable data about…
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Huertas de Datos: Open Referral in Madrid
Early last month, I traveled to Madrid to discuss the community resource directory data problem, and our work here in the Open Referral initiative, at the commencement of a civic hacking workshop hosted by Medialab-Prado. Medialab-Prado is a publicly-funded “citizen laboratory for the production, research and dissemination of cultural projects that explore collaborative forms of…
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Open Referral all over: hacks at Code Across and Open Data Day
Last month, during International Open Data Day — which coincided with Code for America’s CodeAcross activities throughout the weekend of February 20-22nd — hundreds of civic hacking events around the world brought together community leaders, technologists, planners, government officials, and more. Participants identified common challenges and worked together to envision, design, and even prototype new…
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Deep Dive into version 1.0
Earlier this month, we published version 1.0 of the Human Service Data Specification (HSDS). Let’s take a deeper dive into it. What is the Human Service Data Specification (HSDS)? The HSDS is a format for data exchange, specifically designed to enable the publication of machine-readable data about health, human, and social services that are available…
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Introducing Version 1.0 of the Human Service Data Specification
We’re pleased to announce the release of version 1.0 of the Human Services Data Specification (HSDS, also known as the Open Referral format). Read the specification here: Google Docs and Github. The purpose of HSDS is to make it easy for community resource directory data to be exchanged among different kinds of information systems, in order to make information…
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Our Inaugural Year in Review
As we wrap up 2015, I’ve taken a moment to recap our launch and progress so far in an End of Year Report. The document is available for comment and download here. I’m including my own note of introduction here: Last year, in 2013, I saw an opportunity. While working on what we now call DC…
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Year in Review: a lot to shout-out about
As the year winds to a close, I want to take a moment to give thanks to some of the people who have made the Open Referral Initiative possible so far. My first thanks should go to Bread for the City in D.C., where this whole initiative began. BFC is a rare and inspiring kind…
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Final ‘Request for Comment’ period before version 1.0
[Update: Embedded video/notes from Assembly discussions on 12/5.] We’ve just posted version 0.8 of the Human Service Data Specification. Check it out here. See an example CSV package here, and SQL examples here. Among various other changes, the model now includes the means to overlay a taxonomy for types of services. It also specifies more…