Census Developer Program

and CitySDK Update

Jeff Meisel

Chief Marketing Officer

Customer Liaison and Marketing Services Office

https://www.census.gov/developers/

https://github.com/uscensusbureau

Today’s Discussion

Where we

are Today

Census

Developer

Program

Where we

are Going

Creat ing

Scale

Census Developer Program

APIs

CitySDK

CEDSCI

Wikidata

Open Mapping

Hackathons

The Opportunity Project

Tools for Data Science

The success of our APIs means that our

customers have big – and growing –

expectations for us.

John H. Thompson

Director of the U.S. Census Bureau

Open Data Science Conference

Saturday, May 21st 2016

Our Challenge

Developer Audience Growth

18532417

3249

4568

6022

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

New API Keys

New API Keys

CitySDK

Why create a Software Development Kit?

The project goal is to increase productivity on new projects and “just handle it” for developers.

During the beta release in 2015 targeted at Javascript programmers, user research showed a reduction in the on-boarding time (for JS developers) from > 12 hours to < 4 when using Census data to build an application.

What’s New with CitySDK

What’s new in version 2.0 (alpha)

Version 1.0 was limited to Javascript

developers, as it was packaged as a JS

library. In order to support any

programming language, the project has

been re-architected with a Node JS back-

end running the Commerce Data Service

cloud. Now, the CitySDK capabilities are

accessible through an API proxy, making

the tool an option for developers of any

programming language.

PythonJS R +

Open Data

Language Support

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Case Study:

Healthy Food Options

Hackathon Case Study:

Puerto Rico

• Coordinated with, and hosted at Sacred Heart University’s innovation and collaborative space, as well as the neighboring Studio Lab.

• Exceeded our goal of 50 attendees (107 registrants, via Eventbrite registration page)

“This collaboration marks a paradigm shift for innovation in Puerto Rico. Community needs and opportunities, in this case of Santurce, along with those within the community of Sacred Heart, become catalyst of creativity and knowledge for our hackers who have produced innovative solutions to prevailing challenges,” Javier De Jesús, Director for the Innovation and Collaborative Center at Sacred Heart University.

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Hackathon Case Study:

Hack the Last Mile

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Hackathon Case Study:

Amazon Alexa Skills Challenge

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My Income Data as a Service

The Opportunity Project

opportunity.census.gov

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The Opportunity Project:

Private Sector Tools

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The Opportunity Project:

Private Sector Tools

Where We are Going

“Creating Scale”

Wikidata

Project led by the Commerce Data Service

Sasan Bahadaran – Data Engineer, CDSLogan Powell – Census Developer Program

Wikidata

Project Phase 1: Create bot to automatically write

Census data from Census APIs to Wikidata

``CENSUS API

Wikidata

VALUE

QUALIFIERS

OPENEDREFERENCES

STATEMENTGROUP

Wikidata

Project Phase 2: Create bot to automatically write data from Wikidata to Wikipedia

Wikidata

INFOBOX

VALUE

Citizen mappers make a difference: Post-

earthquake Mapping in Port-au-Prince

Source: http://www.harrywood.co.uk/blog/

Open Mapping

Open Mapping

Missing America

• Missing America is a new initiative to engage student geographers to map

some of the marginalized and remote places across the US.

• The purpose of this program:

– Make Census Bureau geographic expertise visible to the next generation

geographers - this is how we ‘do’ geography

– Start a conversation between the Bureau and citizen scientists and

constituents using the OpenStreetMap platform - this is how we ‘use’

geography

– Reward student mappers with service learning credit for demonstrated

proficiency in mapping techniques - hooray, you’ve learned some geo-skills

Open Mapping

• Students select a tile in the

project area to work on

– Digitize all roads, buildings,

and noteworthy features

– Students correct errors and fix

incorrect geometry, topology

• Local mappers conduct

ground truthing

– Refine attribution, e.g. building

use, road type

– Supply missing details, e.g.

address, phone number

– Verify map digitizing accuracy

Open Mapping

Open Mapping

NSF Data Start Grant

Overview: data.world is working under a National Science

Foundation Program (Data Start) to build a linked data

representation of Census data. Develop a schema and ontology to

make Census data joinable and correlatable to data from disparate

and varied sources.

To be Announced Soon:

First-Ever Civic Digital Fellowship for Students

Summary: Census Developer Program

APIs

CitySDK

CEDSCI

Wikidata

Open Mapping

Hackathons

The Opportunity Project

Tools for Data Science

• User research – we want to talk to software developers, data scientists, and the open mapping community.

• Help us understand your needs - let’s discuss how to package this content for your constituents.

• Your expertise - advise us if we can bring these opportunities to your states and spur potential partnerships.

• Refer students to us for the Civic Digital Fellowship.

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How SDCs Can Get Involved

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Jeff MeiselChief Marketing Officer

jeffrey.meisel@census.gov

Logan PowellCitySDK Product Owner

logan.t.powell@census.gov

Contact Info

https://www.census.gov/developers/

https://github.com/uscensusbureau