Focus for Track 4
Among other uses, the Smart Columbus Operating System (SCOS) is intended to be an open data platform that serves as the foundation for data related needs of entrepreneurs and non-profits in Columbus. The focus of this track is to collect ideas on what particular ways this will be achieved, which are being organized into three main categories:
Currently, the SCOS functions as a home to hundreds of mostly public datasets. As most of the development work has focused around building the infrastructure to store, process, and stream data from a wide variety of sources, this is the functionality of the system that is developed the furthest.
What is important to entrepreneurs/non-profits:
- API's to reference data from government departments
- Transit data around large events and construction projects
- Opt-in tracking and user input similar to Waze
Tools and features to let app developers, marketers, researchers, policy makers, and other data users from the community to explore the data and derive insights about it before downloading it.
What is important to entrepreneurs/non-profits:
- As most datasets are geolocated, a visualization tool that allows users to explore various layers of data on a map would be very useful.
- As construction and large events can cause disruptions in traffic patterns, a way to view transit related data temporally would be very useful.
Many local organizations don't have the resources or bandwidth to manage budgets, volunteers, events, and resources. This section will focus on those, and other more social components of the platform.
What is important to entrepreneurs/non-profits:
- Tools to coordinate volunteers, and parking for events.