Hello!
Phil mentioned the Open Referral initiative [http://openreferral.org] in
his email the other day, and I'm excited to introduce myself and this
project to the Open311 community.
The Open Referral initiative is developing a new standard for structuring
and circulating *community resource data* -- i.e. directory information for
health, human, and social services. My position as the Chief Organizing
Officer of this initiative is being co-sponsored by Code for America and the
Ohana Project <http://ohanapi.org/>, which emerged from a 2013 CfA
fellowship in San Mateo, CA.
In some contexts, our work is being described as "Open211." For some
background that you may already know, community resource data is often
collected and made available through 2-1-1 systems. Some 2-1-1 systems
(notably, DC's and NYC's) are actually operated by the government and are
integrated with the cities' 3-1-1 systems. Many, however, are operated by
private non-profit organizations. Through Open Referral's first two pilot
projects (DC and San Francisco Bay) we have an opportunity to demonstrate
the value of open platforms with common standards in both private and
public contexts.
I think we can learn a lot from the Open311 community, and in turn, our
efforts may also be relevant to your work.
First of all, I think we can learn from your experience in developing and
stewarding a standard for an ecosystem of services.
Also, more directly, I assume that the Open Referral standard can and
should yield a specification for 3-1-1 implementations. This would (among
other things) enable 3-1-1 and 2-1-1 systems to share service directory
data, and/or enable a 3-1-1 system to offer expanded resource referral
functionality. I know that NYC 3-1-1 has implemented a basic service
inquiry API <http://wiki.open311.org/Inquiry_v1> and I hope that we can
learn from (and possibly build on) that work.
This initiative is just getting started. I invite anyone here who is
interested to check out our basic documentation, and even join our
community group <http://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/openreferral> It
would be great to have your insight and interests present at our table.
I'd be happy to talk more about this directly, or even to organize a
hangout so that I could present to a group of folks in real-time.
Thanks for your time, and for any guidance you can offer!
~greg
202.643.3648
Phil mentioned the Open Referral initiative [http://openreferral.org] in
his email the other day, and I'm excited to introduce myself and this
project to the Open311 community.
The Open Referral initiative is developing a new standard for structuring
and circulating *community resource data* -- i.e. directory information for
health, human, and social services. My position as the Chief Organizing
Officer of this initiative is being co-sponsored by Code for America and the
Ohana Project <http://ohanapi.org/>, which emerged from a 2013 CfA
fellowship in San Mateo, CA.
In some contexts, our work is being described as "Open211." For some
background that you may already know, community resource data is often
collected and made available through 2-1-1 systems. Some 2-1-1 systems
(notably, DC's and NYC's) are actually operated by the government and are
integrated with the cities' 3-1-1 systems. Many, however, are operated by
private non-profit organizations. Through Open Referral's first two pilot
projects (DC and San Francisco Bay) we have an opportunity to demonstrate
the value of open platforms with common standards in both private and
public contexts.
I think we can learn a lot from the Open311 community, and in turn, our
efforts may also be relevant to your work.
First of all, I think we can learn from your experience in developing and
stewarding a standard for an ecosystem of services.
Also, more directly, I assume that the Open Referral standard can and
should yield a specification for 3-1-1 implementations. This would (among
other things) enable 3-1-1 and 2-1-1 systems to share service directory
data, and/or enable a 3-1-1 system to offer expanded resource referral
functionality. I know that NYC 3-1-1 has implemented a basic service
inquiry API <http://wiki.open311.org/Inquiry_v1> and I hope that we can
learn from (and possibly build on) that work.
This initiative is just getting started. I invite anyone here who is
interested to check out our basic documentation, and even join our
community group <http://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/openreferral> It
would be great to have your insight and interests present at our table.
I'd be happy to talk more about this directly, or even to organize a
hangout so that I could present to a group of folks in real-time.
Thanks for your time, and for any guidance you can offer!
~greg
202.643.3648
