Here is the quick story of the NYC Taxi data. It’s a good example of how messy and fun civic technology can be.
- Chris Whong, the Brigade co-Captain of BetaNYC, gets the data through a FOIL request then sets up a torrent for it.
- Eric Fisher made maps from it.
- Then the stats people all jump on it.
- Vijay Pandurangan breaks the hash on the data, revealing drivers identities! Makes great suggestions for how Brigades can better talk with their cities about data and privacy.
- Big debate on security and if it should have even been anonymized by Mark Headd.
- Then Chris comes back with this hitter – NYC Taxis: A Day in the Life
What’s next for this data set? Got something interesting to build off of it?
Hack Your City 