Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM

Alumnus Launches DataCuse, Providing Public Access to City Data

Thursday, August 3, 2017, By J.D. Ross
Share
alumniCommunitySchool of Information Studies

Recently, the City of Syracuse announced the launch of a public data portal, DataCuse, that provides open access to batches of city data. The new tool is part of Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner’s open data policy, to make more data about city government and its operations open and accessible to the public. DataCuse can be accessed here.

Sam Edelstein

Sam Edelstein

The first datasets released by the city address infrastructure and housing, and include information about individual property parcels, properties with lead risks, vacant properties, road ratings, potholes, water main breaks and requests made to CityLine, the city’s customer service portal. The city plans to release more data on these topics and additional topics monthly.

“Open data is the way forward in innovating city government, using data-driven decision making to craft better public policy to deliver more efficient results for Syracuse residents and businesses,” says Mayor Miner. “Using this portal, residents, academics and agencies will be able to access and assess data about city operations, learning more or developing their own solutions to urban challenges.”

Data can be downloaded in various file formats, including API and CSV. Users can also examine data visualizations created by city staff or create their own.

Much of the work behind making the data accessible to the public was done by School of Information Studies (iSchool) alumnus Sam Edelstein ’07, G’15, the city’s chief data officer. Edelstein earned a bachelor’s degree in policy studies and economics from the College of Arts and Sciences and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

“An open data portal is exciting because people in the community have access to the data that the city collects and creates, and they can better understand what their government does every day and can ask questions of the data,” Edelstein explains. “Anyone who uses DataCuse should check out the visualizations that have already been built and then try to create some projects on their own.”

In order to make DataCuse work, Edelstein and his team needed to do several things. “First, we had to identify the data that we put onto the portal, including getting advice from the mayor, department heads, as well as community members. Then we needed to clean the data and document it to make sure people understand what everything means,” Edelstein says. “Next we needed to make sure there was nothing sensitive in the data that wouldn’t be appropriate to share publicly, and then we built data pipelines to push data to the portal automatically every day, week or month, depending on need. Finally, we visualized the data at a high level and told people about it so they will use it for their own purposes.”

With the launch of the public data portal, Edelstein is hoping that members of the academic community at Syracuse University will be able to use the information for projects and research.

“We have talented students and faculty at Syracuse. When I was a student, I oftentimes used data from other cities for my projects,” Edelstein recalls. “Now as the chief data officer for the City of Syracuse, I want people to use our data, not data from other cities. We have plenty of challenges in Syracuse where data analysis can be an important part of the solution.”

Edelstein hopes that providing easy access to data for students and faculty will generate research questions and projects between the University and the city.

“We’re open to input from the community on this project, too,” says Edelstein. “We want to know what other data people would like to see.”

  • Author

J.D. Ross

  • Recent
  • Syracuse University Press Participating in Path to Open Program
    Friday, September 29, 2023, By Cristina Hatem
  • A&S Chemistry Professor Receives Award From the American Chemical Society
    Friday, September 29, 2023, By News Staff
  • ‘Guys and Dolls’ opens Syracuse University Department of Drama 2023/24 Season
    Friday, September 29, 2023, By Joanna Penalva
  • Libraries Add MindSpa Wellness Rooms
    Friday, September 29, 2023, By Cristina Hatem
  • Syracuse University Announces the Opening of the Center for Gravitational Wave Astronomy and Astrophysics
    Friday, September 29, 2023, By Kerrie Marshall

More In STEM

A&S Chemistry Professor Receives Award From the American Chemical Society

Robert Doyle, Dean’s Professor of Chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S) and associate professor of pharmacology at SUNY Upstate Medical University, received the 2022 American Chemical Society Central New York Section Award in the field of chemistry…

Syracuse University Announces the Opening of the Center for Gravitational Wave Astronomy and Astrophysics

As Albert Einstein predicted in his theory of relativity more than one hundred years ago, gravitational waves have been rippling through the fabric of space-time since the dawn of the cosmos. Only in the past decade have scientists observed actual…

iSchool Professors, Students Honored With ALISE Awards

Two students and three professors from the School of Information Studies (iSchool) were recently honored with prestigious awards from the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE). Assistant Professor LaVerne Gray was awarded the Norman Horrocks Leadership Award for demonstrating outstanding leadership…

Ian Hosein Awarded New Patent For Process that Generates Energy from Saltwater

The lack of access to clean drinking water impacts billions worldwide. With an estimated 46% of the global population affected, underdeveloped communities don’t have the means to utilize efficient technology for water purification. As the percentage of those affected grows,…

Setting the Agenda in Biology Research: 2 Professors Join NIH Peer Review Committees

The Center for Scientific Review (CSR) is known as the “gateway” for National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant applications. Expert peer review groups—also called study sections—formed by the CSR assess more than 75% of the thousands of research grant applications…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • @SUCampus
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2023 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.