Arlington Data Matters Blog

The Data Matters blog is one year old. What a year’s it’s been, with so many perspectives on data presented. But presentation is a one-way conversation. What this blog really aims to do is to encourage every reader to actively engage with the data around them, and each other, to get the most value out of this unique asset. As the data message spreads across the County, one aspect seems to really resonate with almost everyone – data visualization. Data visualization at its simplest is taking an Excel spreadsheet and turning it into a bar chart – many of us have been doing this for years. Today’s data visualization offers many more tools than pie and bar charts, and perhaps most importantly, allows you to interact with your data any time. For example, if you produce a report listing how many services provided annually and you are asked how many services were provided by a particular team, your report might not have that. Data visualizations allow you to show a graphic and then pick which data elements appear in the graphic. You could take the same services report and look at the data quarterly or monthly, by division or individual, by category of service, by where the service was provided. And the best part is that it’s really not that hard to do and there’s a really great tool available for FREE. Microsoft’s PowerBI can be installed on your computer for free and in a few minutes, you can pull in a spreadsheet and present an insightful graphic. Try it today … and tomorrow!

 

Since Feb 2016, Arlington County has been publishing datasets to its Open Data Portal. The site currently has close to 200 datasets. Most of the datasets are essentially reports from County systems that record the activity related to County services, for example real estate property values, tennis court reservations and construction permits. But tax dollars pay for a lot of other kids of data collection and data analysis, and consequently, there are numerous other sources of open data. For example, the County regularly conducts surveys to gauge constituent opinions on a wide range of topics. This data – with all possible personally identifiable information removed – is a candidate for open data. Aggregated data is another source of information that could be published. A report offers a line of data for every transaction but aggregate data summarizes and organizes this information in useful and reusable ways. Aggregate data is also a way to share information securely when sharing the individual transactions would be a breach of privacy. When you have a challenge or an opportunity that could be informed by data, be creative. That dataset may exist and could be just a request away.

We’ve published data on Fire Incidents on Arlington County’s Website – view here.

​We’ve published data on the Top 1000 pages on Arlington County’s Website – view here.

In June, the County Manager’s Open Data Advisory Group compiled three recommendations for the County Manager’s consideration. The County Manager’s responses were discussed during the Group’s Sept 27 meeting. Below is a summary of the recommendations and the agreed-upon actions.

Recommendation #1: Build Inventory of County Data Assets to Publish as Open Data

Action: County staff recently completed an initial Data Inventory of the County’s major lines of business data and other key data assets. Each item in the inventory is tagged with the type of data collected. All the datasets that include open data will be evaluated for priority and feasibility, and an overall schedule for open data publication posted to the Arlington community around June 2019.

Recommendation #2: Evaluate Level of effort Required to Standardize County Data Definitions

Action: County staff will begin by collecting definitions for each column in a dataset published to the Open Data Portal, including going back to define datasets already published. When complete, County staff will complete an initial analysis of datasets that include similar information and develop a level of effort to work with the owning departments to standardize definitions and format. Priority and schedule will be considered further at that time.

Recommendation #3: Convert PDFs on County Website to Open Data

Action: County staff will take an initial look at the content of ~10K PDFs currently on the County’s website and identify those that contain data tables that may be converted to open data. Candidate PDFs will be considered along with the open dataset candidates identified via the Data Inventory from Recommendation #1.

Having control over your life – professional or personal – means managing those things that you can and keeping a close eye on the things you can’t. Both modes involve a certain degree of data. Keeping track of income and expenses, following the weather reports on the path of the hurricane, monitoring progress against your to-do list – these are all data. We have become increasingly reliant on those things we can measure, or quantify. But data doesn’t tell the whole story. Even when there is a ton of it. There is always the context to consider and data does not inherently have context. For example, if you track your budget and your bank statement or work report tells you that you have more money than you’ve spent you could conclude you have money to spend. But the report or statement doesn’t know about the extra refrigerator you now need because your daughter moved back in with you. Or your decision to bike to work every day and sell your car. The future depends on many things, and not all of them are quantifiable. View this TED Talk to hear a longer exploration of this important constraint.

There is a lot of value to measuring. And to using this data to help inform your decisions and gauge your success against your goals. So use County data, use data at home. But avoid the trap of thinking the data has all the answers.

We’ve published substantially revamped datasets from the Dept of Human Services’ inspections of Arlington food service facilities and commercial pools – click Food Service or Pools to view them.

We’ve published traffic summons and parking citations issued by the Arlington County Police Department – view here.

 

In June, the Virginia Congress passed new legislation around data sharing, open data and data privacy. The legislation also created the Commonwealth’s first Chief Data Officer (CDO). Recently, Governor Northam appointed Carlos Rivero to serve as CDO.

Per the legislation, Mr. Rivero will work first on “developing a project for the sharing, analysis, and dissemination among and between state, regional, and local agencies of data related to substance abuse, with a focus on opioid addiction, abuse, and overdose.” Did you know Arlington County has a group that is working to address the community’s addiction issues? The Arlington Addiction Recovery Initiative was formed in 2017 to address the rise in opioid-related issues in Arlington. Since then, the focus has expanded to include prevention. The group – comprised of Arlington staff and residents including law enforcement, criminal justice, treatment providers, schools, hospitals, non-profit agencies, family members and people in recovery – meets monthly. Meetings are open – contact Suzanne Somerville (703-228-7340) for more information.

The Chief Data Officer role at the state level is another sign of the growing role data is playing to help governments deliver better services, interact with constituents, grow economically and plan for the future. Data is not just to support a system or used for a project, it is a competitive necessity. Best wishes to Mr. Rivero in his new assignment – Arlington County looks forward to working with him!

County staff have been using data in decision-making, planning and performance management for years. Increasingly, this data is being published along with the announcement of the decision and the outcome of the planning. Here are some excellent resources on the County website – let us know how you use them and how they might be improved.

Arlington County Data & Research

Open Government Resources

My Arlington – Projects Map

Real Estate Property Search

Open Data Portal

GIS Mapping Center

FOIA Online

Bike Arlington

A-Z Services Directory

Staff Directory

 

Don’t know where to find the data you want? Submit a Dataset Request and we’ll help you find it.