Customer Success
City of Palo Alto
The birthplace of Silicon Valley launches
Open AData with Junar LEADER IN CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGY
“Junar has been the right partner, helping our government data to be accessible to a wide range of stakeholders”
Jonathan Reichental CIO, City of Palo Alto, CA
The City of Palo Alto, California, known as the "Birthplace of Silicon Valley" and home to Stanford University, is recognized worldwide as a leader in cutting-edge technological development. So it’s no surprise that the city embraced the Open Data movement and chose Junar’s Open Data Platform to give people real-time access to information. BUILDING ON A TRADITION OF INNOVATION Palo Alto City Manager, Jim Keene, hired Jonathan Reichental in late 2011 to serve as the city’s Chief Information Officer. As CIO, Dr. Reichental is the city’s senior executive responsible for planning and directing a forward-thinking and innovative technology strategy to assist city departments in providing quality services to the citizens, businesses and visitors of Palo Alto. Dr. Reichental is pushing the boundaries of innovation in local government such as open data and broader civic participation through mobile devices. Most recently, he spearheaded the city’s local participation in the first-ever National Day of Civic Hacking event, in which 5,000 people came together to focus on civic innovation and to help shape the future of their communities.
Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA OPEN DATA IN JUST THREE W EEKS
Junar’s Co-founder Diego May and Dr. Reichental connected at an industry event. After meeting with the City’s technical team, work began on implementing an Open Data solution for Palo Alto. In just three weeks Palo Alto’s first Open Data site was ready to launch!
“For decades, Palo Alto has been a driving force in the g lobal economy. The innovations that are developed here continue to change the world. At City Hall, as we go about our daily work in our great city, we strive to mirror such innovation and to build a culture of excellence and service that enriches the lives of people in our community and builds strong social bonds.”
ADVANTAGES OF JUNAR’S PLATFORM Palo Alto’s IT department considered using an open source solution to build their own platform. They quickly recognized that Junar’s system had capabilities that would require several man years to duplicate. Furthermore, they would be burdened with the cost of ongoing support of their own software for years to come. Palo Alto’s management also recognized that Junar’s solution was in wide use by cities in both North and South America, and as Junar’s global footprint expands, so would Palo Alto’s presence as a leader in the open data movement. Junar’s API opens doors for future innovation and development by third parties.
James Keene, City Manager City of Palo Alto, CA
Figure 1. Palo Alto's Data Dashboard with Development Center tab selected FASTEST, EASIEST, M OST AFFORDABLE SOLUTION Junar provides everything you need to open your data with confidence. It's built for massive scale and supports local and global data-driven organizations. With Junar, you can easily choose what data to collect, how you want to present it, and when it should be made publicly available. You can also specify which datasets are made available to the public and which datasets are available only for your internal use. Think of it as a next generation data management system for sharing information.
Junar delivers all of the benefits of SaaS (Software-asa-Service) to help you open your data to stimulate innovation. We make it easy to deal with complex, end-to-end Open Data projects and turn the tedious task of opening data into a secure and controlled process. Finally, Junar offers a range of subscription plans to suit every organization: the more data you open, the less you pay per dataset.
Whether you want to integrate your data into your website or have us host it for you, Junar provides a simple workflow that allows you to collaborate with your colleagues and manage your entire Open Data project. The platform also allows you to drive social conversations with the public, understand what data they want and what they find to be valuable. And because you can add metadata to the information you publish, you will likely see improved use of your data due to search engine optimization. www.junar.com contact@junar.com 877-‐499-‐1558 © 2013 Junar Inc. All rights reserved.