About Data

Data refers to a collection of facts. The District publishes ‘facts’ on our operations, procurements, crimes, services requests… “Data” in the Data Catalog refers to both data feeds and static data.

Data Feed refers both to the connection from an agency to the Citywide Data Warehouse and a dataset that can be consumed by automated programs. Data feeds allow subscription to data for continuous updates.

Dataset: A collection of data. We have 200+ datasets and data visualizations in the Data Catalog.

Open Format: An open format is a published specification for storing digital data, usually maintained by a standards organization, which basically can be used and implemented by anyone.

Standard Format: A standard usually defined by a standards organization. Example: GIS group Metadata must meet the FGDC standard.

Text / CSV: Use this format for easy access to the data. Text/CSV files could be opened by most desktop spreadsheet applications (e.g. MS Excel).

Atom feed: Better suited for consumption by automated programs capable of handling Atom files. Allows subscription to data feed for continuous updates. Learn more about Atom. We support GeoRSS extension which includes location as part of a feed.

XML: Better suited for consumption by automated programs capable of handling raw XML files.

ESRI: Used for consumption by ESRI-compatible mapping applications. Most datasets in ESRI format are updated on a monthly or quarterly basis as they are not "operational" in nature.

KML: Used to display geospatial data in Google Earth, Google Maps, and similar applications.