Illinois Governments Partner with Socrata on Cloud Database

Three levels of government in Illinois — the City of Chicago, Cook County and the State of Illinois — recently announced the founding of MetroDataChicago.com, the first-ever “data convergence cloud” that brings together public data from all three sectors of government into one portal for access by residents and business in the Metro Chicago area.

Launched in partnership with Socrata, which bills itself as a “social data cloud company,” the new initiative enables Chicago-area residents and businesses to search public data in categories such as health care, public safety, housing and education, across jurisdictions that previously were serviced by three separate Socrata-powered Open Data projects.

“This unprecedented initiative will foster innovation, economic development and more efficient delivery of services,” said Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel in a prepared statement. “When we break down bureaucracies and our governments work together, we open new doors for our constituents.”

Being a lifelong resident of the Chicago area, I hope MetroChicagoData.com accomplishes that and more.

Also newsworthy in the Land of Lincoln, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Neustar, an agnostic provider of real-time data and analysis, announced the founding of the Neustar Innovation Center. Located at the U of I Research Park, the center will bring together students and technology professtionals to work on technologies and solutions relating to fraud prevention, security and large-scale networking, with a focus on Big Data.

“The partnership with the University of Illinois allows us to further examine the untapped potential of tomorrow’s technologies,” said Mark Bregman, CTO of Neustar, in a prepared statement. “By combining Neustar’s powerful information and analytics with students’ technological prowess, we believe the Neustar Innovation Center will put forth new and exciting solutions that will impact the market.”