open data & yelp: the lives project by: karina salehi, lives project lead @ yelp
TRANSCRIPT
Open data & Yelp: The LIVES Project
By: Karina Salehi, LIVES Project Lead @ Yelp
The LIVES ProjectMobile Desktop
Health Inspections and Yelp?
• Local Inspector Value-Entry Specification (LIVES)• Open data initiative developed in 2012• Governments share Health inspections data on Yelp businesses
pages• 8 regions are part of the LIVES program• LIVES is growing!
What is Open Data?
Ideally, government open data is:• Machine-readable / structured• Easy to find• Easy to download• High value• Up to date
• Promotes Civic Responsibility• Prevents Food Bourne Illnesses (Health Inspection Open Data)• Ushering in new Industry
– Accela, Socrata
Why is Open Data good?
“Don't make people find the data -- make the data find the people."
- Tim O’Reilly
Traffic on Yelp
Yelp’s Mission
“Yelp's mission is to connect people with great local businesses; along the way, we hope to enrich lives of consumers and small business owners.” - Jeremy Stoppelman, Yelp CEO
LIVES Today
“Analog” Open Data Success Story: County of Los Angeles
LIVES Today
LIVES Today
LIVES Today
Required information for matching businesses to Yelp pages:
A unique ID – often times, this is the license numbers:
The business’s Name
The Street address of a business
The City
*Providing more information only helps with matching
LIVES Today
Result
For cities that do not capture a score, this string represents the non-numeric result of the inspection.
The string must be 4 characters or shorter.
Examples: Pass, Fail, Cond
LIVES Today
Critical
Describes whether the violation is critical or not. This must be a true or false value.
LIVES Today: Recent Updates
• What about non-scoring jurisdictions?– Pass/Fail/Cond.
• More transparency for consumers– “critical” or “non-critical” violations
LIVES: What is next?
“The deployment of inspectors is usually fairly random, which means time is often wasted on spot checks at clean, rule-abiding restaurants. Social media can help narrow the search for violators.”
- Luther Lowe & Michael Luca, “City Governments Are Using Yelp to Tell You Where Not to Eat”, www.hbr.org
