Making Data Available with Data Platforms

For our May Meetup, we are exceedingly happy to have three experts talk about a key component in any data ecosystem -- the platforms that let you manage, catalog, share, and access data via CSV or API. The tools behind portals like data.gov (http://www.data.gov/) can be used by organizations large or small, and can be an extremely efficient way to make data available -- to other people or other systems, to the public or just within your organization.

Whether you're a producer of data that you'd like others to be able to use, or a consumer of data that others have made available, or one of the people responsible for making data more valuable, you should come and hear from our speakers. Matt Bailey will be talking about his experiences using the open-source CKAN (http://ckan.org/) tool to support the DC Brigade of Code for America. Marcus Louie will talk about Socrata (http://www.socrata.com/), a commercial platform (with an open-source community edition) used by governments large and small. And Philip Ashlock will talk about DataBeam (https://github.com/GSA-OCSIT/DataBeam), a lightweight, open-source, and very quick to set up data platform tool he created for the GSA.

Agenda:

6:30pm -- Networking, Empenadas, and Refreshments 7:00pm -- Introduction 7:15pm -- Presentations and discussion 8:30pm -- Post presentation conversations 8:45pm -- Adjourn for Data Drinks (Tonic, 22nd & G St.) Bios:

Matt Bailey (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/matt-bailey/4b/392/7a3) is a technology strategist at the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, and was formerly CTO of Citizen Effect (http://www.citizeneffect.org/), a civic engagement and fundraising nonprofit. He is also co-captain of Code for DC (http://codefordc.org/), a local brigade of Code for America. Matt has an MA in English from Georgetown University. He is @MattBailey0 (http://twitter.com/MattBailey0) on Twitter.

Marcus Louie (http://www.linkedin.com/in/marcuslouie) is a Data Solutions Architect at Socrata (http://www.socrata.com/), where he helps to design and sell an enterprise/government-class data platform. Previously, he worked as a product manager at Collective[i], a New York-based business analytics firm. He has a PhD in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon.

Philip Ashlock (http://www.linkedin.com/in/philipashlock) served as a Presidential Innovation Fellow, working with the White House and GSA on http://my.usa.gov , and working with Code for America on their Commons project, helping local governments share effort and value around open data and civic technology projects. Currently, he is consulting through his company, Civic Agency (http://civicagency.org/). He has a BS from Western Washington University, where he studied New Media and Computer Science. He is @PhilipAshlock (https://twitter.com/philipashlock) on Twitter.