References

• San Francisco: These are .XLS spreadsheets published on a monthly basis. Go here for more info: http://www.datasf.org/search.php?search=building. Here is how the data is used on EveryBlock: http://sf.everyblock.com/building-permits/
• Atlanta: This is not a “feed”, just a series of text files like this. This is definitely not a preferred method of publishing data, but it is consistent, so that a developer would only have to write a scraper once. Here is how the data is used on EveryBlock: http://atlanta.everyblock.com/building-permits/by-date/2009/12/1/103138/
• Charlotte/ Mecklenburg County: This is an interesting case. Many years ago, they launched their “Integrated Data Store”, a system of searches and download files. It is not a “feed”, really (XML, RSS), but it does allow for the user to configure a search and download a reliably formatted .csv file. Here is how the data is used on EveryBlock: http://charlotte.everyblock.com/building-permits/
• Boston permit search: This is an example where the data is not provided in any format other than a Web search. The goal of any city should be to eliminate the need to scrape Web databases. Here is how the data is used on EveryBlock: http://boston.everyblock.com/building-permits/by-date/2010/1/22/339007/

Data_Standards