The Denver Data Visualization Template is a starting point for anyone to create rich, interactive, and visual dashboards using open data. The template created by the 2014 Code for America Fellows for the City and County of Denver. So far the template has been used to create the following visualizations:
The template started as two separate visual dashboards created by the fellows in 2014. The first represented the city's 311 call data and the second represented metrics from Denver's marijuana industry. These dashboards were aimed to serve several purposes.
- To demonstrate the value of Open Data.
- To improve transparency between the city and it's residents.
- To help the city easily track changes in trends in data over time.
- To reduce the time city employees spent crunching data in order to respond to incoming press inquiries.
- Open data first: These visualizations are not fully featured dashboards but rather demonstrate what is possible when city's make their data open.
- Visually engaging: Data can be boring and hard to understand. We focused on laying out the data in a way that was easy to scan for anyone.
- Neutral: Because these visualizations are to be hosted by cities, we try to let the data speak for itself. We avoid commentary and stick to simple definitions.
- Each Marijuana media inquiry takes roughly 2-3 hours of two city analysts to investigate and find an answer for.
- The 311 Department in the City and County of Denver manually generates a 311 report every month.
- The 2014 Fellowship in Denver