Discussion:
Introducing Open Referral: Open211+Open311 protocols for health/human/social services
Greg Bloom
2014-04-09 21:52:53 UTC
Permalink
Hello!

Phil mentioned the Open Referral initiative [http://openreferral.org] in
his email the other day, and I'm excited to introduce myself and this
project to the Open311 community.

The Open Referral initiative is developing a new standard for structuring
and circulating *community resource data* -- i.e. directory information for
health, human, and social services. My position as the Chief Organizing
Officer of this initiative is being co-sponsored by Code for America and the
Ohana Project <http://ohanapi.org/>, which emerged from a 2013 CfA
fellowship in San Mateo, CA.

In some contexts, our work is being described as "Open211." For some
background that you may already know, community resource data is often
collected and made available through 2-1-1 systems. Some 2-1-1 systems
(notably, DC's and NYC's) are actually operated by the government and are
integrated with the cities' 3-1-1 systems. Many, however, are operated by
private non-profit organizations. Through Open Referral's first two pilot
projects (DC and San Francisco Bay) we have an opportunity to demonstrate
the value of open platforms with common standards in both private and
public contexts.

I think we can learn a lot from the Open311 community, and in turn, our
efforts may also be relevant to your work.

First of all, I think we can learn from your experience in developing and
stewarding a standard for an ecosystem of services.

Also, more directly, I assume that the Open Referral standard can and
should yield a specification for 3-1-1 implementations. This would (among
other things) enable 3-1-1 and 2-1-1 systems to share service directory
data, and/or enable a 3-1-1 system to offer expanded resource referral
functionality. I know that NYC 3-1-1 has implemented a basic service
inquiry API <http://wiki.open311.org/Inquiry_v1>, and I hope that we can
learn from (and possibly build on) that work.

This initiative is just getting started. I invite anyone here who is
interested to check out our basic documentation, and even join our
community group <http://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/openreferral>. It
would be great to have your insight and interests present at our table.

I'd be happy to talk more about this directly, or even to organize a
hangout so that I could present to a group of folks in real-time.

Thanks for your time, and for any guidance you can offer!

~greg
202.643.3648

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JsullivanNyc-311
2014-04-13 14:51:26 UTC
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Greg,

I would love to talk more with you about this. I am a 311 SME and many of the cities I have worked with are interested in exploring the interaction between 211 and 311.

James Sullivan
311 Advocate
jsullivan-YWMGSlkD6+***@public.gmane.org


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Greg Bloom
2014-04-13 15:08:57 UTC
Permalink
James - great. Let's discuss this week (I'm open any day but Wednesday). If
there's additional interest from others on this list, I'd be happy to find
time for a hangout or something.

BTW, the only substantive bit of comparative analysis between 2-1-1 and
3-1-1 systems that I've found has been this paper from the
ICMA<http://icma.org/en/icma/knowledge_network/documents/kn/Document/301482/211311_Is_There_a_Case_for_Consolidation_or_Collaboration>.
Any recommendations for other resources we should consult?


On Sun, Apr 13, 2014 at 10:51 AM, JsullivanNyc-311
Post by JsullivanNyc-311
Greg,
I would love to talk more with you about this. I am a 311 SME and many of
the cities I have worked with are interested in exploring the interaction
between 211 and 311.
James Sullivan
311 Advocate
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Benjamin Y Clark
2014-04-15 17:15:26 UTC
Permalink
I'd be very interested in being in on the open referral conversation. I'm starting a 211 research project to complement some of my earlier 311 work and I would think it could be very useful to the academic world to have a better understanding how this stuff all clicks together.
Thanks,
Ben

--
Benjamin Y. Clark, PhD
Assistant Professor of Public Administration (Levin College) &
Assistant Professor of Public Health (CEOMPH)
Cleveland State University

Executive Committee Member (term 2013-2015)
Association for Budgeting and Financial Management (ABFM)

Mailing Address:
2121 Euclid Avenue, UR 312
Cleveland, OH 44115

Phone: 216-687-2497
Fax: 216-687-9277
Email: b.y.clark-***@public.gmane.org
My website: http://about.me/benyclark
My calendar: https://benclark.youcanbook.me/
Twitter: @BenClarkPhd

________________________________________
From: discuss-ZwoEplunGu2DGPZahCzKrdi2O/***@public.gmane.org <discuss-ZwoEplunGu2DGPZahCzKrdi2O/***@public.gmane.org> on behalf of Greg Bloom <greg.bloom-***@public.gmane.org>
Sent: Sunday, April 13, 2014 11:08 AM
To: discuss-ZwoEplunGu2DGPZahCzKrdi2O/***@public.gmane.org
Subject: Re: [Open311 Discuss] Introducing Open Referral: Open211+Open311 protocols for health/human/social services

James - great. Let's discuss this week (I'm open any day but Wednesday). If
there's additional interest from others on this list, I'd be happy to find
time for a hangout or something.

BTW, the only substantive bit of comparative analysis between 2-1-1 and
3-1-1 systems that I've found has been this paper from the
ICMA<http://icma.org/en/icma/knowledge_network/documents/kn/Document/301482/211311_Is_There_a_Case_for_Consolidation_or_Collaboration>.
Any recommendations for other resources we should consult?


On Sun, Apr 13, 2014 at 10:51 AM, JsullivanNyc-311
Post by JsullivanNyc-311
Greg,
I would love to talk more with you about this. I am a 311 SME and many of
the cities I have worked with are interested in exploring the interaction
between 211 and 311.
James Sullivan
311 Advocate
--
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Start groups http://OnlineGroups.net
--
* gjb <http://gjb.flavors.me/> *
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Greg Bloom
2014-04-15 19:17:16 UTC
Permalink
Ben - That's great. Please join our community
group<http://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/openreferral>,
read through our
documentation<https://docs.google.com/document/d/17cJxF_1P6fafcsFJQERFQifKKc_kPbAKmAXwe2LWDcI/edit#heading=h.a937466uk7p6>,
and let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.

For others, I'm confident that our work will soon yield a specification
that can be implemented by 311 systems, but I'm not entirely sure what the
path towards establishing that as an 'Open311 spec' might be. It's
certainly an outcome I'd like to pursue, if possible. This is all still
just getting off the ground, so input would be very welcome.

~greg
Post by Benjamin Y Clark
I'd be very interested in being in on the open referral conversation. I'm
starting a 211 research project to complement some of my earlier 311 work
and I would think it could be very useful to the academic world to have a
better understanding how this stuff all clicks together.
Thanks,
Ben
--
Benjamin Y. Clark, PhD
Assistant Professor of Public Administration (Levin College) &
Assistant Professor of Public Health (CEOMPH)
Cleveland State University
Executive Committee Member (term 2013-2015)
Association for Budgeting and Financial Management (ABFM)
2121 Euclid Avenue, UR 312
Cleveland, OH 44115
Phone: 216-687-2497
Fax: 216-687-9277
My website: http://about.me/benyclark
My calendar: https://benclark.youcanbook.me/
________________________________________
Sent: Sunday, April 13, 2014 11:08 AM
Subject: Re: [Open311 Discuss] Introducing Open Referral: Open211+Open311
protocols for health/human/social services
James - great. Let's discuss this week (I'm open any day but Wednesday). If
there's additional interest from others on this list, I'd be happy to find
time for a hangout or something.
BTW, the only substantive bit of comparative analysis between 2-1-1 and
3-1-1 systems that I've found has been this paper from the
ICMA<
http://icma.org/en/icma/knowledge_network/documents/kn/Document/301482/211311_Is_There_a_Case_for_Consolidation_or_Collaboration
Post by JsullivanNyc-311
.
Any recommendations for other resources we should consult?
On Sun, Apr 13, 2014 at 10:51 AM, JsullivanNyc-311
Post by JsullivanNyc-311
Greg,
I would love to talk more with you about this. I am a 311 SME and many
of
Post by JsullivanNyc-311
the cities I have worked with are interested in exploring the interaction
between 211 and 311.
James Sullivan
311 Advocate
--
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Start groups http://OnlineGroups.net
--
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Greg Bloom
2014-08-12 17:23:52 UTC
Permalink
Hello again, folks --

Thanks to all the members of the Open311 community who have been advising
the Open Referral initiative in our early phases.

We've got an important update: our 'alpha' model is open for public
comment. See the model here
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/18vdB0DUvBfp6UcYQ78KaMmN3Ei2riThJL48V7TTOHHQ/edit#>
and
in Github
<https://github.com/codeforamerica/openreferral/blob/master/openreferral.md>
.

There's more context at Code for America's site
<http://codeforamerica.org/our-work/data-formats/openreferral/>, and here
in my blog post there
<http://www.codeforamerica.org/blog/2014/08/05/open-referral-initiative-a-standard-for-the-safety-net/>
.

It would be great to have folks with experience in Open311 weigh in on our
first draft here! And I'm *very* eager to discuss a path towards aligning
this with the Open311 Inquiry spec, perhaps for a v2 of that.

Please be in touch. Thanks for your work :)

~greg

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Matthias Meißer
2014-08-13 06:18:48 UTC
Permalink
Hi Greg,

even as Newbie I heared from your project and I'm interested to take a look.
How is the RFC workflow? Comment here at ML, or as github issue or as blog comment or ... ?

regards,
Matthias
Post by Greg Bloom
Hello again, folks --
Thanks to all the members of the Open311 community who have been advising
the Open Referral initiative in our early phases.
We've got an important update: our 'alpha' model is open for public
comment. See the model here
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/18vdB0DUvBfp6UcYQ78KaMmN3Ei2riThJL48V7TTO
HHQ/edit#>
and
in Github
<https://github.com/codeforamerica/openreferral/blob/master/openreferral.md>
.
There's more context at Code for America's site
<http://codeforamerica.org/our-work/data-formats/openreferral/>, and here
in my blog post there
<http://www.codeforamerica.org/blog/2014/08/05/open-referral-initiative-a-sta
ndard-for-the-safety-net/>
.
It would be great to have folks with experience in Open311 weigh in on our
first draft here! And I'm *very* eager to discuss a path towards aligning
this with the Open311 Inquiry spec, perhaps for a v2 of that.
Please be in touch. Thanks for your work :)
~greg
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Greg Bloom
2014-08-13 15:35:50 UTC
Permalink
Thanks, matthias. Sorry for not making that clear! We;re primarily
collecting comments in the Google doc, and then changes are being rolled
over to github. But opening an issue in our github repo
<https://github.com/codeforamerica/OpenReferral/blob/master/openreferral.md>
will also work.

And we are discussing issues that come up, on video chat this Friday
<https://plus.google.com/events/cn2jgsqd5jtc8bpvnoogv9b0sjs> and next
<https://plus.google.com/events/c13lhq8nu22t65r7tls8hlc8vs8>. We'd welcome
new folks to join, although let me know in advance so I can brief you more
fully.

~g
Post by Matthias Meißer
Hi Greg,
even as Newbie I heared from your project and I'm interested to take a look.
How is the RFC workflow? Comment here at ML, or as github issue or as blog comment or ... ?
regards,
Matthias
Nachricht
Post by Greg Bloom
Hello again, folks --
Thanks to all the members of the Open311 community who have been advising
the Open Referral initiative in our early phases.
We've got an important update: our 'alpha' model is open for public
comment. See the model here
<
https://docs.google.com/document/d/18vdB0DUvBfp6UcYQ78KaMmN3Ei2riThJL48V7TTO
Post by Greg Bloom
HHQ/edit#>
and
in Github
<
https://github.com/codeforamerica/openreferral/blob/master/openreferral.md
Post by Greg Bloom
.
There's more context at Code for America's site
<http://codeforamerica.org/our-work/data-formats/openreferral/>, and
here
Post by Greg Bloom
in my blog post there
<
http://www.codeforamerica.org/blog/2014/08/05/open-referral-initiative-a-sta
Post by Greg Bloom
ndard-for-the-safety-net/>
.
It would be great to have folks with experience in Open311 weigh in on
our
Post by Greg Bloom
first draft here! And I'm *very* eager to discuss a path towards aligning
this with the Open311 Inquiry spec, perhaps for a v2 of that.
Please be in touch. Thanks for your work :)
~greg
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