Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
QUESTION
How is data from FOIL requests managed, and what are the efforts involved in its publication?
1:12:55
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137 sec
The NYC Office of Technology and Innovation (OTI) collaborates with agencies to publish data released via FOIL on the open data portal, ensuring data's continuous availability.
- The OTI has updated the FOIL request form to include a checkbox indicating if the request involves data, enhancing review efficiency.
- Agencies releasing data through FOIL are required to report these datasets to ensure they are scheduled for publication on the open data portal.
- The process aims to make datasets available in perpetuity, contrasting with FOIL's temporary or specific time-bound data requests.
- Setting up a structure for continuous open data requires more effort compared to handling individual FOIL requests.
Jennifer Gutiérrez
1:12:55
Do we have a dataset on how many foil requests the city received by agencies?
1:13:03
Yes.
1:13:03
We do.
1:13:04
Oh, wonderful.
1:13:25
And you, Bart, that you mentioned this for.
1:13:27
But what because some agencies respond provide their data based on, like, their foil request
1:13:35
they respond with their foil.
1:13:36
I'm sorry.
1:13:54
Is that more tedious?
1:13:57
Is there more effort there?
1:14:00
No.
1:14:05
to just having them respond directly to the datasets as opposed to providing it with, like, their foil response.
1:14:11
Is that what happens?
UNKNOWN
1:13:01
We do.
Martha Norrick
1:13:05
And we also recently, in the last few years, collaborated with the with Doris to update the form, the foil request form, to have a checkbox, to indicate whether or not that foil request also includes data.
1:13:18
Which helps us review foil requests, you know, even more efficiently to look for data that has been released via foil that should also be in the updated portal.
1:13:34
It's one of the things where
1:13:37
Yeah.
1:13:37
If if an if an agency does release data via foil, that data also to be released on the open data portal.
1:13:43
So we we ask the agencies as a part of their compliance process to to tell us what datasets they've released via foil.
1:13:49
So we can then work with them to make sure that there's a publication schedule for those data sets on open data.
1:14:01
I I mean, it I think I don't know exactly.
1:14:53
But it is actually easier for agencies you know, it for datasets that agencies respond to foil asked about frequently.
1:15:00
It's much easier for the agency to have that data released and updated on open data because then when a a person who requested via foil, you know, can can be directed to that dataset and and help themselves to whatever data that they were looking for in
Zachary Feder
1:14:03
More effort compared to
1:14:12
I I think that one of the key differences between foil and open data is that open data is continuous and forever, essentially.
1:14:19
So foil request will frequently ask for, like, a certain subset of information for, like, a month, where for open data, working with agencies on is setting up a structure to get that data in perpetuity Mhmm.
1:14:30
And then sort of document, like, every possible case of it.
1:14:34
So it's not just like one individual's request for a certain burrow, but how do you get all that information available for the entire city So oftentimes, the the work that's required to go into open data.
1:14:47
Yes.
1:14:47
There there's a lot of of additional things that we take pride in in doing with agencies to make that information accessible.