SANTA MONICA—On June 6, the City of Santa Monica will host an event at the Santa Monica Public Library in honor of the National Day of Civic Hacking.

At the event, called Hack the Beach, the City of Santa Monica will partner with the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce to make new data available to the public, and to educate visitors about “all aspects of the City’s open data program,” according to the City’s website.

On June 6, the City of Santa Monica in partnership with the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce, will hold an event for the National Day of Civic Hacking at the Santa Monica Public Library
On June 6, the City of Santa Monica in partnership with the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce, will hold an event for the National Day of Civic Hacking at the Santa Monica Public Library.

The new datasets being unveiled will include Fire Department Calls for Service, citywide water usage data, and real-time data for Big Blue Bus scheduling and city parking. The last two will be focused on in depth during breakout information sessions after the introduction of the datasets.

In the Big Blue Bus session, attendees will learn about the newly available real-time General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) for the Big Blue Bus system, and how this data can be usefully applied. The official website describes the session as “a deep dive into transit-oriented data, allowing [visitors] to interact and ask questions to those most familiar with the data.”

The parking session will be a hands-on experience, where visitors will not only gain access to the new Parking Data Application Program Interface, but will also have the chance to “build lightweight apps which explore and/or visualize the data.” This is an exciting opportunity for interested members of the public, as real-time parking data for both public lots and structures and streetside meters has “consistently been one of [the City’s] most highly requested datasets” and has consistently been “locked behind proprietary systems and Non-Disclosure Agreements.”

The civic hacking event will be held in the Multipurpose Room at the Santa Monica Main Library, located at 601 Santa Monica Boulevard. It will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Lunch will be served. To obtain more information about the event visit www.smgov.net/heackthebeach.