Open Data Makes Public Safety Better
Yelp - the crowdsourced restaurant review website - has helped make restaurant inspection data more accessible in the US reducing the risk of food borne illnesses . Most notably by establishing LIVES , a standard that unlocks restaurant inspection data typically held at the city and state level. A recent blog post on Harvard Business Review describes how Yelp (and LIVES) creates a level of transparency that raises accountability by giving consumers the power to make better decisions with health inspection data. Yelp found that once businesses became aware that consumers had access to data, they responded better to low ratings - 'In one large city, we showed in a randomized, controlled trial that restaurants whose low hygiene ratings are posted on Yelp tend to respond by cleaning up and performing better on their next inspections.’ Likewise, we believe a similar positive effect can come from opening up crime data. Just as residents want to know hygiene information ab