Write anecdotes around research experience (100-200 words each)
Not a lot of "mappable data", data seems to be more about infrastructures than up-to-date environmental standards
When considering which data set to analyze, I came across the challenge of finding data I would actually be able to map. Although the platform prides itself on containing hundreds of data sets on various topics such as politics, education, and health, to name few, the majority of these are either outdated, void, or impractical. Moreover, it included a lot of superfluous data sets that seemed to be "filler" data sets. Despite being infamous for its air pollution, the city's platform only contains one set of air quality data which inaccurately describes Philadelphia's Air Quality index as "good" and "moderate" on most days of the year although it's been consistently ranked as one of the 30 most polluted metropolitan areas.
Future is in city mayor's hands
The open data movement in Philadelphia was its past mayor's, Michael Nutter's, valiant effort of creating a more transparent government and encouraging the use of data to make smarter decisions. He, along with the OpenData Philly team, were not able to achieve this on their own and needed as much support from city officials and city departments as possible. Providing data to the public that hails from city officials proved to be the most difficult and essential task to prove its practicality.
