NashView operates like any typical mapping app, where users can zoom in on an area, search by address, and apply a range of search filters to learn more about their communities.
NashView works in partnership with hubNashville, which functions as an all-around information portal where residents can get city information as well as file questions and complaints. This is where you would get trash collection information or report a pothole.
NashView will be fully released next week, while hubNashville was released in October, 2017. NashView will also be a component of the hubNashville mobile app to be released in the spring of this years, said Keith Durbin, chief information officer for Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County.
“We are adding a new horizontal section to the home page of (the) Nashville.gov (site) just below the fold on March 8,” said Durbin, commenting on how residents will be directe dto the NashView site. “And because it is an adjunct to hubNashville, which is linked from the top of the Nashville.gov homepage, a new tab will appear on the hubNashville homepage for easy access.”
The city has been in the process of promoting the new NashView platform, coming before multiple neighborhood groups, the Nashville Police Department Community Coordinators and other groups.
“We’re tracking usage and have had almost 50,000 requests submitted in hubNashville since it went live last fall and 1,500 unique users of NashView in the first week,” said Durbin. “Feedback has been tremendously positive.”
NashView was developed by Seattle-based Socrata, a tech company specializing in government open-data technology, and is powered by Metro Nashville’s open data portal. The move to develop NashView stemmed from a desire to make more city information open, and easily accessible for anyone with a web connection, say officials.
“You shouldn’t have to be a Metro employee to gain insight into what is happening around our community,” said Mayor Megan Barry, in a statement. “NashView provides information that neighbors can use to work more closely with their council members, Metro departments and agencies to address trends and take full advantage of the benefits that already exist.”
“While we have an extensive and sophisticated GIS platform, the need has long existed for a simple means by which a resident, without a lot of training, can slice and dice Metro data on what is happening around them,” Durbin added. “Nashville has a very strong and active culture of neighborhood organizations -- I myself was president of Belmont-Hillsboro Neighbors for five years -- so the desire for data and visualization have been on the table for a long time.”
The project also continues a central goal of the Nashville Metro Government, which is to put more information into the hands of residents. Former Mayor Karl Dean signed an executive order in 2014, making a commitment to open data.
“While not every data set that neighbors want can fit on a single tool, this brings a lot of important ones together in one place, with details,” said Durbin. “The whiz-bang features like the heat-map and some of the trending charts are icing on the cake.”
