Everyblock experiments with council meeting minutes

Tom Loosemore recently posted about the ability to search video footage from House of Commons debates on theyworkforyou.com, pointing out that:

The accessibility and searchability of the web transforms our ability to hold our elected representatives to account for their actions in Parliament.

Now hyper-local news mapping site Everyblock has launched in two new US cities, Charlotte and Philadelphia, and is testing some interesting new information sources which have the potential to take this accountability another step forward.

Everyblock Charlotte will be providing access to relevant information within city council meeting minutes and Charlotte zoning minutes (NB: Zoning rules regulate how land can be used. Landowners must get city council approval to develop property in ways that do not conform to current zoning classifications.)

Everyblock Philadelphia will be publishing information from the Philadelphia Rules committee (The Rules committee considers matters relating to municipal development and zoning, the city planning commission and housing and redevelopment authorities, among other things.) and Philadelphia Streets and Services agendas.

We're analyzing the text of these meeting minutes/agendas for all locations referenced therein. If the city council or rules committee mentions something near you, you'll see it on your EveryBlock page. This is often highly relevant local information about zoning changes, etc.

Planning applications (or 'zoning changes' in US speak) have always been a great example of ultra-local information that are extremely important to the (usually) small number of people that they affect.

By making this information easily accessible, as well as a host of other related data around local services and civic issues, these sites could well lead the way towards a truly essential, ultra-local service.

Managing large sets of un-structured data, and making them easy to use, searchable and relevant is not an easy task and the location tagging and location based search mechanism will be crucial to the success of the project.

Everyblock Charlotte also includes information on 911 calls to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (maybe the ultimate information resource on crime mapping in your area?) and notice of any new books and DVDs that have been added to your local library.

More information on journalism.co.uk.