Telling stories with Open Data: Socrata Perspectives for National Day of Civic Hacking

National Day of Civic Hacking is not just about writing code. It’s also about spreading awareness of community issues, discovering new things, and sharing stories with others. And one of the best ways to make those stories engaging is through the use of open data.

That’s why we created Socrata Perspectives, our tool to help non-technical users build interactive narratives that use data in context in order to make them more compelling. You can interleave text, visualizations, maps, and other media using a simple drag and drop interface to create beautiful stories that captivate and inform your readers. For an example, check out this sample narrative we wrote about the opioid crisis gripping many American cities.

So, to support National Day and storytelling with data, we’re excited to offer up a number of free accounts to participants who want to use Perspectives as part of their projects. If you’re interested in giving it a try, contact our team and we’ll set you up with a login and some directions on how to get started!