This project is intended to make information about how streetlights across the greater Kansas City metro area are used more transparent and accessible.The Streetlight Data project is an effort to create an aggregated database and map of streetlights and information about how they are used.
Want to know about the use cases for our project? please read our KCStreetlightAPI document
Want to know what our latest needs are? Check out our notes from Feb. 19, 2018.
WHY COLLECT DATA ON STREETLIGHTS?
Smart streetlights are at the front lines of the smart city; the switch from traditional high pressure sodium street lights to LEDs is a proven cost saver for cities that can help to finance smart infrastructure. During this switch, the new light poles become part of the Internet of Things: valuable real estate for hanging cameras, sensors, wireless antennas and more. Streetlights also sit in a public right-of-way, a space that often comes with some precedent of public-private collaboration, meaning that private sector companies and entrepreneurs developing smart city applications can deploy technology on existing infrastructure.
Problem Statement But the data about streetlights right now is not easily accessible on a regional scale, to any of these parties: government, nonprofit, private or resident. Cities don’t know how to value this asset, how to choose which tech goes on which pole or how to negotiate with the private sector. The private sector doesn’t know which poles are available or how best to pilot and deploy their new tools. Additionally, most citizens are unaware of the negotiations underway about this critical public infrastructure.
Stakeholders
The direct stakeholder of the Streetlights project is Code for KC/KC Digital Drive, though all participating cities will become stakeholders. Eventually local government, entrepreneurs, researchers, private technology companies and engaged citizens will become direct stakeholders as well.
Cities so far that have agreed to share data are KCMO, Lee’s Summit, and Gladstone. KCP&L has also shared data on polls they own.
Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) is a regional data intermediary who is cooperating in the project as well.
Roadmap/Approach
Data discovery: (IN PROGRESS)
We are working with cities and other streetlight owners to understand first what data they currently collect, how it is stored, and what is available to share. We have collected data in csv form from Lees Summit, KCMO and KCP&L and still asking other cities for data.
Data integration: (IN PROGRESS)
We are building a back-end database to store data from multiple city data, preserve privacy and security where necessary, and develop a database maintenance process. We are in progress of creating a master csv file for this data.
Data visualization: (IN PLANNING)
We are creating a front-end portal to make these data useful to cities, partners, planners, and residents alike. We are still in progress of deciding which language to use and wireframing our project.
How to Contribute / Call to Action
We are looking for:
- MEAN stack developers to work on the API (right now populating from Google spreadsheet) visualization
- Database experts to help determine alternatives to Google spreadsheet integration
- Javascript developers visualizaiton
- GIS specialists who can read shape files visualization
- UX and designers as we start to build a front end for different user groups visualization
- Reporters/analysts to work on how to draw meaning from the data and add additional datasets discovery
The Streetlights project meets every Monday for Hack Nights at Think Big Partners from 6-8 pm.
Team uses Waffle.io for project management Project communication on the #streetlights Slack channel If you are interested, reach out to Katherine Hambrick at khambrick@kcdigitaldrive.org or join our slack.
Developer Notes
What we need to do still:
- Translate data to be the same (schema?)
- Loading the pole data into the (json) API
- Loading the metadata into the api
- API support and design work
- UI for the API
Three focus areas (December 4)
- Create plan for backend (??)
- Lee’s Summit and KCMO have two different data formats: Northing and Easting location for poles and long/lat location for poles. We need to unify it in one common format (preferred: latitude and longitude)
- Examine KCP&L Shapefile: create master list with KCP&L, Lees Summit and KCMO data
- Front End: We need a front end developer to look at it and agree to write in our language
- Back End: We need a back end developer to look at it and agree to write in our language
Other Project Info
- Early project documentation (user stories, architectural overview, wire frames)
- Mock data: http://mockaroo.com/schemas/8312
ETL Process
- Northing & Easting conversion Database (Mongo)
- Setup methods to enable CRUD operations
- Create data types for all the data API (ExpressJS)
- Retrieve data from the database
- Filter data based on parameters
- Serve filtered data to the front-end via JSON Front-End (Angular)
- Display data as a table/spreadsheet (including filtering options)
- Display data on a map (including filtering options). May use cluster approach