A New User Interface in the Social Data Platform

After extensive usability tests, most importantly on discovery, comprehension, ease of use and performance, we started rolling out a new user interface a few weeks ago.  The www.socrata.com site and Socrata-powered, privately branded datasites are not monolithic, which provides an opportunity to deploy the new user interface incrementally as major components are ready.  The first component with the new UI is Dataset Details – the interface you use to sort, search, filter, visualize, share and generally explore data interactively.

A New UI for the Social Data Player

The Social Data Player, which lets you embed data in web pages, blogs and social networks, got a facelift too. The result is much improved discovery and comprehension of data and faster load times.

Faceted Browsing

One of the big new additions to the Socrata platform is “Guided Filters” which you might know by its more technical name, faceted browsing. Guided Filters lets non-technically trained users explore data by interactively filtering values and seeing the results change in real-time. It’s a great way to better understand the data.

Richer Charts and Graphs

We’ve introduced new kinds and types of charts and graphs dataset owners or dataset viewers can create. We’ve also enhanced their look and feel and made them more interactive too.

Open Data Federation Services

With Open Data Federation Services, multiple Socrata customers can link their Dataset Discovery catalogs to each other. For example, King County, Washington and Seattle, Washington could expose their data catalogs to each other. The result is that when a visitor is on either the County’s datasite or the City’s datasite and searches for a term, “crime” for example, the results will include datasets from both government organizations. It’s a great way to both expand the reach of your data as well as make it more convenient for constituents to find data regardless of where they are. Federations are bilateral (both sides opt in to the program) and can be either uni-directional (only one organization shares “to” the other) or bi-directional (both organizations expose their catalogs to each other).

Digitally Signed Datasets

Ensuring that government data is authentic and hasn’t been downloaded, modified and re-uploaded as official is a real concern. Socrata recently introduced the Digitally Signed Datasets Module, which allows data publishers to digitally sign datasets, ensuring that external attempts to alter those digitally signed datasets can be detected and invalidated.  This optional module is available as an add-on to either the Socrata Social Data Platform Premium Plan or the Social Data Platform Ultimate Plan.

Arbitrary Metadata and Metadata Attachments

Socrata has long offered very rich metadata for each dataset, including description, category, tags, column names, column types, source of data, reference URL to the dataset’s definitive location on the web, etc. Two new enhancements infinitely expand upon Socrata’s built-in metadata. First, publishers can now define their own metadata fields. Second, publishers can upload one or more documents as attachments. For example, if you have a PDF or Word document that describes the scientific method used when tabulating the data, you can now attach it to the dataset itself.

Sitewide Analytics

The Socrata Social Data Platform has long offered rich dataset level performance metrics, showing how and where data is being accessed and even re-embedded across the web. We’ve recently introduced the Sitewide Analytics Module which provides aggregate statistics – which datasets are most popular, most embedded, most commented upon, etc. The Sitewide Analytics module even shows search trends. You’ll know longer wonder what kind of data people are looking for, you’ll know implicitly by reviewing their search trends.

As I mentioned, I’ll blog more about each of these recent enhancements in greater detail in the upcoming weeks, but wanted to keep you apprised of how the Socrata Social Data Platform keeps getting better.

I hope your summer has been as productive as ours has been.

Since inception, Socrata has offered community-based comment moderation, but today’s release offers new functionality for data publishers who want more control. Now content managers can manage inappropriate, off-topic, and spam comments in an approval system — much like popular blog platforms — before the comments are ever seen by the public. This feature is especially important for government agencies who may be posting politically-charged data.

Interested in becoming a Socrata premium customer? Learn more about Socrata pricing and plans.

Now editing datasets is seamless, without separate data viewing and editing modes, and keyboard navigation enhancements make data entry as simple as a spreadsheet. Furthermore, with the switch from the Flash platform to standards-compliant HTML and JavaScript, Socrata and the Social Data Platform are noticeably faster, including shorter load times, due to improved JavaScript virtual machine performance in modern Web browsers.

Today’s new features also include support for OpenID, an open standard for logging in to websites and maintaining a single identity across the web. Visitors with existing Facebook, Google, Microsoft Live ID, Yahoo, and other common Web site accounts now have a streamlined sign up process with Socrata, and no longer need to maintain a separate password from their primary account.

Government agencies are working to make it easier for constituents to comment on and socialize government data. With Socrata’s inclusion of popular Web site log-in integration, constituents can participate in the data transparency movement with fewer barriers.

Here’s a note from Paul, our lead developer on OpenID integration:

“I’m extremely excited that we are able to offer OpenID to our customers. For the most common identity providers (Google, Facebook, Windows Live ID, and Yahoo), we’ve added quick links to sign up or log in using these services – while it’s all OpenID under the covers, we’ve made it even simpler to get started without knowing anything about OpenID. We’ve also eliminated the need to maintain a separate Socrata password if you wish to always use your OpenID to log on; and existing accounts with a linked OpenID identifier, can remove their password on the My Account page. Also, as of today, we now support using OpenID Attribute Exchange and OpenID Simple Registration Extension to fill in your profile during the signup creation process. And for our customers with a Socrata login, we now offer a simple method to link a new OpenID to your existing account simply by signing in with the new OpenID.”

So enjoy! All of our customers’ accounts were automatically updated with these enhancements. No upgrades to purchase. No updates to install and roll out. And if you haven’t had an opportunity to socratize your first dataset, get started with Socrata Free.

Real-time collaboration brings the experience of working together with lists and data to the next level.   As you collaborate with others you’ll now see instant updates to shared lists, team projects, sales lead trackers, and customer relationship blists.

blist now makes collaboration even easier.

• Group Editing Keeps Everyone in Sync — As multiple people work on the same blist, changes are reflected to every team member as they occur.  Also, blist clearly indicates when a row is being edited, supporting team cooperation.

• Team Member Presence and Connections –- When working together, team members know who is present in a blist. Now individuals can make connections with people in their organization – people who they may have never met before – because of a shared project.

• Email Notifications — With a click of a link, team members are instantly emailed about blist updates.  There are no files to share and no emails to send – blist makes notifications a natural step in team workflow.

Let’s see it in action:

Real-time Collaboration with blist from Jon Byrum on Vimeo.

I have the pleasure to announce that blist is now officially announcing blist Grid Widgets and blist Form Widgets, one of our top customer feature requests. Now, with a simple snippet of HTML code, you can share everything from a personal to-do list to a project management database directly within your blog or website. And with blist Form Widgets you can easily collect data, like potential CRM sales leads, using a form integrated within your corporate website.

• Learn more about blist Widgets
• Learn how to create a blist Grid Widget or a blist Form Widget
• See how Change.gov, the official website of President Barack Obama’s transition team, is using a blist Grid Widget
• See how the Washington Industry Association is using a blist Form Widget to submit suggestions
• See how TechFlash is using a blist Grid Widget to track popular applications for the iPhone

blist Grid Widgets and blist Form Widgets offer a number of compelling benefits:

Easy to create – blist Widgets are easy and intuitive to create, with a clear step-by-step wizard.  During this process, blist enables you to customize widget dimensions, providing the flexibility to integrate blist Grid Widgets in any website or blog design. And with the release of blist Form Widgets, you can easily create a form from any blist to capture potential CRM sales leads or new project management tasks.  Both widgets are easily embedded in a website or blog with a small snippet of HTML code.

Easy to share and update - The blist Grid Widget makes it easy for viewers to republish your widget, spreading the reach of your content and your site’s awareness.  Keeping your blist Widgets up to date is easy — simply make a change to one blist and any republished blist Widget will be instantly updated.

Visually rich and interactive – The blist Grid Widget allows site visitors to search and sort tabular content, creating an engaging experience for interacting with data.  Trying doing that in an HTML table.

Ready for business – Advanced permissions make it possible for you to create blist Widgets which are only accessible by designated individuals. You can feel safe using a blist Grid Widget to share your CRM or project management data on an internal site or wiki.

So enjoy and keep sharing your web lists!

• We added 5 new How do I? help videos.  These new topics were based on top customer questions.  Also, the videos can now be watched full screen!  Learn how to hide a column, change blist permissions, export a blist, use page view, and embed a blist within your website.
• We made it simpler to share a blist with multiple people.
• We updated our website, so you can easily scroll through the breadth of things that are possible with blist.
• Another subtle — but important — change that you’ve probably noticed is the addition of line numbers to the grid.  Now when you scroll through your blist horizontally you’ll be able to keep track of your current row.  This was a top requested feature, so we’re happy to release it for you!

Please let us know what you think!

Over the past few weeks I’ve noticed more people using blist to make and share their Christmas lists. In the Merritt household all of us are making Christmas blists this year too. One feature that makes blist so handy is that you can borrow other people’s blists and effectively use them as a template for your own. In that spirit, I thought I’d go ahead and publish my Christmas blist here. If you want to make your own Christmas blist, just open mine and copy it.

Here’s what my Christmas blist looks like, in widget form:

Here’s how you can copy my Christmas blist:

• Open my blist. You can do that in one of two ways.
  • Either click on this URL to my Christmas blist
  • or click on the “Full Screen” button in the widget above

• After my Christmas blist loads up, just click on the [Copy this blist] icon in the menu ribbon. It looks like this:

• After you click the [Copy this blist] icon, a window will pop up to let you give your blist a name, optionally enter a description and some tags, and set the desired permissions. The most important decision you need to make is whether you want the content or just the column names. Unless you and I are eerily the same, you’ll probably just want the column titles without my actual data.

That’s all there is to it. After you’ve created your Christmas blist, you’ll want to share it with your friends and family. Need help? Here’s a really short primer on how to share your blist.

1. A more discoverable Permissions & Privacy section, which allows you to easily make your blist public or private.  Public blists are a great way to share interesting data with the blist community.
2. A notification feature that emails all of the people with whom your blist is shared.  If you’ve made a large change to your blist, and want to let everyone know that it has been updated, click “Notify all of changes”.

These are just two small enhancements to improve the experience of working with blist.

Here’s a time sequenced screen progression to show you how it works. Click into a date cell. Notice there’s a calendar icon, which opens a date picker if you want it.

We don’t want to pick from the calendar. We just want to type ‘today’ into the cell.

And then as soon as we tab out of the cell, the string ‘today’ will be replaced with today’s date.

That’s all there is to it. I find it helpful and hope you do too.