the US equivalent of Liverpool's Liverpool Direct

City Ordinance 311 is the US equivalent of Liverpool's Liverpool Direct, an enquiry and information service for local government, but on a much wider scale. That scale allows better analysis of the data gathered and in this long article with diagrams for Wired Magazine, Steven Johnson investigates what that information suggests about New Yorkers and their needs:

A data-driven approach to urban life makes sense, because cities are in many respects problems of information management. But the problems take various forms, depending on whether you confront them as a public agency or an ordinary citizen. Governments want to know where the messes are so they can prioritize cleanups. But for city dwellers, the challenge takes a different shape, because we need to know which resource we should use to satisfy our present need."

The phone line was instrumental in solving their Maple Syrup mystery.  By mapping were the biggest concentration of phone calls were coming from and the time of day, the location of the source revealed itself quite naturally.