Tech startups Socrata and Yelp have joined hands to provide restaurant inspection data in an effort to improve public health. Under the terms of the agreement, Yelp will become a new member of the Open Data Network to work with Socrata’s other partners on providing the data, CivSource said.
This isn’t the first time Yelp has partnered to provide this type of information. Last year, CivSource reported on the company’s partnership with the city of San Francisco to release similar information. Government customers of Socrata’s Open Data Portal solution will now also receive free tools and guidance on how to connect their restaurant inspection data to Yelp, the website said.
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Extracting restaurant inspections data from government databases is not always easy. Additionally, the majority of cities throughout the United States are not yet publishing their restaurant inspection information in a format that can be consumed by “business-to-consumer” solutions such as Yelp, CivSource said.
“This was a joint effort as part of Yelp’s Local Inspector Value Entry Specification (LIVES) open data standard, which enables local municipalities to accurately upload restaurant health inspection scores for display on Yelp business pages, ” said Jeremy Stoppelman, CEO and Co-Founder of Yelp. The LIVES project was also used in the San Francisco initiative, the website said.
Pioneered by Code for America, LIVES helps software developers analyze the restaurant inspections that cities, counties and states perform every day, CivSource said.
Socrata is the world leader in cloud solutions for open data and data-driven governments, while Yelp is the leading local guide for real word-of-mouth on everything from boutiques and mechanics to restaurants and dentists, according to a press release issued by the two companies.
