dobtco / naics Goto Github PK

Background

Yesterday, someone brought to my attention this question on the new Open Data Stack Exchange. (Asked by Christopher Whitaker, no less.) To paraphrase the question:

"What if we had the same data schema in multiple cities so that we could start to compare procurement across different cities? "

To paraphrase my answer, we should be building on top of NAICS codes, instead of around them.

The major flaw with NAICS is that it's not user friendly enough. This can be solved by civic hackers. I propose we build an abstraction layer on top of NAICS that maps the codes to not just their official descriptions, but synonyms as well. We can also create "groups" so that someone could choose "Web Programming", and get back the 4 or 5 codes that are applicable.

This seems like it would immensely important to our common goals. Do you guys think there's a good venue for making this a community project, and if so, what is it? (I can't keep track of all the civic hack days/hackathons/summer of codes/brigades, but hey, that's a good thing.)

Desired outcomes

I currently have 3 in mind:

• An open dataset in a modern format (JSON) that includes all the NAICS codes, their descriptions, and common synonyms for each. Also includes a "groups" table that lists common businesses and the NAICS codes associated with each. e.g. "Web Developer" matches "Software programming services, custom computer" and "Application hosting". More results is always better.

Not sure how much demand there is for these groups, so that will need to be investigated.

• A hosted API for the dataset. Can query by virtually any parameter. Speed is key.
• A website that serves as the first client for the API. Allows a business to find their NAICS codes quickly and easily.

And down the road...

• Map NAICS codes to other industry codes. Some of these mappings already exist.

Next Steps

Would love to have some more discussion around this before anything else. Let's keep discussion in this thread for now.