SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Socrata (www.socrata.com), the world leader in cloud solutions for open data and data-driven government, today announced a strategic partnership with Yelp (www.yelp.com), the leading local guide for real word-of-mouth on everything from boutiques and mechanics to restaurants and dentists.
The prime purpose of the new strategic partnership is to distribute important restaurant inspection information and help improve public health conditions in communities all over the world.
Under the terms of the agreement, Yelp will become a new member of the Open Data Network™ and join forces with Socrata’s government customers to get these critical ratings into the hands of consumers everywhere around the globe. Government customers of Socrata’s Open Data Portal™ solution can also receive free tools and guidance on how to connect their restaurant inspection data to Yelp.
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. The strategic partnership between Socrata and Yelp, as well as their new solution, is a first in that it helps governments unlock this data while normalizing and presenting it to everyday consumers in a way that is easy to understand and in a context with which they are familiar.
“We are very excited to launch this partnership with Yelp, the global leader in crowd-sourced reviews for local businesses,” said Kevin Merritt, the CEO and Founder of Socrata. “With this behind-the-scenes data integration, millions of people will be able to benefit from better health information, which will ultimately improve their lives.”
Adds Jeremy Stoppelman, CEO and Co-Founder of Yelp: “We’re thrilled to be working with Socrata and its network of partners to make this valuable information more accessible to the millions of people that turn to Yelp every month. 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.”
LIVES is the key tool that Socrata will use to guide governments on data integration with Yelp. Pioneered by Code for America, LIVES helps software developers analyze the restaurant inspections that cities, counties and states perform everyday. This type of information is already being published on one of Socrata’s customer’s (the City and County of San Francisco) data portal, DataSF.
All Socrata Open Data Portal™ customers will now have the option of linking their LIVES data to the Open Data Network™. Membership in the Open Data Network™ is free for all of Socrata’s government customers. Socrata’s recently launched Open Data Network™ (ODN) is designed to unleash the full potential of government data and help drive sustained prosperity in connected communities all over the world. Bringing together a vast and connected ecosystem of participants – governments that are open data publishers and consumers; businesses that incorporate and use government data; citizens; and civic developers and entrepreneurs who use open data to build service delivery apps – the Open Data Network will eventually encompass 25-30 industries, each with its own unique and valuable dataset.
ABOUT SOCRATA
Socrata is the world leader in cloud solutions for open data and data-driven governments. Its innovative customers include the cities of New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Melbourne and Eindhoven; the states of New York, Illinois and Texas; US Health and Human Services; Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services; the UN, the European Commission, and the World Bank. Socrata’s solutions – including the recently launched Open Data Network™ which unleashes the full potential of government data to help drive connected communities around the world – assist government leaders in improving transparency, modernizing citizen access to information and bringing data into every decision, all with unprecedented speed and cost savings. Delivered as turnkey services, Socrata’s technologies unlock data trapped in enterprise silos, mobilize and transform it into useful information that everyone can easily access, visualize, share and reuse. To learn more about Socrata, visit www.socrata.com.
ABOUT YELP
Yelp connects people with great local businesses. Yelp was founded in San Francisco in July 2004. Since then, Yelp communities have taken root in major metros across 29 countries. Yelp had a monthly average of 139 million unique visitors in Q3 2014*. By the end of Q3 2014 Yelpers had written more than 67 million rich, local reviews, making Yelp the leading local guide for real word-of-mouth on everything from boutiques and mechanics to restaurants and dentists. Approximately 73 million unique visitors visited Yelp via their mobile device on a monthly average basis during Q3 2014**. For more information, please visit http://www.yelp.com/ or send an email to press@yelp.com.
* Source: "Users" as measured by Google Analytics
** Average monthly mobile unique visitors based on the number of unique visitors accessing Yelp via mobile web and unique devices accessing the app on a monthly average basis over a given three-month period.
