01
OpenShop SD
Assesses prospective business locations using zoning, permit, crime, and parking data.
Team ClockedCode
San Diego, California · March 7, 2025
Building practical civic AI with City of San Diego open data
Backland Impact designed and delivered a one-day Claude Impact Lab, sponsored by Anthropic, that brought together 60 participants in 27 teams to prototype tools using City of San Diego open data.
By Max Kruger
See the event recap on LinkedIn
1
Partner scoping session
60
Participants
27
Teams
1 day
From brief to prototype
The challenge
Turning public data into practical tools
The City of San Diego publishes data on permits, water quality, 311 complaints, budgets, police stops, and other public services. Accessing and interpreting that information often requires technical expertise.
The lab brought domain experts and AI practitioners together to build working prototypes with the city's open data. Teams formed around civic issues and spent the day developing applications and agents grounded in real public information.
The brief
Build AI apps and agents on City of San Diego open data.
The partnership
What the city brought. What Backland handled.
Backland Impact structured the engagement to limit demands on city staff while keeping the work connected to public priorities.
An initial scoping session identified relevant problems and datasets. San Diego's Chief Data Officer then joined participants on event day to provide context and answer questions.
Backland Impact led program design, participant recruitment, data preparation, team formation, facilitation, and event production.
City of San Diego contribution
- Priority areas and relevant datasets
- Access to existing public data
- Leadership participation and subject-matter context on event day
Backland Impact delivery
- Program design, participant recruitment, and team formation
- Data preparation, event production, and facilitation
- Post-event support for projects the partner chooses to continue
What people built
Three examples from the day
Teams developed concepts related to permitting, neighborhood services, water quality, public safety, and government accountability. The following projects illustrate the range of work produced during the lab.
02
Block Report
Converts city data into accessible, printable neighborhood reports for residents, community organizations, and public officials.
Team Ctrl+P
03
Pipe to Pacific
Visualizes the path of San Diego wastewater from treatment plant to ocean and surfaces contamination trends.
Team PocketStack
Partner with Backland Impact
Bring us a real challenge. We'll build the lab around it.
You don't need a dedicated AI team or a finished project brief. We work with one internal lead to define the challenge, identify the relevant data and context, recruit participants, and run the program.
