OpenGov launched a website this week designed to "decode" the
often byzantine and confusing laws, rules and regulations
governing San Francisco. The site is known as San Francisco
Decoded.  The site is part of InnovateSF, an initiative to
modernize the city's information systems and give the masses
access to city government data. Such projects are cropping up
around the country, from municipalities to the White House, and
around much of the developed world.  The idea is that with
easier access to the information, regular folks will build their
own tools to analyze public data. That includes everything from
crime and health to the full text of laws.  Waldo Jaquith, who
runs State Decoded, a free software platform that puts laws
online, contributed to the project. "If information can't be
found with Google, it might as well not exist," Jaquith said.
For example, a pair of developers used data recently to examine
how criminal activity relates to San Francisco's varied
topography. Their analysis showed that less