If you are one of the many students who has ventured away from the Law School campus for the summer, you might find yourself in a new city that you don’t yet know much about. One great mobile app that will help you to learn more about the demographics, popular hot spots and weather of your current location is Sitegeist. Created by the Sunlight Foundation, which ” is a non-partisan non-profit that uses cutting-edge technology and ideas to make government transparent and accountable,” this app pulls together information from a variety of publicly available APIs, such as the U.S. Census Bureau, Yelp!, and Dark Sky to create a picture of the area around you. All information is displayed in the form of visually appealing infographics and in many cases they link you out to more information if your interest is piqued. Whether you want to learn more about a city you have never visited or you are looking to familiarize yourself with a city you have lived in your whole life, Sitegeist is a fun example of how publicly available data can be used. The app is available for free for both iOS and Android devices. If you like the app, you might want to also check out the other two apps created as part of the National Data Apps series: Sunlight Health, a healthcare rating and drug safety app, and Upwardly Mobile, an app to help users find new places to live based on the available data.
Interested in finding more mobile apps? Check out our guide to Mobile Apps for Legal Research and More.