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Tag Archives: Data
FEC makes data available in multiple formts
Disclosure Data Catalog, Federal Election Commission
"Each of the files listed here can be downloaded in either csv or xml formats. Each also has a metadata page that describes the information included and the structure of the file itself. There is a pdf version of each file if you need to print the information. You can also subscribe to RSS feeds for each of the files so you're notified whenever new data is available or a change is made."Also see the Commission's Disclosure Data Blog where the FEC will post information about the files and its future plans. And: they say that "you can get help with any questions about the data we're providing here." Continue reading
Free ICPSR Data Conference on the Web
ICPSR 2009: Real Data in a Virtual World ICPSR (the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research) is the large social science data archive at the University of Michigan. Every second year, ICPSR hosts a meeting (in Ann Arbor Michigan) for its "Official Representatives" -- one person at each ICPSR member institution. This year, the meeting (October 5-9) is open to all and the meeting is on the web instead of in Ann Arbor. At the link above, you can find a list of the week long program and sign up for individual sessions. Government information specialists, particularly those with responsibilities for data and statistics, should set aside time for this! Sessions are interesting and informative. Some examples from the program:
- Census 2010 & American Community Survey
- Delivering Research Opportunities to Undergraduates
- Online Data Analysis Tools
US Federal Government IT Dashboard: Data and Visualization
If you enjoy interactive data visualizations, make sure you visit the US Federal IT Dashboard. This site is meant for use by both the public and the staff of federal agencies. The goal is to make it easy to explore how the federal government is spending its IT dollars. The major components of the dashboard are:
- Performance Dashboard: supports viewing of major IT investments, filterable by agency
- Data Feeds: will let you select data to download or create a "dynamically XML feed"
- Analysis Visualizations: lets you chart and animate any combination of 15 IT spending statistics from 2002 to present
"The IT Dashboard provides the public with an online window into the details of Federal information technology investments and provides users with the ability to track the progress of investments over time. The IT Dashboard displays data received from agency reports to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), including general information on over 7,000 Federal IT investments and detailed data for nearly 800 of those investments that agencies classify as "major." The performance data used to track the 800 major IT investments is based on milestone information displayed in agency reports to OMB called "Exhibit 300s." Agency CIOs are responsible for evaluating and updating select data on a monthly basis, which is accomplished through interfaces provided on the website."Continue reading
What features do you want for your catalog of govt data?
Data is definitely getting sexy. Jonathan Gray of the Open Knowledge Foundation asks "What features should be included in a catalogue of open government data?" and points to a few other data repositories being built on the state and country level (like my own city of SF's CivicDB!). He also mentions the Sunlight Foundation's plan to build on and expand data.gov with a national data catalog that I had meant to write about a couple of weeks ago (go Sunlight!). So I'm putting this question to you, FGI's faithful readers. I'm sure you'll have a thing or three to add to the list of requirements for open data catalogs.
Here are a few suggestions for those building catalogues for (open) government data based on our experience developing CKAN:[originally tweeted by @EllnMllr. Go ahead and follow her!] Continue reading
- Make the catalogue itself open!
- Let others download the catalogue data in bulk (not just via an API)
- Include information on how to get the data, and how it can be used
- Make it versioned!
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