Last week I attended NICAR 2012, a conference for computer assisted investigative reporting. I was there to help David teach reporters how to use tools such as Datapress and Exhibit and to learn about the needs and state-of-the-art of computers in reporting. It is always a privilege to get to visit and observe someone’s world [...]
I just ran into a lovely and frustrating open-government-style map of stimulus funding put together in Colorado. The same tool is used in a number of other states, listed in Brady Forest’s blog post at O’reilly Radar. Lovely because its always nice to look at maps; frustrating because that’s all I can do. Where’s the [...]
Inspired by Ted’s vision of what he’d like to see happen to data.gov, I decided to have a try at my hopes for it. Ted’s desires for data.gov are all ones that I agree would make the data more accessible. I would now like to discuss what else I might want in a world where [...]
The US Government efforts to create a culture of open government data is a big deal. Hopefully it signals a shift from the “pull” model of FOIA to a “push” mindset in which data is proactively returned to the public without first having to ask (and pay). Still, data.gov has a lot of room for [...]