Thursday, December 1
Agenda
Having singular data and focus
Anecdote, spreadsheet, database, FOIA -- it doesn't matter what you start with but that you start somewhere. So here are some random bits of advice and examples.
Published/Partnered Data Sidebar
Alone, or with a partner, find a significant dataset or (several) that you want to dig into deeper. Use spreadsheets, SQL, Carto -- whatever gets the job done.
Ten FOIAs to finish
Get ready for a New Year and a new President with 10 public records requests (FOIA, state, and local)
Assignments
For next week
- More about what makes visualization good (have a point, keep it simple)
- No quiz, but you should finish Homicide
- This is some good reading and data work.
Monday: Send me info about your proposed project
I intend this to be something you can loosely accomplish next week, as we meet for the last time and just casually chat (and go over more SQL since I'm behind).
Before Tuesday, email me:
- Your partner's name if you have one.
- A rough idea of what you think you want to do.
- Links to things that have inspired you.
- Links to possible datasets that you'll use. Don't worry if you don't know how to use them yet, but I need to see what you have in mind before I can help you:
- OpenDataNetwork – find data across all city data portals with an easy search.
- MuckRock – reap the benefits of others FOIAs
- Enigma.io – a startup that crawls the web for huge public data sets.
- SB 272: California Catalog of Catalogs
How's your FOIAing?
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Need 10 pretty soon…. Check out what your classmates have posted.
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Some thoughts here about how just paying attention is a big deal
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Watch me write an in-class FOIA.
More SQL and Carto
Links from last lesson (Tuesday, Nov. 29):
- Go to this page, copy all the URLs, and upload them to your CartoDB account.
Though for today, definitely have these:
- us_quakes
- us_shapes
- usgs_hazards_2014
- Members of the 114th U.S. Congress
- 114th House Congressional District Census Boundaries