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A week in open data and visualisation

Submitted by Giulio Quaggiotto on Wed, 2009-04-29 16:17

Looks like there is quite a buzz around open data and data visualisation in the public sector and development world right now. This is what has landed in my inbox just in the last week:

Google has just released a new search feature that makes it easier to locate and compare public data. (Hat tip: Qian Zhu)

The UK Department of Communities and Local Government has commissioned a review of potential approaches to visualizing data in the public realm.

Again in the UK, under the slogan "Show us a better way" the government has made publicly available a while ago whole sets of data for the first time - from neighborhood statistcs to healthcare information - and offered a 20,000 pound prize to the best ideas for new products that could improve the way public information is communicated. Apparently the initiative was a success and so was, more recently, the "National Hack the Government Day." The Wikinomics blog recently reported on similar initiatives in the US and Belgium.

The US Census Bureau (in collaboration with the OECD and the World Bank) is organising a workshop on innovative approaches to turn statistics into knowledge (if you are interested, the deadline for registration is tomorrow!)

Gapminder's founder Hans Rosling must be having a ball...

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A very interesting post...

Submitted by Mike on Thu, 2009-04-30 08:58.

A very interesting post, Giulio!

One that arrived in my in-box this week:

Here are the winners, and a complete list of finalists, in the Apps for America contest sponsored by Sunlight Labs to promote creative uses of open source tools to mash-up publicly available data (in this case, related to the U.S. Congress).

http://www.sunlightlabs.com/blog/2009/04/20/and-winners-are/

What if the World Bank were to sponsor something like this? (Or perhaps a better question: Why *doesn't* the World Bank sponsor something like this?)

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There is indeed gathering momentum on this...

Submitted by Owen Barder on Fri, 2009-05-01 00:02.

There is indeed gathering momentum on this.

aidinfo (www.aidinfo.org) is working with people in developing countries to understand what information they need to make aid more accountable and effective; and with donors to devise a new mechanism to get information published in a form that is comprehensive, comparable, timely and easily accessible.

There is a growing civil society campaign, Publish What You Fund, asking for this information to be published (http://www.publishwhatyoufund.org/).

And donors are working towards a new common system through the International Aid Transparency Initiative (http://www.aidtransparency.net/).

Owen