Here are a few of the more interesting media mentions of Sunlight and our friends and grantees from this past... View Article
Continue readingWanted: New Recovery.gov
That was fast. The administration is already seeking a new IT firm to redesign Recovery.gov, the transparency site for stimulus... View Article
Continue readingFun with Google Spreadsheets and Fusion Tables
Fun with Google Spreadsheets and Fusion Tables
I've been having a lot of fun with Google tools today, and I wanted to share. This morning I was interested in generating this pie chart from the data off of Data.gov in my last post but needed to get all the data out of the Data.gov Data Catalog first.
Google Spreadsheets actually makes this really easy -- if you know what you're doing:
Step 1: Create a new spreadsheet, and put this little line in a cell:
=importHtml("http://www.data.gov/catalog#raw","table",2)
Step 2: There is no step 2. You're done.
Cool huh? You've now got a spreadsheet of all the data in Data.gov. But that's not what I wanted-- what I wanted was a count of each data source by agency to see who was providing the most data. The answer here was Google's new Fusion Tables. In Fusion Tables, I can then take the data, create an aggregation and provide me the counts, imported from my Google Spreadsheet.
Easy data analysis without a lick of code.
Continue readingCapitol Words: Pelosi v. Boehner
An analysis using Capitol Words comparing the words spoken by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Republican Minority Leader... View Article
Continue readingSurge of EPA data in Data.gov
Late afternoon yesterday, Data.gov went from 81 feeds to 261, and the EPA overtook the USGS for the agency providing the most data. The EPA added 180 new data files-- the Toxics Release Inventory data for each state and territory as well as for federal agencies for 2005, 2006 and 2007.
This data is interesting stuff-- dozens of CSV files (still in .exe compressed archives, ick) that speak to where corporations and government are managing toxic chemicals. There's lots of interesting data in there. But it isn't just a clear win-- this data is poorly documented byte delimited text files. While we do have some headers provided to get us started, but no real description of the actual files.
If you do end up working with this data for your [Apps for America 2: The Data.gov Challenge] entry, make some notes on how you parsed the data and let's create our own documentation for this data source.
Here's a breakdown of the data in Data.gov as of today:
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Ethics Link Line-Up
The party may be over, but the investigation is just beginning. The House Ethics Committee confirms that it is investigating... View Article
Continue readingPrison Incarceration Rates and the National Criminal Justice Commission Act
This post exists in the service of taking government data and showing what you can do with it. Yesterday, the... View Article
Continue readingNon-earmark disclosing lawmakers feted by transportation interests
At least a dozen lawmakers who didn't disclose their transportation earmarks are the beneficiaries of trasnportation fundraisers this year, according to Party Time. Click here to see who. We've also updated this online database to include party information.
Continue readingNew “RaceTracker” to Track Every Congressional Race Nationwide
The newly launched RaceTracker - a non-partisan, fully-referenced, open-source and crowd-sourced wiki project - lists every candidate running in every U.S. Senate, House and governor's race.
Continue readingRangel Investigation Specifics Come Out
According to The Hill, the House Ethics Committee is investigating a possible qui pro quo between Rep. Charles Rangel and... View Article
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