Here are a few of the more interesting media mentions of Sunlight and our friends and allies from the week:... View Article
Continue readingBureau of Labor Statistics Data Available on Data.gov
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Just added 35 new data sources to Data.gov. There's some really interesting data in there, including data on national compensation, work stoppages, employment and more. Great new data sources for your app.
Continue readingData.gov gets an update
For those of you keeping an eye on the ball, working hard on your Apps for America 2 entries, I've got some great news for you: Data.gov has given itself a slight upgrade, adding a bunch more feeds. To compensate, Data.gov has turned itself into three subcatalogs: A raw data catalog, a tool catalog and a geodata catalog.
By far and away, the Tool and Geodata catalogs exceed the Raw Data catalog, but we still don't have our 100,000 "feeds." We have 999 data sources in the Geodata Catalog, 999 data sources in the Tool Catalog, and 267 in the Raw Data Feeds catalog. These 999 numbers are troubling. Hopefully the software supports more than 1000 data feeds in each subcatalog.
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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Guardian gives Brits the data goods
We’ve had our share of political scandals in this country, but there’s something so–British–about the expense scandal swirling around members... View Article
Continue readingNew Data on Data.gov
Good news and Bad news from Data.gov
Looks like Data.gov has added a whole bunch of new feeds, they're up from 47 to 87 in two weeks, not a bad start. Most of the new feeds come from the IRS, they look to be interesting data: 990 forms from 501(c)(3-9) organizations.
That's the good news.
The bad news? It's pretty bad so hold on to your britches.
Continue readingThis Week In Transparency – May 29, 2009
Here are a few of the more interesting media mentions on Sunlight and our friends and grantees from this past... View Article
Continue readingWhat I’d Change about Data.gov
I think Data.gov is pretty awesome. So let me couch my sensational headline with the fact that I'm generally a fan of what Vivek Kundra & Team are trying to do inside of the federal government to make the our country more transparent. Heck, we're so excited about it we're doing our own contest with cash prizes to celebrate.
But I do have a few gripes. So in the interest of full transparency, and the hopes that this will create change, here are my gripes for all to see:
Continue readingKeeping an Eye on Data.gov
One thing that's curiously missing from Data.gov is an RSS feed for new data feeds. Sort of shockingly, and glaringly left out. We were disappointed, and didn't want to wait. Scraping here is such an easy thing to do that we decided to just build our own. Sunlight Labs' James Turk did it, and it's handy. Here's the feed and here's the source that makes the feed. This should be useful to anyone who wants to see what new stuff is coming out of Data.gov.
Continue readingWeekly Media Roundup – May 22, 2009
Here are a few of the more interesting media mentions of Sunlight and our friends and grantees from this week:... View Article
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