Here are the hottest data journalism tweets for Jan 9-15, per our NodeXL mapping: DIY graphs (@nytgraphics); identifying megaregions (@undertheraedar); data reporting (@albertocairo); dataviz without data (@ddjournalism); colorizing images (@waseda_univ); Swiss climate shifts (@duc_qn); & more.
Alongside the advantages available for criminals of operating on a global scale, making it harder to track them down, there are also disadvantages that the clever journalist or law enforcement official can exploit to expose them. How do we do this? Firstly, through data: more data means more transparency, provided the quality of information is there and supported by tools that allow proper analysis. Secondly, by journalists using advanced techniques.
With the aim of contributing to the promotion of data-based investigations and asserting its vision of journalism as an essential service to democracy, OjoPúblico has published “La navaja suiza del reportero. Herramientas de investigación en la era de los datos masivos” (“The Swiss Army Knife Journalist: Digital Research Tools in the Era of Big Data”), a resource for Hispanic reporters who want to become familiar with the world of data journalism and, above all, to understand its meaning and relevance in Latin America and the world.
Only one-tenth of national data is really open and free, according to the third annual Open Data Barometer by the World Wide Web Foundation. “The open data movement is at a turning point,” the report finds. “If we allow this moment to slip away, however, open data could fade into a ghost town of abandoned pilots, outdated data portals, and unused apps.”
The story published in the Washington Post’s Wonkblog ended up being about race, but it didn’t start out that way. Nick Diakopoulos, who leads the lab, wrote for the Wonkblog last year with a story on how surge pricing motivates Uber drivers to move to those surging areas, but does not increase the number of drivers on the road as Uber claims.
Sustainable Development Labs can bring the benefits of Technology and Innovation to the poorest communities in our cities and nations, providing education, jobs, and growth by channeling IT projects to work with and for the people in those communities.
What I see in Africa open data today is a very immature movement/industry totally dependent on international aid funding, local heroic leadership against almost impossible odds, and absolutely no governmental institutional commitments. Governments are not funding programs and deploying talented resources on their own and there is no public demand. Without international funding there would be no open data programs in Africa today and a movement without indigenous will and commitment cannot stand on its own. Why?
We’re back with another selection of web resources and reports that might be of interest to journalists around the world. On the list this week: new reports from the International Labour Organization, Congressional Research Service, and UK House of Commons; and tools to search domain ownership, load tweets into a spreadsheet, and search open data. Good hunting!
Since Data.Gov was created by the U.S. Government in 2009, hundreds of cities, states, and nations around the world have embraced the concept of open data and open government by publishing millions of data sets of dubious quality that few people are aware of and hardly anyone really uses. Why?
