[okfn-discuss] Where Does My Money Go: what should we work on first?

[Liz Turner]

Hi all,

(reposting, apologies to Rufus and Hjalmar for the dupe)

Congratulations on getting the budget at last, and looking forward to  
an illuminating outcome!

Sorry for the late entry to the thread. I've been reading people's  
suggestions with interest, and looking at what's available before  
pitching in.

On Jun 18, 2009, at 9:09 PM, Rufus Pollock wrote:
>
>  1. Getting the data

As soon as we have enough Treasury data, we should be able to generate  
some very good visualizations quite quickly. As ever, though, how much  
of this data is available, and how much effort would be expended in  
gathering it? Am I wrong in assuming that this is the hardest part of  
the project?

>  2. Presenting it
>


I suggest we consider using a combination of the following:

1. Tree maps
Rufus' tree map example could be a really good place to start, as it  
gives an explicit overview of quantities, which is in fact very  
similar to the Death and Taxes example. With dynamic data, the right  
graphics and a slick interface design, it could become a very clear  
and compelling presentation.

2. Geographical maps
It would be great if we could highlight spending by area, to get some  
idea of public spending per capita in different locations. This  
depends very much on the quality of the data, and I can imagine  
gathering it will be a nightmare of legwork for somebody.

3. Motion charts
Google's motion chart is the model for the delicious Gapminder. This  
could be very powerful tool for analysis, but I suspect that the  
output could very quickly become incomprehensible. Also, I have no  
idea how folks feel about using Flash/Google tools for a thing like  
this, so I recommend this with caution and a pinch of salt:
http://code.google.com/apis/visualization/documentation/gallery/motionchart.html

The great thing about combining visualizations like this is that we  
can we can present multiple perspectives, which will give users extra  
context and allow them to drill down into specific areas of interest.  
I think this will go a long way towards helping people understand what  
they're looking at.

cheers
e

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