[okfn-za] Ideas for an initial group project - input wanted!

Mon Feb 18 20:58:31 UTC 2013

Anyone keen on working on this project. Even if the topic doesn't interest
you - it is a good opportunity learn new skills and find other like-minded
people. It also gives us a little momentum which seems to have been lost
over the last 12 months.

Adi

On 14 February 2013 14:01, Rufus Pollock <rufus.pollock at okfn.org> wrote:

> On 11 February 2013 12:54, Adi Eyal <adi at burgercom.co.za> wrote:
> > 1) pulling stats together for minors in prison: what was bail, how
> >>
> >> > long has he/she been in there, how many times has court been postponed
> >> > due to "lost" docket or absent key person
> >>
> >> Any idea where we could find the data? Is it all paper or is it
> >> electronic? Does the government make it available. Could we focus on a
> >> specific locality to start with?
> >
> > I've poked around quickly online but the only database on verdicts that I
> > have found is for High Courts and the Supreme Court - but nothing
> obviously
> > interesting. We would need someone with more intimate knowledge of where
> > this data could be found.
>
> Very useful data point. Sounds like this is a bit of a non-starter
> because of this!
>
> >> > 3) degrees of separation mind-mappish type thingy for 500 most
> >> > influential South Africans.
> >> > Type in two names, and thingy finds the shortest routes between the
> >> > two people (boards of directors, relatives, education, political
> >> > events, tenders).
> >> > Not "quite simple" as you requested but would be fascinating.
> >>
> >> So we need the SA companies register including directors. theyrule for
> >> South Africa [1]. Is the Companies Register available in machine
> >> readable format
> >
> > The companies register is pathetic. It only provides the name and
> > registration number of the company. There is a cost to finding out who
> the
> > directors are. This is a prime target for a FOI application - although
> it's
> > unlikely to be successful without costly litigation.
>
> Let's get the FoI presses cranking :-) Even if unsuccessful it could
> be the start of a nice campaign!
>
> >> > 6) national map of police station location juxtap with population
> >> > I have in mind the Hout Bay police station for 20,000 people vs the
> >> > eastern Baviaanskloof Nature Reserve police station for 20 people, 1/4
> >> > of whom work in the station.
> >>
> >> Again, very nice. Where
> >
> > This is easy enough
> >
> > police stations can be found on the SAPS site -
> >
> http://www.saps.gov.za/statistics/reports/crimestats/2012/provinces/w_cape/western_cape.htm
> >
> > they aren't geocoded but you could probably find their coordinates in the
> > OpenStreetMaps POI database.
>
> Great.
>
> > The police aren't keen on providing shape files demarcating police
> > jurisdictions (I've tried) so we would have to use a heuristic to figure
> out
> > which areas are policed by which stations.
>
> How hard would that be. I feel we could make a start by focusing on a
> specific region or city ...
>
> > Finally, population data is available from StatsSA. As yet, they haven't
> > released sub-place level information (e.g. Hout Bay). Only municipal
> level
> > data is currently available. They're promising sub-place level
> information
> > in March but I'm not holding my breath given the census fiasco. We can
> use
> > the 2001 census as a proxy until the 2011 data becomes available.
>
> Sounds good. Let's kick this off!
>
> Rufus
>

-- 
Adi Eyal
Data Specialist
phone: +27 78 014 2469
skype: adieyalcas
linkedin: http://za.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Adi/Eyal
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