[okfn-za] Spatial data for schools

Mon Feb 10 06:59:43 UTC 2014

If you haven’t seem them yet, http://findmyschool.co.ke/ (Kenya) and http://www.findmyschool.co.uk/ both let users explore schools based on area, location etc.

--
Greg Kempe
p +27 (0)78 246 1116
w  kempe.net
t  @longhotsummer

On 08 February 2014 at 11:11:54 PM, Adi Eyal (adi at code4sa.org) wrote:

... bringing this back into the list - accidentally missed the Reply All button.  

> Another idea I had was providing the address and contact details with the  
> principals' names on a map. You could either look for a school or see the  
> school and select it. Could be useful for people who work at schools (I do  
> some of that, but we usually rock up and explain what we need to do. Never  
> been turned away yet.)  

I like to personalise data as much as possible. Heatmaps and other  
visualisations are useful if there is a real story there. I like your  
idea above. One twist would be to possible twist is for the user to  
give their address and get a list of all the schools in their area  
with performance. Most people don't know how good the schools in their  
neighbourhood are. Have a look at http://wards.code4sa.org.  

If you need help, I can get you started.  

On 8 February 2014 22:12, <mtb at martinb.za.net> wrote:  
> On 08.02.2014 21:18, Adi Eyal wrote:  
>>  
>> Hi Martin  
>>  
>>  
>>> I am confused by the presence of two different latitude and longitude  
>>> entries. Some data clean-up will be needed, especially with the addresses  
>>> and contact details, but maybe someone can use this for something cool.  
>>> (The  
>>> immediate idea was a page where one can either search for the schools and  
>>> get the information or look at schools on a map and get the same  
>>> information, but I am sure you can come up with something more  
>>> interesting.)  
>>  
>>  
>> I have cc-ed Jason who has worked quite extensively with this data -  
>> he might be able to suggest some roads untravelled.  
>  
>  
> Cool. Good to know.  
>  
> Jason: Have you attempted any clean-up on the data? While I think the  
> majority is sane, the street and postal addresses for example are hopelessly  
> mangled in the subset of the data I have looked at. If we can get that  
> sanitised, I think we could really have something useful.  
>  
>  
>>  
>>  
>>> They do talk about having both shapefiles and Excel files, but I am not  
>>> sure  
>>> where the shapefiles are. I will be having a look at what I can do with  
>>> it  
>>> over the weekend, if I can find the time. Maybe I can get something a bit  
>>> more friendly, even if I just re-save it all to a .csv or something.  
>>  
>>  
>> You can find education district shape files here:  
>>  
>>  
>>  
>> https://github.com/j-norwood-young/SA-Maps/tree/master/Schools/education_districts  
>  
>  
> These might be useful. I see the data I am playing with is already  
> available.  
>  
>  
>>  
>> Also, if you're of the python persuasion (and have the requisite  
>> coding skills) you can use http://code.google.com/p/pyshp/ to create a  
>> shapefile from all the coords. If you come up with a cool project, I'm  
>> sure you'll find others who may want to contribute.  
>>  
>  
> I just converted some of the data to .csv and threw it into my GIS software  
> that I am learning to use/playing with. :)  
>  
>  
>>  
>>> Does anyone have any guidelines over the use of this information? Can I  
>>> (hypothetically) make a map or a web-app showing all the schools in the  
>>> country?  
>>  
>>  
>> Don't ask. Just do it. Copyright on public datasets isn't at all  
>> clear. No point in erring on the side of caution or even asking for  
>> permission.  
>  
>  
> Good to know.  
>  
>>  
>>> There is also some statistical data available at  
>>>  
>>>  
>>> http://www.education.gov.za/EMIS/StatisticalPublications/tabid/462/Default.aspx  
>>> but it seems to be only in .pdf (urgh...).  
>>  
>>  
>> :)  
>>  
>> try tabula - http://tabula.nerdpower.org/ - if there are any specific  
>> tables that you want to extract  
>  
> Nothing specific, but I thought others might find it useful.  
>  
>  
>>  
>> I'm happy to help if you want to spitball some ideas.  
>  
>  
> Automatic spitballer machine engaged. ;)  
>  
> I think my idea from above might be worth following up. The ability to check  
> which schools are in an area (especially if we can link that into the  
> statistical data that you (?) posted at some point last year for the Eastern  
> Cape with pass-marks, subjects and so on) could be instructive. Actually, I  
> like the idea of being able to highlight poorly performing schools per  
> subject on a heatmap, or similar.  
>  
> It should drop as one moves away from the cities and middle class areas, but  
> the exceptions would be good to see. Even on a citywide-scale, a place  
> showing which schools are doing well and which are doing poorly could be  
> worth having available.  
>  
> Linking the spatial distribution of schools compared to population clusters  
> (which we should be able to do with the census data) could also be  
> interesting, if only to show how rural people have so little choice in which  
> school to attend.  
>  
> Another idea I had was providing the address and contact details with the  
> principals' names on a map. You could either look for a school or see the  
> school and select it. Could be useful for people who work at schools (I do  
> some of that, but we usually rock up and explain what we need to do. Never  
> been turned away yet.)  
>  
> Any of those strike you as being particularly worth following up on? And  
> then I would need to get an idea of how to start....  
>>  
>>  
>>  
>> Adi  
>  
>  
> mtb  

--  
Adi Eyal  
Director  
Code for South Africa  
Promoting informed decision-making  

phone: +27 78 014 2469  
skype: adieyalcas  
linkedin: http://za.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Adi/Eyal  
web: http://www.code4sa.org  
twitter: @soapsudtycoon  

For more information on how to participate in the open data community  
in South Africa, go to: http://www.code4sa.org/#community  
_______________________________________________  
okfn-za mailing list  
okfn-za at lists.okfn.org  
https://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-za  
Unsubscribe: https://lists.okfn.org/mailman/options/okfn-za  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/okfn-za/attachments/20140210/3bc7e855/attachment-0004.html>