[open-economics] Econ Factbook

Mon Aug 17 02:05:58 UTC 2015

Hi Gustavo and Rodney,

Thanks Gustavo for showing me the  Pordata <http://www.pordata.pt/> website.
Looks like a great website that has consolidated a ton of valuable data
about Portugal.

Thank you Rodney for mentioning FRED. FRED is an awesome website also win a
ton of valuable data. My only problem is that they do not have country
specific pages.

The inspiration for Econ Factbook <http://econfactbook.org/> was to
organize economic statistics into format shows the circular flow of income
model <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_flow_of_income>. There is a
section for Households, Corporations, Government, Financial Institutions,
the Central Bank and International Accounts. I believe that economic data
should be organized according to the circular flow of income model because
to enables the reader to intuitively understand the data easier.
Structuring economic data into a format consistent with the circular flow
of income model enables greater transparency to an economy. To my
knowledge, no website has ever attempted to do this. I also want to apply
the circular flow of income model to states and cities to improve local
economic data transparency.

Econ Factbook is designed for economists who want to look at all of the
structurally important economic statistics about a location. It's far
easier to do research about the economy of Finland
<http://econfactbook.org/Finland.html> on Econ Factbook than by going to
FRED <https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/release?rid=239> or the World
Bank Indicators <http://data.worldbank.org/indicator>. It's faster and more
effective to use Econ Factbook. Having all the data on a single page is
very useful.

The goal for Econ Factbook is be like Wikipedia in the sense that nobody
references Wikipedia directly, but everyone uses it for fast research.
Ideally, an international organization will want to adopt Econ Factbook to
ensure the website is completely accurate and up to date. Until that
happens my plan is to hire a programmer to help me automate the website and
set up an API. Getting widespread usage of Econ Factbook is a long term
goal but it is certainly something that needs to happen. Economic data
needs to be more transparent.

Once again, to see the full format, please check out the United States
<http://econfactbook.org/Unitedstates.html> article. This is the internet's
most comprehensive page showing data about the  U.S. economy.

Thanks for reading my message and I would love answer any questions. It's
very hard to explain abstract ideas like this and I hope I can spread my
message to more people.

Thank you,

- Alex

On 16 August 2015 at 17:47, Rodney Beard <rodney.m.beard at gmail.com> wrote:

> Not sure, I can look into it get back to you in a couple of days.
>
> Rodney
>
> On Mon, Aug 17, 2015 at 12:25 AM, Gustavo Silva <
> gustavosantaremsilva at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Do you know if there is a way to integrate them with this one? I am aware
>> of these sets in Portugal. I admit I am a bit blind about international
>> databases. Nevertheless, these seem pretty difficult to deal with.
>>
>> But, I'll let Alex decide what to do about this specific project.
>>
>> Best Regards / Obrigado e com os melhores cumprimentos,
>> Gustavo Silva
>>
>>
>> *Phonebloks <https://phonebloks.com/en>, Partnership Manager*
>> *Lubuntu W&D <https://launchpad.net/%7Elubuntu-wiki-docs>, Team Leader*
>>
>> 2015-08-17 0:23 GMT+01:00 Rodney Beard <rodney.m.beard at gmail.com>:
>>
>>> No, they have some international data sets. I haven't looked at those in
>>> detail. Just thought you guys should know about it. There are a few other
>>> data sources out there as well that do something similar to what you are
>>> proposing.
>>>
>>> Rodney
>>>
>>> On Mon, Aug 17, 2015 at 12:17 AM, Gustavo Silva <
>>> gustavosantaremsilva at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi Rodney.
>>>>
>>>> Well, That's a huge database. That applies to US-only, right?
>>>>
>>>> Best Regards / Obrigado e com os melhores cumprimentos,
>>>> Gustavo Silva
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> *Phonebloks <https://phonebloks.com/en>, Partnership Manager*
>>>> *Lubuntu W&D <https://launchpad.net/%7Elubuntu-wiki-docs>, Team Leader*
>>>>
>>>> 2015-08-16 20:11 GMT+01:00 Rodney Beard <rodney.m.beard at gmail.com>:
>>>>
>>>>> Hia all,
>>>>>
>>>>> How would this improve on Fred? https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/
>>>>>
>>>>> Rodney
>>>>> p.s. Hi Gustavo.
>>>>>
>>>>> On Sun, Aug 16, 2015 at 8:05 PM, Gustavo Silva <
>>>>> gustavosantaremsilva at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Hello all,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Well, I agree that the world you benefit form better websites to
>>>>>> access data. The problem is the credibility these things can get, which are
>>>>>> crucial for actually being used.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> From where I see it, the problem is about automation. How will you
>>>>>> keep the contents and databases updated? In a secondary perspective, what
>>>>>> can you do to increase the credibility of your website? Indeed, allowing
>>>>>> users the possibility to escalate the data for custom usages - hence, API
>>>>>> related stuff - is a great step, but how will economists from the academic
>>>>>> world will use and benefit from this?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> In Portugal, we have something similar called Pordata
>>>>>> <http://www.pordata.pt/> and I know for sure that no one from the
>>>>>> academic worlds wants his students to use data from this website. Why? They
>>>>>> say it is not the original source, even though that entire interface is way
>>>>>> better and more useful that Eurobarometer
>>>>>> <http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/index_en.htm>or national banks
>>>>>> websites/databases.
>>>>>> This is just an example for you to consider if you want, of course :-)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Best Regards / Obrigado e com os melhores cumprimentos,
>>>>>> Gustavo Silva
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> *Phonebloks <https://phonebloks.com/en>, Partnership Manager*
>>>>>> *Lubuntu W&D <https://launchpad.net/%7Elubuntu-wiki-docs>, Team
>>>>>> Leader*
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 2015-08-15 21:26 GMT+01:00 Alex Peek <alexpeek1 at gmail.com>:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Thank you Everton! That is my plan to set up an API for Econ
>>>>>>> Factbook <http://econfactbook.org/>. I want to use this website to
>>>>>>> create some simple and easy to use visualizations but I am not sure how
>>>>>>> long it will take to get to that stage. Great idea tho.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Right now I am looking for a lead programmer to help me expand Econ
>>>>>>> Factbook. If you are interested, please send me an email. This is an
>>>>>>> opportunity to be involved in a high potential website. The lead programmer
>>>>>>> would play a pivotal role in identifying possibilities and limitations when
>>>>>>> developing the website.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> My idea is that the internet needs better websites to access
>>>>>>> economic data. After years of research I have come to the conclusion that
>>>>>>> there is not a website that structures economic data to display the
>>>>>>> activity of an economy. That is why I created Econ Factbook to fill this
>>>>>>> void. The goal of the website is to show all of the wealth and assets
>>>>>>> flowing around an economy in a single model. I believe this concept can
>>>>>>> greatly increase the transparency of economic data about the world. I know
>>>>>>> in my heart that this is the direction the study of economics needs to go.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Here is an example of the format used in the website: South Korea
>>>>>>> <http://econfactbook.org/Southkorea.html>. The United States
>>>>>>> <http://econfactbook.org/Unitedstates.html> article is the best
>>>>>>> because it shows the government budget breakdown, household wealth
>>>>>>> breakdown and local government statistics. I hope to someday have every
>>>>>>> country article be as complete as the United States article.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Please let me know if you want to get involved or learn more.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Thanks!
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> - Alex
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On 15 August 2015 at 05:13, Everton Zanella Alvarenga <
>>>>>>> everton.alvarenga at okfn.org> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Hello, Alex.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> That is cool. I believe if some developer could help you to build
>>>>>>>> an API for this data, that could help other make graphs with interesting
>>>>>>>> comparisons from it.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Best,
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Everton
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> 2015-06-13 14:53 GMT-03:00 Alex Peek <alexpeek1 at gmail.com>:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Hello everyone,
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> I wanted to show the community my new website at econfactbook.org.
>>>>>>>>> Please click on one of the countries on the website to see the format.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> It's designed to be a reference tool to look up economic data. I
>>>>>>>>> hope this website is useful and generates more ideas.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> - Alex
>>>>>>>>>
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>>
>
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