[wdmmg-discuss] Greetings data gurus

Thu Mar 24 13:48:55 UTC 2011

Welcome Tim!

This is really interesting (more comments below) but also wondered if
you can make the online community meetup [1] this evening so we can
starting planning :) ?

[1]: <http://wiki.openspending.org/Meetups>

On 22 March 2011 09:29, Tim McNaught <timmcnaught at gmail.com> wrote:
> I have just joined the mailing list after meeting Jonathan and Friedrich at
> a training in Budapest last week.  My name is Tim McNaught and I am an
> American working with the Center for Economic and Social Development in
> Baku, Azerbaijan.
>
> I have not worked a lot with data, but I am very interested in getting lost
> and found again in the field of data visualization. I'm also interested in
> using multimedia software to help tell stories with data.  I recently
> created a podcast called AzerEconomics
> (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUmHXnhp9oY) which is currently only audio,
> but I'd like to use data visualization to liven things up.

Great stuff!

> I'd also be intrigued with working with you all to help create new videos.
> So if you have any new story ideas please let me know!

It's really good to hear from you as we've got a huge need here on
Open Spending to create simple videos and screencasts both around
'spending stories' but also to illustrate how open spending works,
what the goal is. I've stubbed a wiki page where we can list ideas:

<http://wiki.openspending.org/Videos_and_Screencasts>

We can also take the discussion forward here. My first idea would be
to have a simple: 'What is open spending and why does it exist?' video
and a 'Here's how your budget breaks down' video.

> As far as spending data in Azerbaijan, this is the government data that I've
> found for state budget revenues and expenditures (2005-2010):
>  http://www.azstat.org/statinfo/finance/en/002.shtml

What you should do is convert into our CSV schema:

<http://wiki.openspending.org/CSV_Schema>

BTW: we're working to make the page clearer (summary: we want a simple
csv file with id, date, amount, from info).We're writing up an
introductory blog post.

> I'd love to make some cool visualizations with this data so let me know when
> the openspending.org upload feature is fully up and operational.

We're aiming for the next week or so.

Rufus

> It was great to meet Jonathan and Friedrich and I just want to say how
> impressed and inspired I am by all of your work.  Great stuff!
> All the best,
> Tim McNaught
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