[OpenSpending] Spending Data Handbook - What should go into it?

Thu Sep 13 09:54:38 UTC 2012

Hi Miro,

Thanks again for your ideas. Some comments inline...

On Thu, Sep 13, 2012 at 8:09 AM, račan.sk <racan.sk at gmail.com> wrote:
> Some suggestions:
>
>
> Why is it important to create lists and networks of inter/national and local
> NGOs interested in working with and presenting government financial
> information?
>

I think this is certainly a useful distinction. I have found, for
example the list of local partner organisations published by the IBP
in the Open Budget Survey very useful in my work for knowing which
organisations to contact
http://internationalbudget.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/2010_Full_Report-English.pdf.
This is also one of the reason we've been building the profiles.

>
> How can NGOs connect with each other and cooperate:

There's a huge network of people - this list alone for example has
over 270 members from all over the world, from the media, NGO sphere
and policy sphere. If you have suggestions for ways in which we can
help them connect, please do shoot :)

> - to make government as well as local authorities to produce
> “sharing-friendly” and “analysis-friendly” data and their interpretations
> and visualizations,
>
> - to gain, create, interchange and share databases and datasets of
> government and local authorities financial data
>
> How can databases and datasets created by NGOs be effectively interconnected
> with public government data (e. g. registers of companies, tradesmen etc.)
> and databases of other NGOs?
>
> How can databases and datasets based on government information be made
> up-to-date most effectively?

Agreed - all good points, will take them on board! Thanks Miro :)

Lucy

>
> Miro
>
> racansk
>
>
> On Wed, Sep 12, 2012 at 4:49 PM, Lucy Chambers <lucy.chambers at okfn.org>
> wrote:
>>
>> Dear List, (apologies for cross-post)
>>
>> As many of you will be aware. Over the last couple of months, I've been
>> talking to CSOs around the world about how they get, work with and present
>> government financial information. My aim was to identify where the sticking
>> points in the process are, and work out whether anything can be built,
>> written or proposed to solve them.
>>
>> One thing that we thought might help was to put together a Spending Data
>> Handbook for NGOs, with tips and tricks from the data wrangling world to
>> speed up work they are already doing and to help those wanting to be more
>> ambitious with data to get a foot in the door.
>>
>> Based on my conversations with NGOs around the world, I've put together a
>> quick blog post on my thoughts about suggested chapters:
>> http://openspending.org/blog/2012/09/11/Spending-Data-Handbook.html (also
>> listed below).
>>
>> I know there are many NGOs on this list and part of the working group, so
>> I'd really love to hear from you what you think would be the most useful
>> things for you and organisations like you to know more about. Please do send
>> me your thoughts, either via the list, or via this very short form:
>> http://bit.ly/Oq3p8C
>>
>> I expect the main writing period will take place in November, so if there
>> is interest, I can organise a call to talk it over further (after
>> OKFestival).
>>
>> Looking forward to hearing your thoughts,
>>
>> Lucy
>>
>> Suggested topics:
>>
>> How can CSOs be more effective in their use of data? What should they be
>> asking governments for?
>>
>> How can they be more effective in requesting (and keeping hold of)
>> meaningful information from government?
>> Which phases of the budget/procurement cycle do they need to demand data
>> from?
>> What technical formats are ideal for re-use and interpretation?
>> What transparency rules need to be in place to enforce publication?
>> How can they make backups of the data that has been published?
>> How can they extract data from sources on the web?
>>
>>
>> How can data be analysed and interpreted?
>>
>> Which phases of the budget/procurement cycle produce which kind of data?
>> Which tools do you need to work with these different types of data?
>> What different data formats can be used - and how?
>> What is the difference between structured and unstructured digital data?
>> How can unstructured data be re-structured?
>> What are PDF files and how can information from them be extracted?
>> How can you convert between different structured formats?
>>
>>
>> How can data be cleaned up and brought into a more uniform format? How can
>> data be augmented to allow for more meaningful interpretation?
>>
>> How can government classifications (codesheets) be applied?
>> How can geographic information be included?
>> How can information about vendors/suppliers be included?
>>
>>
>> How can data be delivered to the public?
>>
>> What are databases, query languages? How can they be used?
>> How can you summarize large sets of data?
>> How can data be presented in an accessible and meaningful way?
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Lucy Chambers
>> Community Coordinator,
>> OpenSpending & Data Journalism
>> Open Knowledge Foundation
>> Skype: lucyfediachambers
>> Twitter: @lucyfedia
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> openspending mailing list
>> openspending at lists.okfn.org
>> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/openspending
>>
>
>
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-- 
Lucy Chambers
Community Coordinator,
OpenSpending & Data Journalism
Open Knowledge Foundation
Skype: lucyfediachambers
Twitter: @lucyfedia