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

[račan.sk]

... well, in fact I confess that I know more on what I would like to have
than on how exactly do it :).
M.

On Thu, Sep 13, 2012 at 11:54 AM, Lucy Chambers <lucy.chambers at okfn.org>wrote:

> 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
> >>
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > openspending mailing list
> > openspending at lists.okfn.org
> > http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/openspending
> >
>
>
>
> --
> 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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