Online discussion questions – Day 5 (Jan 23) – Identifying Data Sources
- Which ideas have you come up with from the group exercise today? Which data source and what can you do to make things better?
- Can you find other open government data Web sites?
15 Responses to Online discussion questions – Day 5 (Jan 23) – Identifying Data Sources
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One data set I found on data.gov was the number of students attending certain universities from the years 2006 – 2011. Along with this data, the tuition rate for each school was also stated. From this data, we can determine which schools have the most students attending and which school tuition is the highest. After we determine these things, governments can combine the use to personal information about students to determine the amount of loan and grant money given. Along with the sites we used in class today, we can also use opengovernmentdata.org.
A data set that my group found was the amount of crime within the city of Philadelphia. With this data, the government can find out which areas have higher crime rates, and they can make sure to hire more police in those areas. Other open government data websites are opengovernmentdata.org and open.defense.gov.
One thing my group found was on the open data website for Philadelphia. It detailed the lines for flood danger zones provided by insurance companies. We reasoned that the government could use this information to build better infrastructure to prevent flood and insure run-off.
One data set we found was on childhood obesity rates in school districts from data.gov. We could see which school districts had the highest rates of childhood obesity. With this information we could target certain school districts and areas to implement healthier diet programs. We could also promote physical fitness and the importance of exercise. We could work closely with the school’s physical education department to change the curriculum.
A data set I found was the American Community Survey, an annual nationwide survey that collects information such as age, race, income, commute time to work, home value, veteran status, and other data. With this information one can compare and contrast the lives of numerous Americans and draw correlations between different subjects such as the average amount of time it takes for a 40 year old African American to get to work and their income compared to a 40 year old Asian American and hi or her commute and income. Different patterns can be drawn and used to make predictions of certain people at certain ages who have different living circumstances. This could be used to help guide someone to make decisions as well. For example, if the data from the American Community Survey shows that a shorter commute to work usually results in a higher income, a person can use that to influence their choice of how far they want their commute to be. To make things better this information could be used more and advertised more to help enhance awareness and help people make decisions that will benefit them most.
One idea that I came up with my group is that Government can know how many policemen to assign to different areas in Philadelphia based on how crimes there are in each area. We came up with this idea after finding crime data (shows crime rate and trend data) on opendataphilly.org
On data.gov I found a spreadsheet of Philadelphia’s budget. This could possibly show where (in your opinion) Philly is either spending too much, or too little in one area of spending.
On openphilly.org, my group found a data set about crime rates and the types of crimes that have occurred Philly. This data can help government official decide where they need to position more policemen.
The data that our group found on data.gov was related to business information. It was data that related to imports and exports. It can help the government to make decisions based on which companies need to be hit with quotas and tariffs.
My group and I used opendataphilly.org to find data sets. The data set we were interested in viewing was the graduation of high school students from 2004 – 2011. This information allows us to see if we are improving on getting high school students to graduate. If we are not then we can think of creative ways to improve the graduation rate. The other open data government websites we were able find were:
1) Census.gov
2) NYC Open Data
3) USA. gov
My group used opendataphilly.org to help us determine that High School Graduates, 2004-2011 can help us gauge the Philadelphia school system and it can allow us to look back at specific events that happened in each year, which may have resulted in either high graduation rates or low graduation rates. This can allow schools to fix what went wrong in years where the graduation rate was low or it can allow schools to continue what they were doing in years when the graduation rate was higher. Another data web site would be the census web site which allows one to find out demographic information for the United States.
Which ideas have you come up with from the group exercise today? Which data source and what can you do to make things better?
Can you find other open government data Web sites?
A data set that my group found today showed the number of murder crimes in specific areas of cities. With this information, ideas can be put together to try and place more officials in areas where crime rates are increasingly high.
Phila. Gov allows web browsers to view open philadelphia data to analyze their favorite parts and aspects of the city. These data sets can help potential homeowners decide the best area in which they want to live.
My group and I used opendataphilly.org to find data sets.The data is about the food gorcery at Philadelphia. You can also find open data from Whitehouse website.
One thing my group found was on the open data was the amount of crime within the city of Philadelphia. It showed us areas which are safer and have less crime compared of other parts of the city.