Another Word For It Patrick Durusau on Topic Maps and Semantic Diversity

Economic Indicator Database

The US Census Bureau has made its database of economic indicators searchable.

You can even download data for further manipulation, although I must admit being bemused by the “Download straight from website to Excel.”

I wonder if they mean “Excel” in the sense of any old spreadsheet program like people who say “photocopy” by another name, that starts and ends with an “X?” 😉

Probably not. They probably mean a specific bit of software.

Thought I would mention it as one of the many data sources from the US government that can be re-purposed for use with a topic map.

I am sure other governments make similar data sources available.

If you have a favorite one, please forward the URL, a brief description and any comments you want to make about using it with topic maps.

SimpleGeo Makes Location Easy With Context and Places

Programmableweb.com reports on:

SimpleGeo Context takes a latitude and longitude and provides relevant contextual information such as weather, demographics, or neighborhood data for that co-ordinate.
…
SimpleGeo Places, which is a free database of business listings and Points of Interest (POI) that enables real-time community collaboration.

Interesting and free APIs that could add value to any topic map concerned with tourism or location information.

U.S. SEC RSS Feeds

I ran across these feeds while looking at EDGAR Guide.

Should the SEC succeed in exposing EDGAR with an API, that would be useful for combining financial industry data.

Question: Is anyone capturing the current RSS feeds into a topic map application?

Mergent Corporate Actions and Dividends API

From http://www.programmableableweb.com:

Provides information on corporate actions and events reported by US and Canadian publicly traded companies, including a detailed database of issued and declared dividends. The API allows access to detailed data on dividend distributions, stock splits, stock dividends, spin-offs, redemption of stock, rights, tender offers, mergers & acquisitions, bankruptcy filings, and more.

Another corporate finance information source that can be usefully combined with other information.

Mergent Historical Securities API

From http://www.programmableableweb.com:

Provides historical quotes for all US and Canadian stocks, indices, mutual funds, OTC bulletin board issues, and other securities. Prices are fully adjusted for splits, dividends and other corporate actions. Data on both living and dead issues is available. The API also provides access to non-price data such as short interest, shares outstanding, earnings per share and more.

This API along with one of the news archives could make an interesting exercise for high school or even college students.

What news events affect stock prices?

Do events of the same nature have the same impact?

Mergent Annual Reports API

From http://www.programmableweb.com:

Provides scanned annual report documents (e.g. in PDF format) for US and Canadian publicly traded companies, with more than 20 years of historical reports available.

According to the Mergent Annual Reports API docs you can search on:

• nameContains
• naicsPrefix
• primaryCusipPrefix
• primaryTicker
• sicPrefix

The SEC’s Edgar tutorial mentions that the SEC has full text of annual reports and attachments for the last four (4) years.

So the omission of full-text searching looks odd.

Questions:

1. Review the Edgar documentation. What other fixed fields would you add to this interface and why? (2-3 pages, no citations)
2. Would you offer full-text searching? If yes, what do you gain? If no, why not? (2-3 pages, no citations)
3. What other information (this source or some other) would you want to include? Why? (2-3 pages, no citations)

Mergent Company Fundamentals

From http://www.programmableweb.com:

Provides financial information on US and Canadian publicly traded companies, including historical financial statements (balance sheets, cash flow statements, income statements and ratios) going back 20+ years. Additionally, provides information on executives, including current and historical compensation, biography, insider holdings and insider transactions.

Interesting as a data source and certainly useful with other Mergent products (to be posted).

Questions:

1. Identify three (3) other data sources that could be integrated with information from this API. (1-2 pages, citations)
2. How would you integrate those resources with this one using a topic map? (3-5 pages, no citations)
3. Why would you want to integrate those records using a topic map? What need might it meet? (3-5 pages, what needs would be met by this integration?

Trends in Large-Scale Subject Repositories Authors: Jessica Adamick, Rebecca Reznik-Zellen

Abstract:

Noting a lack of broad empirical studies on subject repositories, the authors investigate subject repository trends that reveal common practices despite their apparent isolated development. Data collected on year founded, subjects, software, content types, deposit policy, copyright policy, host, funding, and governance are analyzed for the top ten most-populated subject repositories. Among them, several trends exist such as a multi- and interdisciplinary scope, strong representation in the sciences and social sciences, use of open source repository software for newer repositories, acceptance of pre- and post-prints, moderated deposits, submitter responsibility for copyright, university library or departmental hosting, and discouraged withdrawal of materials. In addition, there is a loose correlation between repository size and age. Recognizing the diversity of all subject repositories, the authors recommend that tools for assessment and evaluation be developed to guide subject repository management to best serve their respective communities.

A useful review of some of the leading subject repositories.

Crack the subject identity nut, reliably and in a cost-effective manner, for any of these repositories, and your advertising woes are over.

OpenSecrets.org

From the website:

OpenSecrets.org is your nonpartisan guide to money’s influence on U.S. elections and public policy. Whether you’re a voter, journalist, activist, student or interested citizen, use our free site to shine light on your government. Count cash and make change.

Of particular interest to topic mapppers will be their OpenSecrets Developer Tools which include:

• APIs — for live mashups
• OpenData — itemized tables for analysis and recombinations
• Widgets — with the ease of cut and paste

Offers a number of interesting possibilities.

*****

I wonder if contract data is available that lists who approved contracts or was part of the approval process and the winners of those contracts, both in terms of organizations and individuals?

Seems to me that would be an interesting set of dots to put together. I will ask around.

Suggestions of data sources for other governments welcome!

Questions:

1. Document sources of political funding for a non-US government.
2. How would you apply topic maps to the OpenSecrets.org data? (3-5 pages, no citations)
3. What additional data would you include in your topic map in #2? (3-5 pages, list sources of other data)

Campaign Finance API (US-centric)

The New York Times sponsors an API that accesses United States Federal Election Commission filings. Requires registration but is otherwise free. There are some limits on queries, etc.

I mention it because topic map applications that “tag” (in another sense of the word) candidates with particular contributions and legislation need to start sooner rather than later.

The 2012 election cycle (US), will be here sooner than you expect.

BTW, similar data sources for other countries would be good to bring to the attention of the topic mapping community.