Open-source Weave liberates data for journalists, citizens: The software can help journalists create infinitely interactive visualizations by Andrew Phelps.
From the post:
Data nerds from government and academia gathered Friday at Northeastern University to show off the latest version of Weave, an open-source, web-based platform designed to visualize “any available data by anyone for any purpose.” The software has a lot of potential for journalists.
Weave is supported by the Open Indicators Consortium, an unusual partnership of planning agencies and universities who wanted better tools to inform public policy and community decision-making. The groups organized and agreed to share data and code in 2008, well before Gov 2.0 was hot.
Think of Weave as more programming language than app. It powers websites such as the Connecticut Data Collaborative and Rhode Island’s RI DataHUB. The newly relaunched MetroBoston DataCommon, a project of eastern Massachusetts’ regional planning agency, really shows off the software’s power. There, users can upload their own datasets (Weave claims to be able to handle virtually any format) or browse sample visualizations (e.g., Children in Families Below Poverty).
Data is linked, which means you can view the same datapoint from many angles. Drag your cursor across a few dozen cities and towns and watch as those data are simultaneously illuminated on a histogram and a scatter plot. Add another datapoint to find correlations or trim the data to create subsets. The software keeps track of state, which means you would be able to visually undo and redo changes and save that series of steps as an animation. The end result, powered by Flash, is easily embeddable into a web page.
This is a truly remarkable piece of work!
Having said that, the MetroBoston DataCommon illustrates the limitations of the approach. Follow the link and report back what category you would look under for:
- Crime statistics by type of crime
- Crime statistics by arrest/conviction
- Parolee or sex offenders by district
I tried Public Safety and Demographics, no luck. Maybe they don’t have any crime in Boston. Maybe. That’s the problem with government choosing which data sets to release. Can produce a very odd views of local conditions.
Not the fault of Weave but thought I should mention that “released data” != accurate picture.
[…] story about Weave highlights different data sets than the last one I reported. Is this a where there’s smoke there’s fire type situation? That is to say that public […]
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