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

UK statistics and open data: MPs’ inquiry report published Owen Boswarva.

From the post:

This morning the Public Administration Select Committee (PASC), a cross-party group of MPs chaired by Bernard Jenkin, published its report on Statistics and Open Data.

This report is the product of an inquiry launched in July 2013. Witnesses gave oral evidence in three sessions; you can read the transcripts and written evidence as well.

Useful if you are looking for rhetoric and examples of use of government data.

Ironic that just last week the news broke that Google has given British security the power to censor “unsavory” (but legal) content from Youtube. UK gov wants to censor legal but “unsavoury” YouTube content by Lisa Vaas.

Lisa writes:

Last week, the Financial Times revealed that Google has given British security the power to quickly yank terrorist content offline.

The UK government doesn’t want to stop there, though – what it really wants is the power to pull “unsavoury” content, regardless of whether it’s actually illegal – in other words, it wants censorship power.

The news outlet quoted UK’s security and immigration minister, James Brokenshire, who said that the government must do more to deal with material “that may not be illegal but certainly is unsavoury and may not be the sort of material that people would want to see or receive.”

I’m not sure why the UK government wants to block content that people don’t want to see or receive. They simply won’t look at it. Yes?

But, intellectual coherence has never been a strong point of most governments and the UK in particular of late.

Is this more evidence for my contention that “open data” for government means only the data government wants you to have?

R Markdown: Integrating A Reproducible Analysis Tool into Introductory Statistics by Ben Baumer, et.al.

Abstract:

Nolan and Temple Lang argue that “the ability to express statistical computations is an essential skill.” A key related capacity is the ability to conduct and present data analysis in a way that another person can understand and replicate. The copy-and-paste workflow that is an artifact of antiquated user-interface design makes reproducibility of statistical analysis more difficult, especially as data become increasingly complex and statistical methods become increasingly sophisticated. R Markdown is a new technology that makes creating fully-reproducible statistical analysis simple and painless. It provides a solution suitable not only for cutting edge research, but also for use in an introductory statistics course. We present evidence that R Markdown can be used effectively in introductory statistics courses, and discuss its role in the rapidly-changing world of statistical computation. (emphasis in original)

The author’s third point for R Markdown I would have made the first:

Third, the separation of computing from presentation is not necessarily honest… More subtly and less perniciously, the copy-and-paste paradigm enables, and in many cases even encourages, selective reporting. That is, the tabular output from R is admittedly not of presentation quality. Thus the student may be tempted or even encouraged to prettify tabular output before submitting. But while one is fiddling with margins and headers, it is all too tempting to remove rows or columns that do not suit the student’s purpose. Since the commands used to generate the table are not present, the reader is none the wiser.

Although I have to admit that reproducibility has a lot going for it.

Can you imagine reproducible analysis from the OMB? Complete with machine readable data sets? Or for any other agency reports. Or for that matter, for all publications by registered lobbyists. That could be real interesting.

Open Analysis (OA) as a natural successor to Open Data.

That works for me.

You?

PS: More resources:

Create Dynamic R Statistical Reports Using R Markdown

R Markdown

Using R Markdown with RStudio

Writing papers using R Markdown

If journals started requiring R Markdown as a condition for publication, some aspects of research would become more transparent.

Some will say that authors will resistl

Assume Science or Nature has accepted your article on the condition of your use of R Markdown.

Honestly, are you really going to say no?

I first saw this in a tweet by Scott Chamberlain.

OpenRFPs: Open RFP Data for All 50 States by Clay Johnson.

From the post:

Tomorrow at CodeAcross we’ll be launching our first community-based project, OpenRFPs. The goal is to liberate the data inside of every state RFP listing website in the country. We hope you’ll find your own state’s RFP site, and contribute a parser.

The Department of Better Technology’s goal is to improve the way government works by making it easier for small, innovative businesses to provide great technology to government. But those businesses can barely make it through the front door when the RFPs themselves are stored in archaic systems, with sloppy user interfaces and disparate data formats, or locked behind paywalls.
…

I have posted to the announcement suggesting they use UBL. But in any event, mapping the semantics of RFPs, to enable wider participation would make an interesting project.

I first saw this in a tweet by Tim O’Reilly.

Fiscal Year 2015 Budget

From the description:

Each year, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) prepares the President’s proposed Federal Government budget for the upcoming Federal fiscal year, which includes the Administration’s budget priorities and proposed funding.

For Fiscal Year (FY) 2015– which runs from October 1, 2014, through September 30, 2015– OMB has produced the FY 2015 Federal Budget in four print volumes plus an all-in-one CD-ROM:

1. the main “Budget” document with the Budget Message of the President, information on the President’s priorities and budget overviews by agency, and summary tables;
2. “Analytical Perspectives” that contains analyses that are designed to highlight specified subject areas;
3. “Historical Tables” that provides data on budget receipts, outlays, surpluses or deficits, Federal debt over a time period
4. an “Appendix” with detailed information on individual Federal agency programs and appropriation accounts that constitute the budget.
5. A CD-ROM version of the Budget is also available which contains all the FY 2015 budget documents in PDF format along with some additional supporting material in spreadsheet format.

You will also want a “Green Book,” the 2014 version carried this description:

Each February when the President releases his proposed Federal Budget for the following year, Treasury releases the General Explanations of the Administration’s Revenue Proposals. Known as the “Green Book” (or Greenbook), the document provides a concise explanation of each of the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2014 tax proposals for raising revenue for the Government. This annual document clearly recaps each proposed change, reviewing the provisions in the Current Law, outlining the Administration’s Reasons for Change to the law, and explaining the Proposal for the new law. Ideal for anyone wanting a clear summary of the Administration’s policies and proposed tax law changes.

Did I mention that the four volumes for the budget in print with CD-ROM are $250? And last year the Green Book was $75?

For $325.00, you can have a print and pdf of the Budget plus a print copy of the Green Book.

Questions:

1. Would machine readable versions of the Budget + Green Book make it easier to explore and compare the information within?
2. Are PDFs and print volumes what President Obama considers to be “open government?”
3. Who has the advantage in policy debates, the OMB and Treasury with machine readable versions of these documents or the average citizen who has the PDFs and print?
4. Do you think OMB and Treasury didn’t get the memo? Open Data Policy-Managing Information as an Asset

Public policy debates cannot be fairly conducted without meaningful access to data on public policy issues.