Applications of Government Data
This is a nice resource from The Guardian that highlights some of the ways developers are making government data accessible to citizens.
The projects include housing price analysis, roadway usage, government spending, and aggregation of community information.
The site wheredoesmymoneygo.org is especially interesting: slide the bar to your yearly income, and see just how much of your salary is spent on education, health services, defense, and other categories.
Lots of applications to play around with, and plenty of food for thought!
2 Comments
Tao Wang (@MathLaoshi) · September 27, 2011 at 3:18 pm
If I’m reading that graphic correctly the circle for Total Spending represents 620 billion pounds while the circle for Social Protection represents 303, roughly a 2 to 1 ratio. However, the areas of their respective circles are in a ratio fo 4 to 1. Their diameters are in a 2 to 1 ratio, but that’s misleading given that area is clearly meant to represent spending.
MrHonner · September 27, 2011 at 3:50 pm
Nice catch! You should bring that the attention of Edward Tufte.