sunlight labs hackathon anyone?

[Joe Meyer]

Greeting,

Sunlight Labs is putting on a `Nationwide Hackathon` this weekend:

I've set up an event (http://sunlightlabs.com/events/47/) which
involves building an API and data graphcs
for the Earth Policy Institute database ( http://www.earth-policy.org/)

So far I've downloaded a few data files and put together the start of
an API (http://epi.sdql.com/).

Please let me know if you are interested in any or all of these three tasks:
* to combine EPI's XLS files into a single database
* give open access to this database via a JSON API
* make compelling datagraphics.

best wishes,

Joe

[M. Edward (Ed) Borasky]

I won't be able to make a hackathon this weekend, but what did you
have in mind by "compelling datagraphics?" Is there a question you
want answered? A statement you want to make? Something else?
>
> best wishes,
>
> Joe
>
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--
M. Edward (Ed) Borasky
http://borasky-research.net

"I've always regarded nature as the clothing of God." ~Alan Hovhaness

[Joe Meyer]

Hi Ed,

thanks for the message.

I'm approaching the data in an agnostic way: I don't have a specific
story I need to tell.

I do believe that there are interesting stories in the data related to
population, health and the environment. By `compelling datagraphics`
I mean the transformation of lists of numbers in the existing
collection of XLS file into these interesting stories.

best regards,

Joe

[M. Edward (Ed) Borasky]

On Fri, Dec 11, 2009 at 10:39 AM, Joe Meyer
<joe.sport...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Ed,
>
> thanks for the message.
>
> I'm approaching the data in an agnostic way: I don't have a specific
> story I need to tell.
>
> I do believe that there are interesting stories in the data related to
> population, health and the environment.  By `compelling datagraphics`
> I mean the transformation of lists of numbers in the existing
> collection of XLS file into these interesting stories.

It looks to me like the Earth Policy Institute has already done that.
What would make it *more* interesting to me would be a way of
combining this dataset with others. Are we talking a "traditional"
database, like PostgreSQL, or something JSON-based like CouchDB?

[Joe Meyer]

Ed and friends,

EPI has told a story, however, for me to feel that I have an
understanding of a data set I need to be able to 'play with the data'
and I cannot do this with a bunch of XLS files.

Combining the Earth Policy Institute with other data sets would
definitely make things more interesting.
Do you have other data in mind?

I'm also agnostic as to the database back end and believe the the
important thing to make clear is the API.
Once the API is well defined the front enders can have at it and back
enders can modify their containers as may be convenient.

best,

Joe





On Fri, Dec 11, 2009 at 11:43 AM, M. Edward (Ed) Borasky