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Daily Archives: January 9, 2017

UK – There is no shortage of open data – Is anyone using it?

ComputerWeekly.com: “The UK government’s data portal, data.gov.uk, currently shows 36,552 published datasets available, but how usable are they, and is anyone actually downloading them?…There are examples of data being linked in useful ways. In several, but by no means all, cities in the UK and Europe, Citymapper draws on open datasets, including mapping data and public transport timetables, to show people where they are and what their options are for getting where they want to go. To do this, the data should, first and foremost, be available and up to date. It should also be in machine-readable format. Bus timetables in PDF form are not much fun for human beings – and they are almost useless for navigation apps. Citymapper is often cited as an open data success story, but is comparatively rare. A counter example was raised at the summit by a question concerning threesixtygiving.org. On its website, threesixtygiving says it “supports organisations to publish their grants data in an open, standardised way and helps people to understand and use the data in order to support decision-making and learning across the charitable giving sector”. But a questioner from the floor pointed out that UK government data on grants is not currently open…”

How Classified Presidential Library Records are Released to the Public

Nate Jones Via Redacted – This a version of this article originally appeared in The Federalist, Newsletter of the Society for History in the Federal Government “The Presidential Records Act of 1978 (PRA) established that the papers of U.S. Presidents legally belong to the American people. According to the law, the Archivist of the United States… Continue Reading

2015 American Housing Survey Statistics for Selected Metropolitan Areas

“This release of statistics from the 2015 American Housing Survey includes summary tables for the 15 largest metropolitan areas and 10 additional metropolitan areas.  The 2015 American Housing Survey examined many characteristics, including: Housing costs for owners and renters. Remodeling and repair frequency. Reasons for moving. Additionally, the latest survey data provide statistics about: Food… Continue Reading

Polar Bear Conservation Management Plan

“In response to today’s release of the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Polar Bear Conservation Management Plan, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) released the following statement from Elisabeth Kruger, Arctic program officer and polar bear expert: “The plan shows the complexity of what it means to truly protect America’s most iconic Arctic species. It addresses the… Continue Reading

BEA’s API Expands Access to International Services Trade Data

BEA Blog: “The most detailed data on U.S. international trade in services published by the Bureau of Economic Analysis are now accessible through our application programming interface, or API. This includes detailed annual statistics on U.S. trade in services by type of service for 90 countries and areas, including new estimates of trade related to… Continue Reading

New Uber site provides anonymized data from over 2 billion trips

News release: “Every hour of every day, people use Uber to get around the more than 450 cities we serve. From Sydney to Summit, we’ve been working hard to get to know these cities, with the goal of making them cleaner, more efficient and less crowded. Along the way, we’ve found that local leaders, urban… Continue Reading

GAO Report – Retirement Security and Risky Investments

Retirement Security: Improved Guidance Could Help Account Owners Understand the Risks of Investing in Unconventional Assets, GAO-17-102: Published: Dec 8, 2016. Publicly Released: Jan 9, 2017. “People who invest their retirement accounts in unconventional assets—such as real estate or virtual currency—may be placing their savings at risk. Retirement accounts allowing such unconventional investments increase owners’… Continue Reading

Researchers confirm ocean warming underestimated

Via The New Reddit Journal of Science – “…researchers [Zeke Hausfather, Kevin Cowtan, Dave Clarke, Peter Jacobs, Mark Richardson, Robert Rohde] who just published a new open access paper in Science Advances showing that ocean warming was indeed being underestimated, confirming the conclusion of a paper last year that triggered a series of political attacks.… Continue Reading

NYT – Falcons, Drones, Data: A Winery Battles Climate Change

Jackson Family Wines is among California winemakers employing both high-tech and old-school techniques to adapt to hotter, drier conditions: “On a misty autumn morning in Sonoma County, Calif., Katie Jackson headed into the vineyards to assess the harvest. It was late in the season, and an army of field workers was rushing to pick the… Continue Reading

News Reporters Drive Growth in Media FOIA Litigation

“The number of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) cases brought by reporters and news organization has substantially increased during the last four years. Media-filed lawsuits which represented 3.5 percent of total federal filings during earlier years jumped to comprise more than one out of every ten FOIA suits (10.8%) at their peak in FY 2015.… Continue Reading