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Census? CitySDK Named Innovation of the Year
The U.S. Census Bureau’s City Software Development Kit (CitySDK) received the FedScoop 50 Award as the federal government’s Innovation of the Year for providing developers with a user-friendly data toolbox to build applications that explore issues facing communities. Launched June 2015 during the National Day of Civic Hacking, CitySDK connects the Census Bureau’s application programming interface (API) to any other open data delivered through an API. The tool has the capability to easily mash up data from different sources, saving hours of developer coding time.
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Improvements to Release of Census? Economic Indicators
Every month, the Census Bureau releases key indicators of America?s economy. These indicators are critical to the analysis of the nation?s current and future economic performance. The Census Bureau recently announced a significant improvement in the way they release these indicators, reducing the lag between the indicators? official release and when they are posted to the web to the smallest it?s ever been.
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When It Comes to 311, the Customer Isn?t Always Right
Many localities are finding novel ways to utilize 311 call data. At the same time, though, a growing body of research has highlighted drawbacks to the practice, most notably that not all residents use the system equally.
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New & Updated Data Sources
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Commerce Data Service Releases Data Viz Tutorial
With the help of the folks maintaining the National Vulnerabilities Database (NVD) within the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Commerce Data Service has developed a data visualization tutorial showing how to access and use NVD data. This tutorial will help users visualize the frequency and types of vulnerabilities that pose on-going risks. For example, according to the data, the reporting of new vulnerabilities tends to peak during the first two weeks of each month.
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New BLS Projections and Industry Info in O*NET Websites
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has released new employment projections for 2014 – 2024, along with updated industry employment data. This information is now included within O*NET OnLine, My Next Move, Mi Pr?ximo Paso, and My Next Move for Veterans. Importantly, this allows for the update of the Bright Outlook feature included within the O*NET sites, which helps clients target careers where new job opportunities are likely in the future. In addition, the “Browse by Industry” searches within the O*NET sites are updated to reflect more current employment patterns.
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U.S. House Approves Overhaul of Open Records Requests
On Jan. 11, legislators in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced changes to the Freedom of Information Act with a bill that attempts to untangle the cumbersome process for government record requests ? changes that require authorities to digitize responses and be accountable for denied and delayed requests. The bipartisan bill, introduced by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., as the FOIA Act, is arguably the most comprehensive facelift the bill has seen since it was enacted in 1966. Among its key stipulations, amendments call for a single online request portal for all federal agencies, digital publication of commonly requested documents, and an annual ? and publicly available ? FOIA compliance report for each agency.
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Visualization of the Week
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Failures of Development Policy in MENA Region
The World Bank has created a data visualization to make the case for a new approach to development policies in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, illustrating arguments from its April 2015 report, MENA Economic Monitor: Towards a New Social Contract. The visualization highlights the shortcomings of the development model adopted by many MENA nations in which the state provides healthcare, education, food, fuel, and other important goods for free or at subsidized rates, but limits citizen engagement. Using data from the World Bank, the United Nations Refugee Agency, and other sources, the visualization shows how MENA countries have achieved some success in improving basic health and reducing extreme poverty, but have ultimately failed to support the middle class, promote job growth, and provide high quality public services and governance.
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Notable Data Publications
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GOVERNMENT
NONPROFITS & FOUNDATIONS
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Did you work on a great report that you want your colleagues to know about? Just email us and we?ll include it here.
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APDU maintains a list of open calls for comment on proposed federal data collections. We periodically alert APDU members to newly added calls for comment. Over the last several weeks, calls for comment on the following proposed data collections were published in the Federal Register (with due date):
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Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection
- Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (Regulation C) (February 19, 2016)
Census Bureau – Current Population Survey
- Fertility Supplement (February 18, 2016)
National Agricultural Statistics Service, USDA
- Local Food Marketing Practices Survey (February 18, 2016)
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The webinar ?Census Bureau Webinar: Introduction to the American Community Survey Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) Files? (see sidebar) is February 17, not February 27. We apologize for the mistake.
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