Sunday, August 7, 2011

Important links

Data
City of Chicago Data Portal - web site with all of the data sets available for use from the city.

Cook County Data Portal - web site with all of the data sets available for use from the county.

State of Illinois Data Portal -  web site with all of the data sets available for use from the state.


Tools
All the work is done with free software. It's either available on the web or available for download to a Windows PC. Here's the set with links to the appropriate page.


Google Fusion Tables - used in Example #3.  Google's free tools to upload and visualize data sets.

Google Earth - used in Example #5. Google's free tool to install on your Windows system to visualize GIS data.

ManyEyes - used in Example #7.  IBM's free tool to upload and visualize data sets.

Tableau Public - used in Example #8.  Tableau Public's free tool to install on your Windows system to visualize data sets.

Socrata Console - used in Example #9.  Socrata's free tool for entering SODA API requests and viewing the results.

Chicago Console - used in Example #9.  The Socrata console can access data on their data portal, opendata.socrata.com.  The Chicago console has the same capability and accesses data on the city's portal.

cURL - used in Example #9.  cURL's namesake free tool for entering URL syntax into a command line and viewing the results.  We'll use it to enter SODA API requests and view the output.

Python - used in Examples #11 - Example #23.  Python is a free programming language.  We'll use it to code up simple apps.

IBM Lotus Symphony - used in Example #8.  Symphony is a free office productivity suite.  I use the spreadsheet application for one step in this example.

Google Maps API - used in Example #18.  We'll use it to geocode street addresses and create maps.


BitNami DjangoStack - used in Example #23.  Django platform for Windows used to test and run a simple web application.


Education
Socrata Introduction - short video explaining the platform

Socrata Knowledge Base - has a FAQ about using Socrata.  Some of these are training videos.  Topics currently covered:
  • File formats for downloading
  • Resetting password
  • Creating a chart
  • Filtering a dataset
  • Commenting on a view
  • Searching a dataset
  • Sorting a dataset
  • Creating a map

1 comment:

  1. this list, and this entire site, is the most awesome thing I have seen all week. I was aware of some of these tools, but to see them used with real data, that I can easily recreate, is blowing my mind.

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete