http://blog.dataunbound.com Helping organizations access and share data effectively. Special focus on web APIs for data integration. Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:25:19 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I'm looking forward to giving a little talk on open government + Freebase + Recovery Act data tonight at the Freebase meeting.   I'm deeply excited about the potential of open government data to change how we work with government (not to mention how we understand its workings).    Here are some slides that will help [...]]]> http://blog.dataunbound.com/2010/02/10/open-govt-and-freebase/ In 2006, after weblogging for some 6 years while working at UC Berkeley, I took on a new role as a data architect on campus.  I felt it important to keep blogging about my professional interests but to do so under a new moniker.  I came up with "data unbound" to name the passion I [...]]]> http://blog.dataunbound.com/2010/01/30/data-unbound/ In July, I wrote about why I've been looking for Recovery TAFS and appropriations. In an attempt to get an official list from the US federal government, Eric Kansa and I sent a FOIA letter to OMB to request the release (in electronic form) of a complete and up-to-date list of all Recovery Act (ARRA) [...]]]> http://blog.dataunbound.com/2009/11/23/foia-outcome/ Today, my colleagues Erik Wilde, Eric Kansa, and I are pleased to announce our new report "Web Services for Recovery.gov" and its companion website recovery.berkeley.edu.   Last week, the redesign of Recovery.gov was made public to much fanfare.  Recovery.gov is  the U.S. government’s official website for publicly documenting how funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment [...]]]> http://blog.dataunbound.com/2009/10/05/web-services-for-recovery-gov/ Rusty Talbot posted the following request for feedback on the Sunlight Labs list this morning The Recovery, Accountability, & Transparency Board wishes to have an open discussion with all interested developers about how data should be made available via Recovery.gov. As you are all aware, a new version of Recovery.gov will be released soon. From [...]]]> http://blog.dataunbound.com/2009/09/24/advice-for-recovery-gov/ I'm starting to prepare my notes for the pre-conference seminar Creating and Enabling Web Mashups that I'll be leading on November 3, 2009 at 2009 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference.   I'm looking for good examples to use in the seminar.  One that I'm contemplating is showing how to import the Educause 2009 calendar, which is available as [...]]]> http://blog.dataunbound.com/2009/09/22/calendar-data-from-educause-put-into-a-google-calendar/ There is a huge amount of government and socio-economic data in general  gathered at the county level.  It would be nice to be able to plot that data on an desktop or online map (e.g., Google maps).  This morning I posted a question on the  Sunlight labs mailing list asking for some help: I would [...]]]> http://blog.dataunbound.com/2009/09/03/plotting-data-for-counties-on-google-maps-part-i/ I'll be at TransparencyCamp 2009 tomorrow (You can follow the conference tweets at #tcamp09, whether or not you'll be in physical attendance.) Since TCamp09 is an unconference, any formal agenda will be determined at the conference by sessions attendees propose there. I'd like to see and attend sessions on the following topics: projects/techniques to track [...]]]> http://blog.dataunbound.com/2009/08/07/im-looking-forward-to-transparency-camp-2009/ In response to a question I received on a mailing list in response to my query  Does anyone know of a complete and up-to-date list of Recovery Act accounts? concerning why I was looking for amounts appropriated and not just obligated an spent for the Recovery, I wrote the following clarification (which I have edited [...]]]> http://blog.dataunbound.com/2009/07/29/a-clarification-of-why-im-looking-for-recovery-tafs-and-appropriations/ Does anyone know of a complete and up-to-date list of Recovery Act TAFS — basically a list of all the basic accounts of money flowing from the Recovery Act?  There was one published by ProPublica on April 1, 2009 (from the post Recovery.gov Falling Short of Expectations So Far – ProPublica ) and one buried [...]]]> http://blog.dataunbound.com/2009/07/29/does-anyone-know-of-a-complete-and-up-to-date-list-of-recovery-act-accounts/