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Delivering Government Data to Lawyers and Journalists

Delivering Government Data to Lawyers and Journalists. Susan Long Linda Roberge Syracuse University Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse http://trac.syr.edu. Agenda. Our Center in Brief Our Users and their Needs Problems and Solutions. Our Center in Brief .

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Delivering Government Data to Lawyers and Journalists

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  1. Delivering Government Data to Lawyers and Journalists Susan Long Linda Roberge Syracuse University Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse http://trac.syr.edu IASSIST 2006: Data in a world of Networked Knowledge May 23-26, 2006 - Ann Arbor, Michigan

  2. Agenda • Our Center in Brief • Our Users and their Needs • Problems and Solutions

  3. Our Center in Brief • Where does our data come from? • Use FOIA to obtain release of info from federal administrative databases tracking govt’s own activities • Create databases: document, validate and supplement, combine sources, build indices

  4. Our Center in Brief • How is data delivered to users? • develop reports and deliver on web • data mining tools and data warehouse for users to access our data • Center is self-supporting • free public web site • subscription service: data mining

  5. Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse TRACFED Criminal Civil Administrative People Money Context Find Get Clean Validate Enhance Organize Load RAW DATA DYNAMIC OUTPUT Reports Tables Graphs Maps STORED

  6. Evolution in TRAC’s Delivery • Pre-web (18 years ago) • Web – stored pages (12 years ago) • Web – dynamic, database driven content delivery (past 10 years)

  7. TRAC’s Users • Media • Lawyers • Libraries • Academic • Government • Public Interest Groups • Public at large

  8. Challenge: Diverse User Needs • Wide variety in data sophistication • Varying knowledge about government • Breadth vs. Depth • Specificity of information required • Unstructured vs. structured questions • Data mining for non-statisticians

  9. Aides to Understanding: The Basics • Carefully designed tables • Strategic use of graphics • Access to underlying data

  10. Tables Dynamic  Stored 

  11. Graphs  Stored Dynamic

  12. Listings: The underlying data

  13. Maps  Stored Dynamic

  14. Problems and Solutions • Online help • Data Search • Report Generation

  15. Online Help: Need for movement animated gifs

  16. Online Help: Need for movement tutorial movies (express) express_allrank.html http://trac.syr.edu/suelong/iassist/

  17. Online Help: Need for movement tutorial movies (drill down) stf_godeep_current.html http://trac.syr.edu/suelong/iassist/

  18. Online Help: Experimenting with voice houston_example.html http://trac.syr.edu/suelong/iassist/

  19. Data Search Can you search numbers the way you would text ala the “Google” model?

  20. Do we have any data? Where can you find it? How can you get to it? Data Search

  21. Report Generation

  22. Concluding Remarks • It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1859 - 1930) • It is our job to make data usable by those who theorize, especially the journalists, lawyers, and policy makers.

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