Hey Sasha and other Occupy Research folks -
Thanks for your response.
Do you know any way to get into contact with Mark Dixon, or which
occupation he was active in? I like the idea of involving occupyresearch.net,
even if only as a redirect to a dedicated site, if/when we are able to use
occupydata.org. At the moment, it is looking like we will need a whole
site. *See the presentation<
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1MfevO1U4NjQdNogbnw7-dHspOkN9wzpHId89nRSRvy4/edit>
on
occupy data *(it is a work in progress). A summary and additional
information about occupy data is below. Please also see the attached
document which outlines some potential data ideas.
*
*
*1. Intro presentation<
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1MfevO1U4NjQdNogbnw7-dHspOkN9wzpHId89nRSRvy4/edit>
on
occupy data **
*
*
*
*2. We have started a few accounts: *
*
*
1. Discussion List: occupydata@??? - please let me know if
you want to be on it.
2. Mapbox -
http://tiles.mapbox.com/occupy
3. Datastore - thedatahub.org/group/occupy - If you make an account,
please let me know and I will make you an admin. We have unlimited storage
there.
4. Github - github.com/occupydc
*3. The proposal to form a data committee at Occupy DC passed at the GA
Thursday. Here is the text of the proposal*
*Sponsor: Tech Committee*
*
*
*A Data Committee shall be formed. Its purpose will be to:*
*
*
*1. Act as a resource for various entities within Occupy DC and the
national Occupy movement to strengthen initiatives through data gathering,
sensitive to legal and licensing issues, analysis, and visualization*
*
*
*2. Develop Occupy Data projects to address overarching grievances of the
various Occupy locations across the United States, which may include
economic inequality, identity-based discrimination and (in)equality of
opportunity, corruption, lobbying, campaign finance, militarization, the
financial crisis, the criminal (in)justice system, destruction of the
global ecosystem, mortgages and foreclosures, and related themes*
*
*
*3. Coordinate with local and national open data advocates, developers, and
technologists on existing open data, open government, and linked data
projects*
*
*
*4. Establish an Occupy Data website to serve as a clearinghouse for data
sources, tutorials, and visualization tools*
*
*
*5. Coordinate with local technology and data organizations to hold teach
ins for members of Occupy DC, Occupy Data, and the general public*
*
*
*6. Practice radical transparency*
*4. Please also see the attached document outlining some potential data
ideas.*
*
*
I welcome your feedback, and hopefully, interest in participation.
*
*
*
*
On Sat, Mar 10, 2012 at 11:51 AM, Sasha Costanza-Chock <schock@???>wrote:
> Hey Chris,
>
> The owner is a guy named Mark Dixon who has been MIA for a couple months :)
>
> It would be awesome if we could work together w/your team on
> http://blog.occupyresearch.net, see the 'occupydata' section.
>
> Any interest in that approach? We could hook you up w/admin access,
> restructure navigation, set up proper hosting, etc
>
> peace
> sc
>
>
> On 3/7/12 8:34 PM, Chris wrote:
>
> Hey Occupy Researchers,
>
> My name is Chris, and I am part of Occupy DC. A few of my friends and I
> are gearing up to launch an Occupy Data group. It has already grown to be
> greater then Occupy DC. We have made some great connections with local tech
> folks and web developers, and we are currently developing a website for
> occupy-related data, visualizations, maps, infographics, and
> resources/tutorials.
> *
> *
> *Ideally, we would like for this to be occupydata.org. Does anyone know
> who has this? *I've already looked for the whois (dreamhost, no name)
>
> If you're interested in our group, send me an email. You can check us
> out here:
>
> Data on the DataHub: thedatahub.org/group/occupy
> MapBox: tiles.mapbox.com/occupy
> Github: https://github.com/occupydc
>
> In solidarity,
> Chris
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Occupyresearch mailing listOccupyresearch@???https://www.autistici.org/mailman/listinfo/occupyresearch
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Occupyresearch mailing list
> Occupyresearch@???
> https://www.autistici.org/mailman/listinfo/occupyresearch
>
>
Bank failures, mergers, and acquisitions in the United States
Possible use: map the data in a web application with an interactive directory of bank institutions, allow the visitor to see which banks have been winners/losers historically.
2008 Financial Crisis and bank bailout
Possible use: explore/present data about the financial crisis and subsequent loans/bank failures/home foreclosures in an interactive web environment.
1033 Program, which allows local law enforcement agencies in the U.S. to request military technology and weapons from the Pentagon at no cost
Possible use: display this data on a web-based map, as well as provide an interface to have visitors fill out a Freedom of Information Act request for more precise 1033 program data from their state coordinators and share it to Occupy Data.
DC political campaign donations
Possible use: determine the industries that are contributing the most; when business entities are using shell companies to contribute over the max
Political Action Committees/PACs/SuperPACS
Possible use: Link big donors to possible favors received, such as Ambassadorships and other executive appointments, would ideally tie into Influence Explorer on SunlightFoundation.com and the opensecrets.org database.
Congressional insider trading and conflict of interest
Possible use: Interactive web app allowing user to browse by state, name, industry, (would also be cool to connect this to CapitolWords at Sunlight).
FEC filings for several candidates
Possible use: display the linked entries ( such as by donor name or address) in an interactive web application, which might take a similar form as the PAC/SuperPAC one above.
Poverty, real-estate developers, and the rising housing prices in DC
Possible use: find, or create the database, visualize it geographically, chronologically, among other ways
Data files contained on data.gov, along with data sites on particular .gov sites
Possible Use: Interactive app for visitors to see all the publically available data on various federal, state (or district), and local government entities
National FOIA Database
Possible use: begin to link the various FOIA databases, as a national database does not exist yet, and connect visitors to free resources to encourage them to file their own FOIA requests.
Housing/Mortgages/Foreclosures
Possible use: aggregate state foreclosure statistics into a single national database, with a focus on foreclosure fraud; link the repeat bank offenders to other bad actions on their part.
Global Occupy Movement
Possible use: occupations in the world. I would like to make a map that routes the visitor to the nearest one based on input geo information.
Congress
Possible use: link opencongress, capitolwords, etc., with the geo-input from the visitor to allow the visitor to see what their congress member has been up to, perhaps include something like Reverse Robocall in the workflow to allow the visitor to inform their elected official of how they feel about the behavior.
