Google Public Data Explorer Visits NYC

I admit to being more than a little envious of those hackers who made creative use of New York City’s publicly available databases for the BigApps 2.0 competition.

Is there a way that non-programmers can share vicariously in the fun but without taxing limited tech muscles?

Yes. You just have to speak Google.

With their Public Data Explorer and the recently released DSPL formatting language, anyone with modest configuration skills—an area I excel in—can view statistical files in Google’s remarkably well designed graphing and charting app.

After spending a little time learning DSPL straightforward syntax, I decided to explore one NYC agency’s population dataset.Continue reading