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.
While my very modest creation can’t be favorably compared to any of the BigApps submissions (see below), it does show Public Data Explorer’s flair for adding life to dry bar charts and graphs.
For my dataset, I chose a population projection prepared by the Department of City Planning. Contained in a spreadsheet, the population stats are divided into 18 different age brackets based on census information starting from the year 2000.
Beyond 2010, the City Planning group has derived numbers, presumably based on analysis of migration patterns, and birth and death rates.
NYC Dept of Planning: click to see the animation.
Data Explorer is at its best when given time-based data since it can then animate the charts to reveal interesting dynamics over an interval (years, months, days).
My particular exercise is not nearly as dramatic as the scatter plot of fertility rates vs. life expectancy found on the home page of the Explorer web site.
It is, though, revealing of the fact that New York City will always draw a population of young people (between 20 to 35), who come here to live, work, and hack, and then move on.
I’ve excerpted part of the bar chart above. If you click on the graphic, you’re taken to my DSPL-driven app, where you can experience the steady state-ness of the city’s youth demographics.
Related articles
- Boost for Gov 2.0: Google Data Explorer (technoverseblog.com)
- NYC BigApps 2.0 Submissions (nycbigapps.com)
