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Maxious 1 #GovHack Toolkit
2 Welcome to the GovHack toolkit. This page provides all the information you need to prepare hackfest entries.
3 These tools can be used to make entries like: mobile apps, web apps, data visualisations/infographics.
Maxious 4 This toolkit is open source, licenced cc-by and improvements are encouraged ...
Maxious 5
Maxious 6 # How to register and submit your entry
Maxious 7 ## Registering your team
Maxious 8 Coming Soon: how to use the website "Hacker Space" to register and find teams.
9
Maxious 10 ## Preparing your submission
Maxious 11
Maxious 12 You should record a 3 minute speech and mix images/text to accompany.
Maxious 13 http://www.screenr.com/ and other screencasting tools allow you to demo apps.
Maxious 14 To mix together clips, you can use youtube video editor http://www.youtube.com/editor or local software like http://www.videolan.org/vlmc/ or http://www.lwks.com/
Maxious 15
Maxious 16 You also need to submit your "source material". For an application this may be source code, for another work it might be your notes or prototypes.
17 The key thing here is that your source material demonstrates to the judges that some of the end result was your own work and that it is possible for another person to replicate that work.
18
Maxious 19
20 # General References {#general-data-hacking-and-programming-references}
21
22 ## Who can be a hack day participant
23 There are many roles you can play; coder, designer UX/graphics
24
25 ## Definitions
Maxious 26 - definitions, open licence reuse permissive hacker hack data journalism data vis UX etc.
27
maxious 28 ## The basics of being a data scientist
Maxious 29
Maxious 30 * Have a hypothesis - even if you're making a tool/api that helps people with their questions too, remember what the objective of that is.
31 * Find the people and tools you need to prove/show/find. This rest of this page will help with the latter.
Maxious 32 * Analyse and present results - were they what you expected? Do they help explain to others what you have found out?
33 Can present as a interactive data visualisation or a web/mobile application or just a infographic/motion graphics video that tells a story.
34
35 [![](img/How-to-participate-in-GovHack_html_m6a65720f-300x199.gif "Data Journalism Diagram")](img/How-to-participate-in-GovHack_html_m6a65720f.gif)</dt>
36 Illustration from Data Journalism Handbook, CC BY-SA 3.0</dd>
37
maxious 38 The best high level reference is the 'Understanding Data' and 'Delivering Data' chapters of the Data Journalism Handbook which is available online for free at
Maxious 39 [datajournalismhandbook.org](http://datajournalismhandbook.org/)
40
41 You can learn the technical skills from scratch in Visualize This: The FlowingData Guide to Design, Visualization, and Statistics by Nathan Yau or for more advanced
42 practical advice check out Data Analysis with Open Source Tools by Philipp K. Janert
43 For further reading in this space
44 [http://flowingdata.com/2012/04/27/data-and-visualization-blogs-worth-following/](http://flowingdata.com/2012/04/27/data-and-visualization-blogs-worth-following/)
45
46
47 **Statistics**
48 [http://greenteapress.com/thinkstats/html/index.html](http://greenteapress.com/thinkstats/html/index.html)
49
50 **Programming**
51
52 Programming is valuable skill for manipulating and displaying data.
53 Basic tutorials for a variety of languages are available for free online or you can learn
54
55 interactively with websites like [http://www.codecademy.com/](http://www.codecademy.com/#!/exercises/0). for JavaScript or [http://www.learnpython.org/ ](http://www.learnpython.org/)or [http://tryruby.org](http://tryruby.org/)
56
57 [https://developer.mozilla.org/en/JavaScript](https://developer.mozilla.org/en/JavaScript) - especially for web applications and visualisations, you'll need a basic understanding of JS. Common libraries like prototype or jQuery can help
58
59 **Accessibility/User Experience**
maxious 60
Maxious 61 WCAG guidelines not only make a web app accessible but make it a better experience for all users! Even if not making an app, good to consider these things to do and not do: [http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG/](http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG/)
maxious 62
Maxious 63
64
65 # Developer Tools For Your Computer {#developer-tools-for-your-computer}
66 No matter what kind of application you have for the data, there are many tools you can use to better collaborate and manage your project.
67
68 ### Source Control
69 Git / Subversion
70
71 [![](img/Screenshot-at-2012-04-29-172132-300x235.png "Git Screenshot")](http://progit.org/book/)
72
73 [http://progit.org/book/](http://progit.org/book/)
74
75 [http://svnbook.red-bean.com/](http://svnbook.red-bean.com/)
76
77 [http://tortoisesvn.net/](http://tortoisesvn.net/)
78
79 [http://code.google.com/p/tortoisegit/](http://code.google.com/p/tortoisegit/)
80
81 ### Task Tracking -
82
83 Issue/task trackers allow you to outline the tasks required for your project and assign them to people to do.
84
85 [Trello](https://trello.com/) and [Workflowy](https://workflowy.com/) are free, lightweight project management tools suitable for a rapid project!
86
87 ## Hosted Developer Tools {#hosted-developer-tools}
88
89 Can get many tools (source control, issue tracking) combined into one service cloud hosted so no setup required.
90
91 ### Github
92 Git obviously but svn/hg interfaces are possible. Provide their own GUI for Windows/OSX or use the variety of Git capable tools
93
94 ### Sourceforge
95
96 Subversion, Git, Mercurial, Bazaar, CVS, issue tracker, wiki, release file downloads. Unlimited free use for open source projects.
97
Maxious 98 You can create your own Sourceforge project at [http://sourceforge.net/](http://sourceforge.net/)
Maxious 99
100 ### Google Code Project Hosting
101
102 Git, Mercurial, and Subversion code. Issue tracker, wiki, release file downloads. Unlimited free use for open source projects.
103
104 You can host your Google Code project and get access to developer tools, APIs and documentation at [http://code.google.com/](http://code.google.com/)
105
106 # Applications of data hacking
107
108 ## API Development {#api-development}
109
110
111 So an API isn't just an XML file ![;)](http://www.govhack.org/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
112
113 A good web based data API:
114
115 * Is logically organised
Maxious 116 * Can filter returned data
117 * Can return results in different open formats (CSV/JSON etc.)
118 * Is efficient and responsive by using caching and databases appropriately
119 * Handles errors gracefully
Maxious 120 * Monitors and controls access (to show benefit realised of API and prevent abuse)
121 * Provides appropriate documentation with examples
122
maxious 123 Some people like sensis [http://](http://developers.sensis.com.au/)[developers.sensis.com.<wbr>au</wbr>](http://developers.sensis.com.au/)[/](http://developers.sensis.com.au/) use a provider like[http://](http://mashery.com/)[mashery.com](http://mashery.com/)[/](http://mashery.com/) or [https](https://apigee.com/)[://](https://apigee.com/)[apigee.com](https://apigee.com/) or [http://](http://apiaxle.com/)[apiaxle.com](http://apiaxle.com/)[/](http://apiaxle.com/) or [http://www.3scale.net/](http://www.3scale.net/) which handles making a good API for them.
124
Maxious 125 Atlassian have a great page on what makes a good API https://developer.atlassian.com/display/REST/Atlassian+REST+API+Design+Guidelines+version+1)
126
127 API
128 - howto.gov api resources about choosing SOAP vs. REST etc. http://www.howto.gov/mobile/apis-in-government
129 - http://training.sunlightfoundation.com/module/data-visualizations-google-docs/
130 - api documentation is important too.
131 - WSDL or http://swagger.wordnik.com/ or https://github.com/mashery/iodocs
132 - Many web app frameworks can generate the documentation for you. For example Symfony for PHPhttp://symfony.com/ https://github.com/FriendsOfSymfony/FOSRestBundle http://williamdurand.fr/2012/08/02/rest-apis-with-symfony2-the-right-way/ https://github.com/nelmio/NelmioApiDocBundle better apis https://github.com/liip/LiipHelloBundle
133 - or for Rails https://github.com/elc/rapi_doc https://github.com/Pajk/apipie-rails
134 -
135 http://amberonrails.com/building-stripes-api/
136 example WeatherTree weather API
137
138
139 ## Infographics and Data Visualisation {#data-visualisation}
140
141 Infographics try to contextualise charts and graphs to tell a story. Data vis builds on this to find new ways to design insight.
Maxious 142
143 Most of the categories to follow have visualisation tools specific to their purpose.
144
145 You can find some data visualisation tools below:
146
147 [http://www.visualisingdata.com/index.php/2011/07/part-6-the-essential-collection-of-visualisation-resources/](http://www.visualisingdata.com/index.php/2011/07/part-6-the-essential-collection-of-visualisation-resources/)
148
149 Also check out [http://thejit.org](http://thejit.org/) &amp; [http://www.senchalabs.org/<wbr>philogl/</wbr>](http://www.senchalabs.org/philogl/) (contributed by Matt Adcock)
150
151 Have to use visual art concepts, good color schemes http://www.r-bloggers.com/the-paul-tol-21-color-salute/
152
153
154 - https://graphics.stanford.edu/wikis/cs448b-12-fall/ data viz theory
155 - http://drawingbynumbers.org/toolsandresources
156
157 examples - http://sunfoundation.tumblr.com/
158 ## The Open Budget
159
160 tools - http://selection.datavisualization.ch/ data viz tools catalog
161
162 ## Web Applications
Alex Sadleir 163
Maxious 164 With the rise of HTML5 technologies it is easier than ever to make a web application for engaging use of data.
165
maxious 166 - css framework like bootstrap or zurb foundation
167 - css gauges http://www.larentis.eu/donuts/
168 - bootstrap themes, web fonts, css sprites, icon fonts
169 - http://designmodo.com/flat-free/ http://designmodo.github.com/Flat-UI/
170
171 ### Examples
172
173
174 ## PlanningAlerts
175
176 [![Planning Alerts Screenshot](img/How-to-participate-in-GovHack_html_2f0199ff1-300x221.png "Planning Alerts Screenshot")](img/How-to-participate-in-GovHack_html_2f0199ff1.png)Description: Planning Alerts takes data from local government development applications and sends alerts to users based on what applications are lodged in their area.
177
178 Programming Language: Ruby
179
Maxious 180 Source Control: [Git](https://github.com/openaustralia/planningalerts-app)
181
Maxious 182 Issue Tracking: [Atlassian JIRA](http://tickets.openaustraliafoundation.org.au/browse/PA/)