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[tools.git] / index.md
Alex Sadleir 1 #GovHack Toolkit
Maxious 2 Welcome to the GovHack toolkit. This page provides all the information you need to prepare hackfest entries.
Alex Sadleir 3 These tools can be used to make entries like mobile apps, web apps and data visualisations/infographics.
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5 The text of this toolkit is open for reuse under a Creative Commons Attribution licence and improvements are encouraged via Git http://github.com/maxious/govhack-tools or via email patches to govhack@lambdacomplex.org
Maxious 6
Maxious 7 # How to register and submit your entry
Alex Sadleir 8 ## Registering your team
9 Coming Soon: how to use the website "Hacker Space" to register and find teams.
Maxious 10
Alex Sadleir 11 ## Preparing your submission
Maxious 12
Maxious 13 You should record a 3 minute speech and mix images/text to accompany.
Maxious 14 http://www.screenr.com/ and other screencasting tools allow you to demo apps.
Maxious 15 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 16
Maxious 17 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.
Maxious 18 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.
Maxious 19
20
21 # General References {#general-data-hacking-and-programming-references}
Maxious 22
23 ## The basics of being a data scientist
Alex Sadleir 24
Maxious 25 * 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.
Maxious 26 * Find the people and tools you need to prove/show/find. This rest of this page will help with the latter.
27 * Analyse and present results - were they what you expected? Do they help explain to others what you have found out?
maxious 28 Can present as a interactive data visualisation or a web/mobile application or just a infographic/motion graphics video that tells a story.
Maxious 29
Maxious 30 [![](img/How-to-participate-in-GovHack_html_m6a65720f-300x199.gif "Data Journalism Diagram")](img/How-to-participate-in-GovHack_html_m6a65720f.gif)</dt>
31 Illustration from Data Journalism Handbook, CC BY-SA 3.0</dd>
Maxious 32
Alex Sadleir 33 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 34 [datajournalismhandbook.org](http://datajournalismhandbook.org/)
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maxious 36 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
Maxious 37 practical advice check out Data Analysis with Open Source Tools by Philipp K. Janert
38 For further reading in this space
39 [http://flowingdata.com/2012/04/27/data-and-visualization-blogs-worth-following/](http://flowingdata.com/2012/04/27/data-and-visualization-blogs-worth-following/)
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41
42 **Statistics**
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44 A great guide to statistics is
45 [Think Stats](http://greenteapress.com/thinkstats/html/index.html)
Alex Sadleir 46
47 **Programming**
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Maxious 49 Programming is valuable skill for manipulating and displaying data.
50 Basic tutorials for a variety of languages are available for free online or you can learn interactively with websites like [Codecademy for JavaScript](http://www.codecademy.com/#!/exercises/0), [Learn Python](http://www.learnpython.org/) or [Try Ruby](http://tryruby.org/)
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52 For web applications and visualisations, you'll need a basic understanding of JavaScript in order to configure pre made libraries like jQuery. A good source for Javascript information is the [Mozilla Development Network Javascript Page](https://developer.mozilla.org/en/JavaScript)
Alex Sadleir 53
Maxious 54 **Accessibility/User Experience**
Alex Sadleir 55
Maxious 56 Following accessibility guidelines not only make a application 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 when designing for humans: [http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG/](http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG/)
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58
Alex Sadleir 59
Maxious 60 # Developer Tools For Your Computer {#developer-tools-for-your-computer}
61 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.
62
Alex Sadleir 63 ### Source Control
64 Using a version control system like Git or Subversion allows you to keep many different versions of what you have been working on so you can collaborate with others or simply back up your files so you don't lose them!
Maxious 65
maxious 66 [![](img/Screenshot-at-2012-04-29-172132-300x235.png "Git Screenshot")](http://progit.org/book/)
Alex Sadleir 67
Maxious 68 [tutorials on git](http://progit.org/book/) and
Alex Sadleir 69 [GUIs to help you](http://code.google.com/p/tortoisegit/)
Maxious 70
71 [manual for Subversion](http://svnbook.red-bean.com/)
72 and a [similar GUI for Subversion](http://tortoisesvn.net/)
73
74
75 ### Task Tracking
76
77 Issue/task trackers allow you to outline the tasks required for your project and assign them to people to do.
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Alex Sadleir 79 [Trello](https://trello.com/) and [Workflowy](https://workflowy.com/) are free, lightweight project management tools suitable for a rapid project!
Maxious 80
81 ## Hosted Developer Tools {#hosted-developer-tools}
82
83 Can get many tools (source control, issue tracking) combined into one service cloud hosted so there's no setup required.
84
Maxious 85 ### Github
86 Git obviously but svn/hg interfaces are also available. Provide their own GUI for Windows/OSX or use a variety of Git capable tools
Alex Sadleir 87
Maxious 88 ### Sourceforge
89
Alex Sadleir 90 Subversion, Git, Mercurial, Bazaar, CVS, issue tracker, wiki, release file downloads. Unlimited free use for open source projects.
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92 You can create your own Sourceforge project at [http://sourceforge.net/](http://sourceforge.net/)
93
94 ### Google Code Project Hosting
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96 Git, Mercurial, and Subversion code. Issue tracker, wiki, release file downloads. Unlimited free use for open source projects.
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98 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/)
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100
101 # Applications of data hacking
102
103 ## API Development {#api-development}
104
Alex Sadleir 105
106 So an API isn't just an XML file ![;)](http://www.govhack.org/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
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Maxious 108 A good web based data API:
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maxious 110 * Is logically organised
111 * Can filter returned data
112 * Can return results in different open formats (CSV/JSON etc.)
113 * Is efficient and responsive by using caching and databases appropriately
114 * Handles errors gracefully
115 * Monitors and controls access (to show benefit realised of API and prevent abuse)
116 * Provides appropriate documentation with examples
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118 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.
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120 Atlassian have a great page on what makes a good API https://developer.atlassian.com/display/REST/Atlassian+REST+API+Design+Guidelines+version+1)
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122 HowTo.gov has a bunch of api resources about choosing SOAP vs. REST etc. http://www.howto.gov/mobile/apis-in-government
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Maxious 124 API documentation is important too! Traditionally for SOAP APIs, you use WSDL but for REST try [Swagger](http://swagger.wordnik.com/) or [iodocs](https://github.com/mashery/iodocs)
125 Many web app frameworks can generate the documentation for you. For example Symfony for PHP http://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
Maxious 126 Or for Ruby on Rails there is is https://github.com/elc/rapi_doc https://github.com/Pajk/apipie-rails
Alex Sadleir 127
Maxious 128 better apis https://github.com/liip/LiipHelloBundle
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maxious 130 http://amberonrails.com/building-stripes-api/
Maxious 131
132 example WeatherTree weather API
Alex Sadleir 133
Maxious 134
Alex Sadleir 135 ## Infographics and Data Visualisation {#data-visualisation}
Alex Sadleir 136
Maxious 137 Infographics try to contextualise charts and graphs to tell a story. Data vis builds on this to find new ways to design insight.
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Alex Sadleir 139 Most of the categories to follow have visualisation tools specific to their purpose.
Alex Sadleir 140
141 You can find some data visualisation tools below:
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143 [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/)
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maxious 145 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)
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147 Have to use visual art concepts, good color schemes http://www.r-bloggers.com/the-paul-tol-21-color-salute/
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149
150 - https://graphics.stanford.edu/wikis/cs448b-12-fall/ data viz theory
Maxious 151 - http://drawingbynumbers.org/toolsandresources
152 - http://selection.datavisualization.ch/ data viz tools catalog