| Welcome to the GovHack toolkit. This page provides all the information you need to prepare hackfest entries. | #GovHack Toolkit |
| These tools can be used to make entries like: mobile apps, web apps, data visualisations/infographics | Welcome to the GovHack toolkit. This page provides all the information you need to prepare hackfest entries. |
| These tools can be used to make entries like mobile apps, web apps and data visualisations/infographics. | |
| - govhack toolkit!!!! | 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 |
| - key datasets, directory.gov.au gazetter/AEC electorates/suburbs/postcodes/LGAs | |
| # How to register and submit your entry | |
| - definitions, open licence reuse permissive hacker hack data journalism data bis UCX etc. | ## Registering your team |
| - what do govhack entries look like? | Coming Soon: how to use the website "Hacker Space" to register and find teams. |
| - roles; coder, designer UX/graphics | |
| ## Preparing your submission | |
| You should record a 3 minute speech and mix images/text to accompany. | |
| geo | http://www.screenr.com/ and other screencasting tools allow you to demo apps. |
| - http://converter.mygeodata.eu/vector kml exporter for shp | 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/ |
| - http://bost.ocks.org/mike/map/ | |
| 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. | |
| R | 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. |
| - http://blog.yhathq.com/posts/10-R-packages-I-wish-I-knew-about-earlier.html | |
| - excel -> R/rattle/ deducer? http://www.r-bloggers.com/updates-to-the-deducer-family-of-packages/ | |
| # General References {#general-data-hacking-and-programming-references} | |
| ## Who can be a hack day participant | |
| - tools.disclo.gs - how to use data | There are many roles you can play as a hack day participant; coder, designer UX/graphics. |
| - developer tools inc. linked data | |
| - gephi -> neo4j | ## The basics of being a data scientist |
| - neo4j lets you build on, do massive queries of who is friends with who | |
| - don't use network viz if what you actually have is a tree/hierarchy with no interconnections http://www.randelshofer.ch/treeviz/ http://thejit.org/demos/ http://mbostock.github.com/protovis/ex/treemap.html http://blog.pixelingene.com/2011/07/building-a-tree-diagram-in-d3-js/ | * 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. |
| - http://mbostock.github.com/d3/ex/pack.html http://mbostock.github.com/d3/ex/tree.html | * Find the people and tools you need to prove/show/find. This rest of this page will help with the latter. |
| - postgis/quantum gis | * Analyse and present results - were they what you expected? Do they help explain to others what you have found out? |
| - (google earth is alright but many limitations) NASA World Wind? | Can present as a interactive data visualisation or a web/mobile application or just a infographic/motion graphics video that tells a story. |
| - ABS statistical areas | |
| - http://irs.gis-lab.info/ wms or http://www.gdal.org/frmt_wms_openstreetmap_tms.xml | [](img/How-to-participate-in-GovHack_html_m6a65720f.gif)</dt> |
| - can do nearest/isin/union queries - personal geocoder | Illustration from Data Journalism Handbook, CC BY-SA 3.0</dd> |
| - cloudmade geocoder, google maps my maps | |
| - base layers like agri or nearmap | 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 |
| - scraperwiki with new pytemplate libraries | [datajournalismhandbook.org](http://datajournalismhandbook.org/) |
| - makes an API for your data to get in sqlite/json/csv | |
| - three.js with cables vis? Overviewer from AP? | 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 |
| - govhack library | practical advice check out Data Analysis with Open Source Tools by Philipp K. Janert |
| - http://hpneo.github.com/gmaps/examples.html | For further reading in this space |
| - https://graphics.stanford.edu/wikis/cs448b-12-fall/ data viz theory | [http://flowingdata.com/2012/04/27/data-and-visualization-blogs-worth-following/](http://flowingdata.com/2012/04/27/data-and-visualization-blogs-worth-following/) |
| - https://mixpanel.com/education/understanding-the-first-five-minutes | |
| - http://drawingbynumbers.org/toolsandresources | |
| - http://wmbriggs.com/blog/?p=6465 | **Statistics** |
| - http://ofps.oreilly.com/titles/9781449339739/k_00000002.html list of d3 alternatives | |
| - http://craigkerstiens.com/2012/10/01/understanding-postgres-performance/ | A great guide to statistics is |
| - https://github.com/clips/pattern for easy NLP/network analysis/data mining | [Think Stats](http://greenteapress.com/thinkstats/html/index.html) |
| - https://github.com/theodi/open-data-tech-review/wiki othr cleanup/linked data toola | |
| - http://selection.datavisualization.ch/ data viz tools catalog | **Programming** |
| - manipulating data - grep/find replace/sed/regex | |
| - d3 tools and tutorial http://enjalot.com/ http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4608440 | Programming is valuable skill for manipulating and displaying data. |
| - Why d3 is the way it is and how to make charts http://bost.ocks.org/mike/chart/ | 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/) |
| - how to make an xkcd chart http://bl.ocks.org/3914862 | |
| 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) | |
| - data viz | |
| - http://k2company.com/blog/2012/09/06/toolbox-for-learning-machine-learning-and-data-science/ | **Accessibility/User Experience** |
| - http://williamparry.blogspot.com.au/2011/04/putting-data-into-google-fusion-tables.html google fusion tutorial | |
| - andrewharvey4.wordpress.com postgis/asgs tutorial | 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/) |
| - http://www.slideshare.net/maxdemarzi/etl-into-neo4j | |
| - http://www.twotorials.com/ for R | |
| - http://www.r-bloggers.com/gradient-word-clouds/ http://www.rstudio.com/shiny/ http://blog.ouseful.info/2012/11/28/quick-shiny-demo-exploring-nhs-winter-sit-rep-data/ https://github.com/timelyportfolio/shiny-d3-plot https://github.com/trestletech/shiny-sandbox/tree/master/grn | # Developer Tools For Your Computer {#developer-tools-for-your-computer} |
| - http://is-r.tumblr.com/post/38240018815/making-prettier-network-graphs-with-sna-and-igraph | 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. |
| - http://www.r-bloggers.com/video-simpler-tricks-and-tools-help-debugging-git-latex-and-workflow-with-r-by-prof-rob-hyndman/ | |
| - http://yihui.name/knitr/ makes reports including google widgets/charts/maps via http://www.r-bloggers.com/googlevis-0-3-2-is-released-better-integration-with-knitr/ | ### Source Control |
| - http://chartsnthings.tumblr.com/post/36978271916/r-tutorial-simple-charts http://flowingdata.com/2012/12/17/getting-started-with-charts-in-r/ | 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! |
| - http://dydra.com/ | [](http://progit.org/book/) |
| - http://selection.datavisualization.ch/ data viz tools list | |
| - http://nodexl.codeplex.com/ network graphs for excel | [http://progit.org/book/](http://progit.org/book/) |
| - http://sunfoundation.tumblr.com/ | |
| - analysing - linked data tools | [http://svnbook.red-bean.com/](http://svnbook.red-bean.com/) |
| - http://govcampau.wikispaces.com/useful+tools | |
| - http://linkeddata.org/home | [http://tortoisesvn.net/](http://tortoisesvn.net/) |
| [http://code.google.com/p/tortoisegit/](http://code.google.com/p/tortoisegit/) | |
| # Hosted Developer Tools {#hosted-developer-tools} | |
| ### Task Tracking | |
| Issue/task trackers allow you to outline the tasks required for your project and assign them to people to do. | |
| [Trello](https://trello.com/) and [Workflowy](https://workflowy.com/) are free, lightweight project management tools suitable for a rapid project! | |
| ## Hosted Developer Tools {#hosted-developer-tools} | |
| Can get many tools (source control, issue tracking) combined into one service cloud hosted so there's no setup required. | |
| ### Github | |
| Git obviously but svn/hg interfaces are also available. Provide their own GUI for Windows/OSX or use a variety of Git capable tools | |
| ### Sourceforge | ### Sourceforge |
| Subversion, Git, Mercurial, Bazaar, CVS, issue tracker, wiki, release file downloads. Unlimited free use for open source projects. | Subversion, Git, Mercurial, Bazaar, CVS, issue tracker, wiki, release file downloads. Unlimited free use for open source projects. |
| You can create your own Sourceforge project at [http://sourceforge.net/](http://sourceforge.net/) | You can create your own Sourceforge project at [http://sourceforge.net/](http://sourceforge.net/) |
| ### Google Code Project Hosting | ### Google Code Project Hosting |
| Git, Mercurial, and Subversion code. Issue tracker, wiki, release file downloads. Unlimited free use for open source projects. | Git, Mercurial, and Subversion code. Issue tracker, wiki, release file downloads. Unlimited free use for open source projects. |
| 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/) | 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/) |
| # Applications of data hacking | |
| # The basics of being a data scientist | |
| ## API Development {#api-development} | |
| * 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. | |
| * Find the people and tools you need to prove/show/find. This rest of this page will help with the latter. | |
| * Analyse and present results � were they what you expected? Do they help explain to others what you have found out? Can present as a interactive data visualisation or a web/mobile application or just a infographic/motion graphics video that tells a story. | So an API isn't just an XML file  |
| Please note, there are a combination of Analysis and Visualisation tools in each of the major categories below. | |
| # API Development {#api-development} | |
| So an API isn’t just an XML file  | |
| A good web based data API: | A good web based data API: |
| * Is logically organised | * Is logically organised |
| * Can filter returned data | * Can filter returned data |
| * Can return results in different open formats (CSV/JSON etc.) | * Can return results in different open formats (CSV/JSON etc.) |
| * Is efficient and responsive by using caching and databases appropriately | * Is efficient and responsive by using caching and databases appropriately |
| * Handles errors gracefully | * Handles errors gracefully |
| * Monitors and controls access (to show benefit realised of API and prevent abuse) | * Monitors and controls access (to show benefit realised of API and prevent abuse) |
| * Provides appropriate documentation with examples | * Provides appropriate documentation with examples |
| 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. | 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. |
| Atlassian have a great page on what makes a good API [https](https://developer.atlassian.com/display/REST/Atlassian+REST+API+Design+Guidelines+version+1)[://](https://developer.atlassian.com/display/REST/Atlassian+REST+API+Design+Guidelines+version+1)[developer.atlassian.<wbr>com</wbr>](https://developer.atlassian.com/display/REST/Atlassian+REST+API+Design+Guidelines+version+1)[/display/REST/](https://developer.atlassian.com/display/REST/Atlassian+REST+API+Design+Guidelines+version+1)[Atlassian](https://developer.atlassian.com/display/REST/Atlassian+REST+API+Design+Guidelines+version+1)[+<wbr>REST+API+Design+Guidelines+<wbr>version+1</wbr></wbr>](https://developer.atlassian.com/display/REST/Atlassian+REST+API+Design+Guidelines+version+1) | Atlassian have a great page on what makes a good API https://developer.atlassian.com/display/REST/Atlassian+REST+API+Design+Guidelines+version+1) |
| API | HowTo.gov has a bunch of api resources about choosing SOAP vs. REST etc. http://www.howto.gov/mobile/apis-in-government |
| - howto.gov api tutorial | |
| 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) | |
| 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 | |
| better apis https://github.com/liip/LiipHelloBundle | |
| - or for Rails https://github.com/elc/rapi_doc https://github.com/Pajk/apipie-rails | |
| http://amberonrails.com/building-stripes-api/ | |
| example WeatherTree weather API | |
| ## Infographics and Data Visualisation {#data-visualisation} | |
| Infographics try to contextualise charts and graphs to tell a story. Data vis builds on this to find new ways to design insight. | |
| Most of the categories to follow have visualisation tools specific to their purpose. | |
| You can find some data visualisation tools below: | |
| [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/) | |
| Also check out [http://thejit.org](http://thejit.org/) & [http://www.senchalabs.org/<wbr>philogl/</wbr>](http://www.senchalabs.org/philogl/) (contributed by Matt Adcock) | |
| Have to use visual art concepts, good color schemes http://www.r-bloggers.com/the-paul-tol-21-color-salute/ | |
| - https://graphics.stanford.edu/wikis/cs448b-12-fall/ data viz theory | |
| - http://drawingbynumbers.org/toolsandresources | |
| examples - http://sunfoundation.tumblr.com/ | |
| ### The Open Budget | |
| tools - http://selection.datavisualization.ch/ data viz tools catalog | |
| ## Web Applications | |
| With the rise of HTML5 technologies it is easier than ever to make a web application for engaging use of data. | |
| - css framework like bootstrap or zurb foundation | |
| - css gauges http://www.larentis.eu/donuts/ | |
| - bootstrap themes, web fonts, css sprites, icon fonts | |
| - http://designmodo.com/flat-free/ http://designmodo.github.com/Flat-UI/ | |
| ### Examples | |
| #### PlanningAlerts | |
| [](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. | |
| Programming Language: Ruby | |
| Source Control: [Git](https://github.com/openaustralia/planningalerts-app) | |
| Issue Tracking: [Atlassian JIRA](http://tickets.openaustraliafoundation.org.au/browse/PA/) | |
| #### LobbyLens | |
| [](img/129-Screenshot-LobbyClue_-_Chromium.png) | |
| Description: Displays connections between government contracts, business details, politician responsibilities, lobbyists, clients of lobbyists, political donors and the location of these entities. | |
| Programing Language: PHP | |
| Source Control: SVN (Subversion) | |
| Issue Tracking: A whiteboard | |
| #### bus.lambdacomplex.org | |
| [](img/How-to-participate-in-GovHack_html_3789acae.jpg) | |
| Description: Online Canberra Bus Timetables and Trip Planner. | |
| Programing Language: PHP/Ruby | |
| Source Control: Git | |
| Issue Tracking: Github | |
| ## Mobile | |
| Frameworks, http://www.sencha.com/products/touch http://phonegap.com/ http://cordova.apache.org/ | |
| html5 jquery mobile like directory.gov.au | |
| For data visualisation, there are a variety of graph widgets http://code.google.com/p/afreechart/ http://code.google.com/p/snowdon/ http://code.google.com/p/chartdroid/ http://androidplot.com/ http://code.google.com/p/achartengine/ | |
| Backend frameworks http://helios.io/ https://www.parse.com/ | |
| ### Examples | |
| bom water, | |
| nz gov budget | |
| # Geographical Data Tools {#geographical-data-tools} | |
| Check out the[ GeoRabble Boundary Mapper's Cookbook](http://georabble.org/2012/05/31/the-boundary-mappers-cookbook/) to see how you can tie all these things together! | |
| ## Key datasets | |
| - base layers like agri http://agri.openstreetmap.org/, http://irs.gis-lab.info/ wms or http://www.gdal.org/frmt_wms_openstreetmap_tms.xml | |
| ASGS including suburbs/postcodes | |
| - andrewharvey4.wordpress.com postgis/asgs tutorial | |
| ## Wrangling | |
| ### Converting | |
| There are many spatial data formats and often the one your tool requires is not the one the dataset is provided in | |
| Online | |
| - http://converter.mygeodata.eu/vector kml exporter for shp | |
| or locally using GDAL | |
| ### Geocoding | |
| cloudmade, google (but you must display on a Google Map). | |
| Easiest way to do is with a Google Spreadsheet/Fusion Table http://williamparry.blogspot.com.au/2011/04/putting-data-into-google-fusion-tables.htm http://support.google.com/fusiontables/answer/1012281?hl=en&ref_topic=2592806 | |
| ## Analysis | |
| ### PostGIS | |
| [](img/postgisexample.jpg)PostGIS is an extension for the PostgreSQL database server that allows you to store and manipulate geospatial data on a large scale. For example finding which points are in an area or what points are closest . It is also very useful for storing geospatial data because it can convert between all major formats including ESRI Shape files and Google Earth/Maps KML. | |
| ### Quantum GIS | |
| [](img/How-to-participate-in-GovHack_html_m50afbe88.jpg)QGIS is a graphical desktop application that allows viewing and editing of geospatial data. Some good base maps are available by adding the WMS layer/server [http://irs.gis-lab.info/](http://irs.gis-lab.info/) | |
| ## Visualisation | |
| ### Layar and other augmented reality tools | |
| ### Google Fusion Tables/ChartsBin/[OpenHeatMap](http://www.openheatmap.com/) | |
| [](img/fusiontablesscreenshot.jpg)Input numerical values and areas to a spreadsheet and maps are produced where the areas are colored on a scale of the values | |
| http://www.peteraldhous.com/CAR/Making_maps_with_Google_Fusion_Tables.pdf tutorial or http://support.google.com/fusiontables/topic/2592754?hl=en&ref_topic=27020 for google help files | |
| ### [Cartographer.js](http://cartographer.visualmotive.com/) | |
| [](img/cartographerjs.png)Input data as JSON and maps are produced. | |
| See also d3 maps. | |
| - http://bost.ocks.org/mike/map/ | |
| ### OpenLayers/Google Maps/[Leaflet](http://leaflet.cloudmade.com/) | |
| [](img/How-to-participate-in-GovHack_html_512fcbe1.jpg)Display points and different layers. Leaflet is the easiest to use if you just want to show points with popups when clicked on. | |
| There are wrappers for Google maps like http://hpneo.github.com/gmaps/examples.html and Mapstraction that can make it easier to use too. | |
| ### NASA World Wind/Google Earth | |
| [](img/How-to-participate-in-GovHack_html_4dda24a4.jpg)Google Earth provides 3\. viewing of KML/GML files which represent points and shapes, both through a desktop application and a web plugin. These can be extended with interactive features that allow you to view by timeline or have animated tours between different points. You can also develop and customise your own viewer with the open source [NASA World Wind toolkit.](http://goworldwind.org/demos/) | |
| ### | |
| # Tabular Data Tools {#tabular-data-tools} | |
| ## Wrangling | |
| Converting formats json/xml/csv etc. | |
| - http://shancarter.com/data_converter/ | - http://shancarter.com/data_converter/ |
| - http://training.sunlightfoundation.com/module/data-visualizations-google-docs/ | |
| - api documentation | |
| - WSDL or http://swagger.wordnik.com/ or https://github.com/mashery/iodocs | Tabular data may have duplicate entries or incorrect formats (varying ways to enter dates/phonenumbers etc.). There are tools to quickly fix common problems |
| - http://symfony.com/ https://github.com/FriendsOfSymfony/FOSRestBundle http://williamdurand.fr/2012/08/02/rest-apis-with-symfony2-the-right-way/ https://github. |