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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 and data visualisations/infographics.
Maxious 4
Maxious 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
Maxious 8 ## Registering your team
9 Coming Soon: how to use the website "Hacker Space" to register and find teams.
Maxious 10
Maxious 11 ## Preparing your submission
Maxious 12
Maxious 13 You should record a 3 minute speech and mix images/text to accompany.
Maxious 14 [Screenr] (http://www.screenr.com/) , [ActivePresenter Free Edition](http://atomisystems.com/activepresenter/free-edition/) 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 You can use graphics for example [storyboards with these free icons](http://dribbble.com/shots/1083617-430-FREE-storyboard-illustrations)
17
18 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 19 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.
20
21
22 # General References
23
24
25 ## The basics of being a data scientist
Maxious 26
27 * 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 28 * Find the people and tools you need to prove/show/find. This rest of this page will help with the latter.
Maxious 29 * Analyse and present results - were they what you expected? Do they help explain to others what you have found out?
Maxious 30 Can present as a interactive data visualisation or a web/mobile application or just a infographic/motion graphics video that tells a story.
31
Maxious 32 [![](img/How-to-participate-in-GovHack_html_m6a65720f-300x199.gif "Data Journalism Diagram")](img/How-to-participate-in-GovHack_html_m6a65720f.gif)</dt>
33 Illustration from Data Journalism Handbook, CC BY-SA 3.0</dd>
34
35 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
36 [datajournalismhandbook.org](http://datajournalismhandbook.org/)
37
maxious 38 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 39 practical advice check out Data Analysis with Open Source Tools by Philipp K. Janert
40 For further reading in this space
41 [http://flowingdata.com/2012/04/27/data-and-visualization-blogs-worth-following/](http://flowingdata.com/2012/04/27/data-and-visualization-blogs-worth-following/)
42
43
44 **Statistics**
45
46 A great guide to statistics is
47 [Think Stats](http://greenteapress.com/thinkstats/html/index.html)
48
49 **Programming**
50
51 Programming is valuable skill for manipulating and displaying data.
52 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/)
53
54 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)
55
56 **Accessibility/User Experience**
57
58 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/)
59
maxious 60
Maxious 61
maxious 62 # Developer Tools For Your Computer
Maxious 63 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.
64
65 ### Source Control
66 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!
67
68 [![](img/Screenshot-at-2012-04-29-172132-300x235.png "Git Screenshot")](http://progit.org/book/)
69
70 There are [tutorials on git](http://progit.org/book/) and GUIs to help you like [TortoiseGit for Windows](http://code.google.com/p/tortoisegit/) and [Atlassian SourceTree for Windows and OSX](http://sourcetreeapp.com/) (or if you prefer the console [tig](http://blogs.atlassian.com/2013/05/git-tig/))
71 There is also a [manual for Subversion](http://svnbook.red-bean.com/) and a [similar GUI for Subversion](http://tortoisesvn.net/)
72
73
74 ### Task Tracking
75
76 Issue/task trackers allow you to outline the tasks required for your project and assign them to people to do.
77
78 [Trello](https://trello.com/) and [Workflowy](https://workflowy.com/) are free, lightweight project management tools suitable for a rapid project!
79
80 ## Virtual Servers
81 Many free services to try out virtual/cloud servers before scaling up: https://www.chunkhost.com/ or heroku or https://www.appfog.com/pricing/
82 If your wifi starts to get congested, you can use [mosh](http://mosh.mit.edu/) to improve the performance of SSH under reduced network performance.
83
84
85 ## Hosted Developer Tools
86
87 Can get many tools (source control, issue tracking) combined into one service cloud hosted so there's no setup required.
88
89 ### Github / BitBucket
90 Github provides Git but [Subversion (svn)](https://github.com/blog/626-announcing-svn-support) and [Mercurial (hg)](http://hg-git.github.io/) interfaces are also available. Github provide their own GUI for Windows/OSX or you can use a variety of Git capable tools https://github.com/
91 Similarly Atlassian provide BitBucket accessible via Git and Mercurial (hg) https://bitbucket.org/
92
93 ### Sourceforge
94
95 Subversion, Git, Mercurial, Bazaar, CVS, issue tracker, wiki, release file downloads. Unlimited free use for open source projects.
96
97 You can create your own Sourceforge project at [http://sourceforge.net/](http://sourceforge.net/)
Maxious 98
Maxious 99 ### Google Code Project Hosting
100
101 Git, Mercurial, and Subversion code. Issue tracker, wiki, release file downloads. Unlimited free use for open source projects.
102
103 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/)
104
105
106 # Applications of data hacking
107
108 ## API Development
109
110
111 So an API isn't just an XML file!
112 A good web based data API:
113
114 * Is logically organised
115 * Can filter returned data
Maxious 116 * Can return results in different open formats (CSV/JSON etc.)
117 * Is efficient and responsive by using caching and databases appropriately
118 * Handles errors gracefully
119 * Monitors and controls access (to show benefit realised of API and prevent abuse)
Maxious 120 * Provides appropriate documentation with examples
121
122 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.
maxious 123
124 Atlassian have a great page on what makes a good API https://developer.atlassian.com/display/REST/Atlassian+REST+API+Design+Guidelines+version+1)
Maxious 125
126 HowTo.gov has a bunch of api resources about choosing SOAP vs. REST etc. http://www.howto.gov/mobile/apis-in-government
127
128 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)
129 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 https://github.com/liip/LiipHelloBundle
130 Or for Ruby on Rails there is is https://github.com/elc/rapi_doc https://github.com/Pajk/apipie-rails
131
132 For example [Stripe's API](http://amberonrails.com/building-stripes-api/) or previous GovHack entrant [WeatheredOak](http://www.govhack.org/2012/06/02/weatheredoak/)
133
134
135 ## Infographics and Data Visualisation
136
137 Infographics try to contextualise charts and graphs to tell a story. Data vis builds on this to find new ways to design insight.
138
139 Most of the categories to follow have visualisation tools specific to their purpose.
140
141 You can find some data visualisation tools below:
Maxious 142
143 [Essential Colletion](http://www.visualisingdata.com/index.php/2011/07/part-6-the-essential-collection-of-visualisation-resources/)
144 [Drawing By Numbers Tools and Resources](http://drawingbynumbers.org/toolsandresources)
145 - http://selection.datavisualization.ch/ data viz tools catalog
146 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)
147
148 A good infographic should use visual art concepts and [good color schemes](http://www.r-bloggers.com/the-paul-tol-21-color-salute/). See the [data visualisation guidelines from the international journalism festival](http://schoolofdata.org/2013/04/26/data-visualization-guidelines-by-gregor-aisch-international-journalism-festival/)
149 For more information on the theory of data visualisation check out the [Stanford CS448B notes](https://graphics.stanford.edu/wikis/cs448b-12-fall/) or [The Ultimate Collection of Data Storytelling Resources](http://www.juiceanalytics.com/writing/the-ultimate-collection-of-data-storytelling-resources/)
150
151 Some examples of data visualisation can be seen on [the Sunlight Foundation tumblr](http://sunfoundation.tumblr.com/) or at the GovHack alumn [The Open Budget](http://www/.theopenbudget.org)
152
153
154 ## Web Applications
155
156 With the rise of HTML5 technologies it is easier than ever to make a web application for engaging use of data.
157 It's easy to quickly make a good looking and accessible webpage if you use a CSS framework like Bootstrap or Zurb Foundation.
158 There are a variety of bootstrap themes like [Flat-UI](http://designmodo.com/flat-free/)
159
160 Check out the visualisation tools listed in the data sections for web application tools like these [CSS Dashboard gauges](http://www.larentis.eu/donuts/)
161
162 ### Examples
Alex Sadleir 163
Maxious 164
165 #### PlanningAlerts
maxious 166
167 [![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.
168
169 Programming Language: Ruby
170
171 Source Control: [Git](https://github.com/openaustralia/planningalerts-app)
172
173 Issue Tracking: [Atlassian JIRA](http://tickets.openaustraliafoundation.org.au/browse/PA/)
174
175 #### LobbyLens
176
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