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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.
4
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
Maxious 23
24 ## The basics of being a data scientist
maxious 25
Maxious 26 * 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 27 * Find the people and tools you need to prove/show/find. This rest of this page will help with the latter.
28 * Analyse and present results - were they what you expected? Do they help explain to others what you have found out?
Maxious 29 Can present as a interactive data visualisation or a web/mobile application or just a infographic/motion graphics video that tells a story.
Alex Sadleir 30
Maxious 31 [![](img/How-to-participate-in-GovHack_html_m6a65720f-300x199.gif "Data Journalism Diagram")](img/How-to-participate-in-GovHack_html_m6a65720f.gif)</dt>
32 Illustration from Data Journalism Handbook, CC BY-SA 3.0</dd>
maxious 33
Maxious 34 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
35 [datajournalismhandbook.org](http://datajournalismhandbook.org/)
36
37 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
38 practical advice check out Data Analysis with Open Source Tools by Philipp K. Janert
39 For further reading in this space
40 [http://flowingdata.com/2012/04/27/data-and-visualization-blogs-worth-following/](http://flowingdata.com/2012/04/27/data-and-visualization-blogs-worth-following/)
41
42
Alex Sadleir 43 **Statistics**
44
45 A great guide to statistics is
Maxious 46 [Think Stats](http://greenteapress.com/thinkstats/html/index.html)
47
48 **Programming**
49
Alex Sadleir 50 Programming is valuable skill for manipulating and displaying data.
Maxious 51 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/)
Alex Sadleir 52
Maxious 53 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)
54
55 **Accessibility/User Experience**
Alex Sadleir 56
Maxious 57 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/)
58
59
Alex Sadleir 60
61 # Developer Tools For Your Computer {#developer-tools-for-your-computer}
Maxious 62 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.
maxious 63
Alex Sadleir 64 ### Source Control
Maxious 65 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!
Alex Sadleir 66
Maxious 67 [![](img/Screenshot-at-2012-04-29-172132-300x235.png "Git Screenshot")](http://progit.org/book/)
Maxious 68
69 There are [tutorials on git](http://progit.org/book/) and [GUIs to help you](http://code.google.com/p/tortoisegit/)
Maxious 70 There is also a [manual for Subversion](http://svnbook.red-bean.com/) and a [similar GUI for Subversion](http://tortoisesvn.net/)
Maxious 71
72
Maxious 73 ### Task Tracking
74
Alex Sadleir 75 Issue/task trackers allow you to outline the tasks required for your project and assign them to people to do.
Maxious 76
77 [Trello](https://trello.com/) and [Workflowy](https://workflowy.com/) are free, lightweight project management tools suitable for a rapid project!
78
79 ## Hosted Developer Tools {#hosted-developer-tools}
80
Maxious 81 Can get many tools (source control, issue tracking) combined into one service cloud hosted so there's no setup required.
82
Alex Sadleir 83 ### Github
Maxious 84 Git obviously but svn/hg interfaces are also available. Provide their own GUI for Windows/OSX or use a variety of Git capable tools
85
Alex Sadleir 86 ### Sourceforge
87
88 Subversion, Git, Mercurial, Bazaar, CVS, issue tracker, wiki, release file downloads. Unlimited free use for open source projects.
89
90 You can create your own Sourceforge project at [http://sourceforge.net/](http://sourceforge.net/)
91
92 ### Google Code Project Hosting
93
94 Git, Mercurial, and Subversion code. Issue tracker, wiki, release file downloads. Unlimited free use for open source projects.
95
96 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/)
97
98
99 # Applications of data hacking
100
Alex Sadleir 101 ## API Development {#api-development}
102
103
Maxious 104 So an API isn't just an XML file ![;)](http://www.govhack.org/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
105
maxious 106 A good web based data API:
107
108 * Is logically organised
109 * Can filter returned data
110 * Can return results in different open formats (CSV/JSON etc.)
111 * Is efficient and responsive by using caching and databases appropriately
112 * Handles errors gracefully
113 * Monitors and controls access (to show benefit realised of API and prevent abuse)
114 * Provides appropriate documentation with examples
115
116 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.
117
118 Atlassian have a great page on what makes a good API https://developer.atlassian.com/display/REST/Atlassian+REST+API+Design+Guidelines+version+1)
119
Maxious 120 HowTo.gov has a bunch of api resources about choosing SOAP vs. REST etc. http://www.howto.gov/mobile/apis-in-government
121
Maxious 122 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)
Alex Sadleir 123 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 124 Or for Ruby on Rails there is is https://github.com/elc/rapi_doc https://github.com/Pajk/apipie-rails
125
126 better apis https://github.com/liip/LiipHelloBundle
127
maxious 128 http://amberonrails.com/building-stripes-api/
Alex Sadleir 129
Maxious 130 example WeatherTree weather API
Alex Sadleir 131
Alex Sadleir 132
Maxious 133 ## Infographics and Data Visualisation {#data-visualisation}
134
Alex Sadleir 135 Infographics try to contextualise charts and graphs to tell a story. Data vis builds on this to find new ways to design insight.
Alex Sadleir 136
137 Most of the categories to follow have visualisation tools specific to their purpose.
138
139 You can find some data visualisation tools below:
140
maxious 141 [Essential Colletion](http://www.visualisingdata.com/index.php/2011/07/part-6-the-essential-collection-of-visualisation-resources/)
142 [Drawing By Numbers Tools and Resources](http://drawingbynumbers.org/toolsandresources)
143 - http://selection.datavisualization.ch/ data viz tools catalog
144 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)
145
146 A good infographic should use visual art concepts and [good color schemes](http://www.r-bloggers.com/the-paul-tol-21-color-salute/)
Maxious 147 For more information on the theory of data visualisation check out the (Stanford CS448B notes)[https://graphics.stanford.edu/wikis/cs448b-12-fall/]
148
Maxious 149 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)
150