Allan Barger | 02 Dec 2015
Hi Folks,
Welcome to our new regular report which will capture a broader work program including: data.gov.au; the NationalMap; the work we are doing on the Open Data Network; data skills and capability development across the APS; and any other news from the rest of the Public Data Branch.
Our team has a new name (Data Infrastructure and Government Engagement) within the Public Data Branch at PM&C. We also have several new members and some new responsibilities (like the NationalMap). You’ll be seeing more about the NationalMap in the future as we integrate it into our regular reporting. We’ve already enabled it as the primary visualisation tool for spatial data on data.gov.au. Below you’ll find an example of the Native Title Determinations Outcomes dataset.
The data publishers amongst our readers will be keen to read up on csv-geo-au. A specification for displaying Australian spatial data captured in tabular datasets.
Speaking of previews, we’ve just introduced a new plugin for data.gov.au that lets you peek at the content of uploaded zip files. This includes those not physically hosted on data.gov.au. We think you’ll find this a helpful way to quickly identify interesting and useful data within zip files.
The view will be automatically added to any new zip file uploaded to data.gov.au. The data custodian can add the view to existing resources by:
We are also developing a plugin for data.gov.au that automatically extracts and hosts machine readable data from zip files making them API enabled.
Unpublished Datasets
You may have noticed unpublished datasets being added to data.gov.au in the last few weeks. These records are pointers to Australian Government data holdings that may have not been released yet or have additional usage caveats. The listing of this data on data.gov.au makes it easier to discover this data and improves user’s knowledge about data holdings. Like, for example, did you know that the Attorney General’s Department has a register of marriage celebrants? To access these datasets users should get in touch directly with the data custodian in the first instance. The contact point for each dataset is listed as part of its metadata (located under the Additional Info heading).
You may have noticed a drop in the dataset count in the last few weeks. This is down to a number of datasets being duplicated because of a harvesting issue. We’re exploring ways of mitigating this duplication going forward.
Skills Calendar and Data Roles
We are also pulling together a list of data related courses (e.g. data analysis, statistics, R, python) and putting them into a training calendar for 2016. Send us an email if you have or know of any short courses that you think the wider APS should know about.
We are also working to define some agreed data roles and competencies. What we have found is that a good data analyst is someone with a composite of many skill sets. Working closely with a number of agencies we are hoping to provide clarity around the data roles required to support the functions of government.
NationalMap Forum
We held a NationalMap Forum on 24 November to facilitate an understanding of the NationalMap as a tool to visualise and embed geospatial data and for users to exchange information and experiences. Presentations covered the current version of the NationalMap, upcoming modifications, data related matters and other maps built on the NationalMap software. The forum also provided an opportunity for attendees to voice their current imperatives and future needs.
We will be holding a similar workshop for the data.gov.au platform on Wednesday, 16 December. There will be two sessions, both intended to set an environment for informal dialogue.
Data.gov.au Forum
Session 1 – Presentations: 9.00am – 11.00am
Session 2 – Workshop: 11.00am – 1.30pm
If you’d like to come along please send us an email to data@pmc.gov.au.
Cheers,
Allan
Data Infrastructure and Government Engagement team, Public Data Branch
| October | November | |
|---|---|---|
| Total Webpage Visits | 33,447 | 33,915 |
| Total Pageviews | 136,963 | 141,936 |
| Total Discoverable Datasets | 7,163 | 7,209 |
| Total Organisations | 169 | 170 |
| Total Data Resources / Files | 34,525 | 34,744 |
| Total Machine Readable / Data API Resources | 3,777 | 3,793 |
5 Most Active Organisations
Top 5 Organisations by Total Datasets
5 Most Recent Published Datasets
5 Most Recently Updated Datasets
| Most Highly Requested Data Sets | Votes | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Free the G-NAF Address Dataset | 156 | In Review |
| Free Postcode and Postal Address Data | 101 | In Review |
| NBN Datasets | 53 | In Review |
| DCDB Cadastre | 45 | In Review |
| Australians Schools | 43 | In Review |