IASSIST 2006: Data in a world of Networked Knowledge

May 23-26, 2006 - Ann Arbor, Michigan

Delivering Government Data to Lawyers and Journalists

Susan Long Linda Roberge

Syracuse UniversityTransactional Records Access Clearinghouse

http://trac.syr.edu

IASSIST 2006

Agenda

Our Center in Brief

Our Users and their

Needs

Problems and Solutions

IASSIST 2006

Our Center in Brief

Where does our data come from?

Use FOIA to obtain release of info from federal administrative databases tracking govt’s own activities

Create databases: document, validate and supplement, combine sources, build indices

IASSIST 2006

Our Center in Brief

How is data delivered to users?develop reports and deliver on webdata mining tools and data warehouse

for users to access our data

Center is self-supportingfree public web sitesubscription service: data mining

IASSIST 2006

TRACFEDCriminal

CivilAdministrative

PeopleMoneyContext

RAW

DATA

Find

Get

Clean

Validate

Enhance

Organize

Load

OUTPUT

STORED

DYNAMIC

Reports

Tables

Graphs

Maps

Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse

IASSIST 2006

Evolution in TRAC’s Delivery

Pre-web (18 years ago)Web – stored pages (12 years

ago)Web – dynamic, database driven

content delivery (past 10 years)

IASSIST 2006

TRAC’s Users

MediaLawyersLibrariesAcademicGovernmentPublic Interest

GroupsPublic at large

IASSIST 2006

Challenge: Diverse User Needs

Wide variety in data sophisticationVarying knowledge about governmentBreadth vs. Depth

Specificity of information requiredUnstructured vs. structured questions

Data mining for non-statisticians

IASSIST 2006

Aides to Understanding: The Basics

Carefully designed tables

Strategic use of graphics

Access to underlying data

IASSIST 2006

TablesDynamic

Stored

IASSIST 2006

Graphs

Dynamic

Stored

IASSIST 2006

Listings: The underlying data

IASSIST 2006

Maps

Dynamic

Stored

IASSIST 2006

Problems and Solutions

Online help

Data Search

Report Generation

IASSIST 2006

Online Help: Need for movement

animated gifs

IASSIST 2006

Online Help: Need for movement

express_allrank.html

tutorial movies(express)

http://trac.syr.edu/suelong/iassist/

IASSIST 2006

Online Help: Need for movement

stf_godeep_current.html

tutorial movies(drill down)

http://trac.syr.edu/suelong/iassist/

IASSIST 2006

Online Help: Experimenting with voice

houston_example.html

http://trac.syr.edu/suelong/iassist/

IASSIST 2006

Data Search

Can you search numbers the way you would text ala the “Google” model?

IASSIST 2006

Data Search

Do we have any data?

Where can you find it?

How can you get to it?

IASSIST 2006

IASSIST 2006

Report Generation

IASSIST 2006

Concluding Remarks

It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.

(Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1859 - 1930)

It is our job to make data usable by those who theorize, especially the journalists, lawyers, and policy makers.