ArcGIS is a geospatial tool that helps you create maps to visualize spatial data. Typically, subscriptions to the desktop version of ArcGIS are very expensive, and the software requires a significant amount of training to gain competency. However, by leveraging the power of preformatted open data sets and Esri’s streamlined and free edition of ArcGIS […]
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Using Tableau Public to Analyze Open Data
Tableau is a powerful and easy to use data visualization tool that allows you to link properly formatted tabular data, such as data in .csv and .xls formats. The software also allows for the manipulation and aggregation across dimensions (e.g. record numbers, time and classification types) in order to analyze trends. Tableau can be a very effective […]
Property Data User Group Meeting Recap
The first User Group meeting for property data was held at the East Liberty Carnegie Library the afternoon of March 3, 2016. The Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center launched Data User Groups to help people to build relationships with other data users, learn from one another about data, contribute to efforts to improve data quality […]
Environmental Justice User Group Brainstorming Meeting Recap
Introduction The purpose of the meeting held on February 24th at the Oakland Forbes Avenue Panera was to brainstorm, discuss, and refine ideas for an event and other activities to allow the broader community to develop insights about environmental issues that impact community health. 12 people attended the meeting, and the conversation helped to frame […]
February 2016 Newsletter
In case you missed it, we’re writing a monthly newsletter. Here’s the February edition. We use our newsletters to share special subscriber-only content, and we encourage you to sign up to receive them in the future…
Behind the scenes on Allegheny County’s energy dataset
In January 2016, Allegheny County released five years of utility cost and usage data to the Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center’s open data portal. This dataset mirrors the format of the City of Pittsburgh’s previous released energy data, and also includes water and sewer information. For a large organization, compiling accurate and complete energy data […]
Environmental Justice Data User Group Meeting Recap (and Next Steps)
On December 4th, the Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center hosted the first in a series of data user group conversations on the topic of environmental justice in partnership with the Allegheny County Health Department. The meeting was held at the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health. Nearly thirty people joined us for the […]
December Newsletter
In case you missed it, we’re writing a monthly newsletter. Here’s the December edition. We use our newsletters to share special subscriber-only content, and we encourage you to sign up to receive them in the future…
Introducing Data User Group Meetings: A Framework for Shared Conversation About Data
One of the things we’ve noticed through our work as a data intermediary is that people usually don’t talk to each other about how they are using or want to use data. Data publishers don’t often have opportunities to listen to data users. Data publishers don’t have a way to talk to one another, especially across […]
Reflections on the October 2015 National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership Meeting
A few weeks ago, my UCSUR colleague Liz Monk and I attended the Fall, 2015 partner meeting of the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP) in Dallas, Texas. NNIP is a community of practice for data intermediaries organized by the Urban Institute. NNIP has participation from over 30 cities and a growing number of organizations with […]