If you’ve made it here, I don’t have to tell you about the great resources Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center (WPRDC) has made available (with excellent documentation and tutorials to boot!). I was charged with using the Market Value Analysis (MVA) data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) to analyze at sale structures and market […]
News
A Summer of Num(b)ers
Coming from a decidedly non-quant, non-technical background, choosing a masters program that emphasizes its data-heavy curriculum was my way of learning to swim by getting thrown in the deep-end. I’m a student at University of Pennsylvania, pursuing a masters degree in public administration with an eye towards technology policy. I’m in Pittsburgh this summer to […]
Carnegie Library Wi-Fi Usage Data Analysis
When your boss gives you a project and says to do whatever you want with it, that can give you the impression to set the bar really high. I did just that for trying to analyze the Carnegie Library Wi-Fi data. I wanted to do a super cool year-by-year visualization or a stacked bar graph that […]
Crash Course in APIs Workshop Reflection
I like using acronyms because it reminds me of texting (tbh). More than once, I’ve told professors that my essays would be more entertaining and persuasive if I was able to use emojis and the occasional “lol” in my academic writing. So when I was told we were hosting an API workshop, of course I […]
Data 101: Mapping and Internship 101: Following Directions
Starting a new job is always scary, especially when you’re thrown into helping with a data mapping class first thing in the morning and set off the emergency exit alarm in the building not once, but twice. The goal: Take the class and write about my personal experience. While I had plenty of anxiety about […]
NNIP Recap and Census 2020 Thoughts
Last month, I attended the Spring, 2018 partner meeting of the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP) in Atlanta, Georgia. NNIP is a network of practice for community data intermediaries managed by the Urban Institute. NNIP partners in over 30 cities collect and transform neighborhood data, promote the use of data, and use information to improve […]
How to Recruit Leaders to Tackle Urban Civic Hacking
Guest blog by Justin Cole, Founder of Carnegie Mellon University’s Students for Urban Data Systems Back in August 2015, a group of Carnegie Mellon students came together in Pittsburgh to create Students for Urban Data Systems (SUDS). SUDS provided a space for students and community members to come together and work on data projects with […]
Property Data User Meeting Recap, January 2018
We were joined by over 35 people for our third property data user group meeting on the morning of January 25th at the East Liberty Carnegie Library. These meetings provide us both with an opportunity to share our progress, but they also enable us to hear what our users are looking for when it comes […]
2017 Year in Review
Here’s a look back at 2017. It has been great to work with so many great partners, and look forward to helping you find and use data in 2018. New Website Experience Goes Live In 2017, the Regional Data Center expanded our products and services to include data guides, tools, events, and our bi-weekly newsletter. […]
Tactical Data Engagement Playbook on our Data User Groups was published by the Sunlight Foundation
The Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center has been hosting data user group meetings since 2015, when we first brought together data users around environmental justice. Since then, we’ve learned a lot about how to make these meetings and followup activities effective, efficient, and fun. We’re excited to share many of those lessons in a new guide […]