Data-driven enterprise off your beatMatt Wynn | @mattwynn

Why data?Because

agencies track

more than they

know what to do

with, and all of it

tells a story.

Why data?Because it lets

us hold agencies

accountable.

Why data?Because it gives

us the big

picture and

anecdotal

examples.

Why data?Because it lets

us prove things

agencies would

never admit.

Why data?Because

sometimes, the

story is the

volume, and

there’s no other

way to know.

Why data?Because officials

occasionally do

some weird

stuff.

Why data?Because it

differentiates

your stories from

the rest of the

pack and

provides insights.

Why data?Because if we’re

going to do page

views, let’s do

some page

views.

omahacrimereport.com350,000 page views

dataomaha.com/salaries1.3 million page views

What’s on the docket?

- Ways to find data on

any beat

- An overview of a

few “classic CAR”

stories

- Some hands-on

exercises to give

you skills to take

home

Finding data

Finding data: Smart searching

Finding data: Smart searching, part twohttps://dc2.education.ne.gov/tc_lookup/

Finding data: Let the sun shineMake official requests standard operating procedure.

Don’t know how? Use our handy-dandy generator:

http://dataomaha.com/media/news/records/

Finding data: Annual and board reports

Finding data:Roll your ownSometimes you have to make your own data.

Be smart about it from the outset.

Styling doesn’t help! Every fact, a field.

Ideas for any newsroom

General government● Tax assessments - Who’s highest?

Who’s gone up the most/least?● Salaries - What departments are

growing or shrinking? Do salaries generally make sense?

● Overtime - Who’s getting how much, and how’s that compare to base pay?

● Inspections - Weights and measures, safety. Government keeps us safe and businesses honest, and what they find can be fascinating.

● Purchase cards - What’s going on government-issued credit cards?

Cops and courts● Court records - What judge is harshest?

What charge shows up most in your area? Do punishments compare?

● Crime logs - Where do burglaries happen? When? Do reports compare to UCR?

● Jail/prison logs - Who’s been in longest? Most often? How has population risen over time and why?

● Sex offenders - Where are they, and are they actually where they say they’ll be? Are they near schools or bus stops or parks or day cares?

● Police discipline - Does it happen, is it public, and does it go far enough or too far?

Education● Test scores - Where are they highest?

Among which students? Who has grown the most? Who is most over- (or under-!) performing their demographics?

● Enrollment - What schools are up or down? Where are certain populations rising or falling?

● Campus crime - First, is it accurate? Then, what’s it say? How do you compare to similar institutions?

● Teacher rosters - Where do the newbies go? What about the experienced? Are they moved around?

● Repair requests - What’s going wrong, and how long does it take to fix it? Are some schools getting treated better?

Grab bag - Midwest edition● Tornado sirens - Do they cover

everywhere they should? ● Pet names - Most popular by

ZIP code? Rarest? Most common? Type or breed?

● Potholes - Where are they --and how quickly are they filled when there are complaints?

● Potholes, part 2 - Lawsuits and claims against your city.

● Gas-pump inspections - How accurate are the pumps in your area?

Let’s get our hands dirty

10 minuteswith Excel

● Sorting● Filtering● A brief discussion

of functions● A far-too-brief

introduction to pivot tables

Excel 101: Filtering

Excel 101: Sorting

Excel 101: Functions

● There are *tons* of functions to manipulate data.

● Statistical methods, basic calculations, styling, “concatenation,” etc., etc., etc.

● Can be useful for cleaning data

● Also good for teasing out the real story. For example, how things have changed over time

Excel 101: Functions

Excel 101: Let’s do it live- Crack open nadc_donation.csv- Who gave the biggest donation from your town?- What is the biggest donation to a

politician/cause in your town?- Does it change if you add together in-kind and

cash donations?- What questions do we still want to answer?

Excel 101: Pivot tables

To recap

- Data are increasingly

required to do our jobs

well.

- There are many good

stories you can do easily.

- Filtering, sorting,

functions and pivot

tables are enough to

cause a lot of trouble.

Questions?How can I help you with your next data story?

Matt Wynn@mattwynnmatt.wynn@owh.com