Parliamentary statistical information in a new manner

Anita Blombergabl@stortinget.no

Three main features

www.stortinget.no www.data.stortinget.no

– Internal DB about matters, meetings (1986) and MPs (1945)

– New votingsystem (2010)

Statistics Votings

Databuilers Open data (xml)

Votingresults

Link to the databuilder

Matter: Constitutional amendment about the relationship between the state and the church.

Political party

County

MP

Databuilders

Includes data about• Matters and documents• MPs• Votes

Possible new features• more databuilders (questions)• multiple choice• two dimentional graphs

Selection of parameters

a

Graph or table

ShareList

PictureEmbed

Open data in xml Types of data:• Sessions• Topics• Election counties• Political parties• Committees• MP • Questions (oral, written)• Interpellations • Matters• Votingresults

In the future:All the fulltext documents in xml based on semantic in the text. 

Internal resistance

• Fear of losing control of the combination of data and how they are presented

• Fear of criticism for low participation in the meeting and votings in the session hall

• Fear of more emphasis on each MPs votes than the parties total vote

• Fear of pressure for change of the work schedule

Who talks most?Who talks less?

talkative

Tight-lipped

The Labour-party has a tradition

where women are first and foremost

decorative.

Who talks most?Who talks less?

talkative

Tight-lipped

How we overcame the fear

• Information and demos for the presidium and the partygroups

• License for open data– Stortinget are not responsible for any mistakes in the

data– Stortinget - a source of reference– The users can not present the data misleading

• Explanations on the site and in the data files• Examples of how to use the data (in code and

presentations)

Is it in use?

• Hackathon i december 2011 (votes)• Beta of data.stortinget.no lanched in january

2012• Devolped further on the basis of feedback from

beta-users• Launched in the end of april 2012• Site based on our data in beta now (do the keep

their promises?) • Further development will be based on user

feedback• voxpublica.no

Thank you for your attention!