About Data Alchemist
This is Jacob Houtman's site to stimulate the use of open data to create and share insights. Here I blog about appealing examples I discover, the results of my own projects and information on how to become a data alchemist yourself. Enjoy!
Category Archives: Data Use in the News
Apps for Amsterdam: open data virus spreads to Europe
Finally the open data virus spreads to the open minded city of Amsterdam. The city announced Apps for Amsterdam. This an application development contest based on Washington’s Apps for Democracy. The contest is a popular way to quickly involve many … Continue reading
Start of 2011: time to give presents is over
Looking back at the year 2010 in Google Trends shows the time to give each other presents is over. The chart shows the search volume for the word present over the year 2010. The volume starts to increase in September … Continue reading
Definition of “open data”: open doesn’t mean available!?
Melanie Chernoff posted a widely accepted definition of open data and why it is important to have a clear defintion. I do like her definition, but think it is too narrow for two important reasons which are essential to boost the use of open data. Continue reading
Posted in Data Use in the News, Great Data Visualizations
Tagged business data, Data Retrieval, Government, Open Data
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Interactive data journalism by newspapers
British newspaper the Guardian is very active in data journalism. Last month they published this “Comprehensive spending review: you make the cuts”. The coalition says it must slash billions from public spending to tackle the UK’s growing budget deficit. George … Continue reading
Big Brother is watching your telecom use.
Found this press report showing the results of research on how often “Big Brother” asks telecom providers for the details on phone calls made by individual subscribers. The graph shows the differences between European countries. This is a so called … Continue reading
Which jobs are paid by your tax?
Update: click here for complete project release. Interested in where your tax money goes? Just finished the first preview of an upcoming collection of visualizations on public paid slaries in Holland. This picture shows the public paid salaries, in case … Continue reading
Posted in Data Alchemist Projects, Data Use in the News, Government
Tagged Data Visualization, Government, Graph, Open Data, Salary
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