DATA SCIENCE
MIS0855 | Spring 2016
Identifying Sources of Data
SungYong Um
sungyong.um@temple.edu
Data can come from anywhere
Where data comes from
Companies and other organizations
Services that compile data (i.e., Amazon, Yelp, KBB)
Government agencies
How it is accessed
Direct access to databases and
spreadsheets
Reporting tools and user interfaces
Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)
APIs – (More) securely sharing data
API
Database full
of data!
The API is software that exposes internal data to the outside world.
People write programs that “talk” to the API so it will fetch data for them.
Keeps people from accessing the data directly, keeping it safe.
Four Steps of Turning Data Into Information
Collection
Organization
Nate Silver
applies this to
journalism; what
are the wider
applications?
Explanation
Generalization
fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-the-fox-knows
Think back to our
discussion about
science…
The FiveThirtyEight.com
Burrito Bracket
Why was the Yelp data a good place to start?
What is the VORB (Value Over Replacement
Burrito) statistic?
Function of quality and quantity. Why is that important?
What adjustments had to be made to the data?
What lessons are there for using “public” data?
chipotle.com
Open Data
Uber trips from Uber data
Crime rates from SF Crimespotting
What is open data?
How can open data transform:
Science?
Government?
Journalism?
Business development?
What are the arguments for
and against open data?
http://blog.uber.com/2011/09/13/uberdata-how-prostitution-and-alcohol-make-uber-better/
From Data Dredger: http://www.internewskenya.org/dataportal/