September 2019 Data Snapshot

Date:

Tuesday, October 1, 2019

In the September 2019 data snapshot, you will find news, updates, tips and other relevant information to Iowa's data program including:

Data Stories in Action
September 2019 Performance Community of Practice
Drill Downs
Better Labels on Charts
The Causes, Costs and Consequences of Bad Government Data
Data Resources Available
State Data Plan

News, Updates & Tips

Data Stories in Action

The Department of Corrections has begun to create stories within the data portal to replace static reports currently available on their website. Utilizing stories in the data portal will allow them to not only present more information, but also provide it more often.

View Iowa Prison Statistics (data.iowa.gov)

September 2019 Performance Community of Practice

I was the featured presenter in this month's Socrata Performance Community of Practice. I covered what Iowa is doing to get more from our data program. Big thanks to all state employees and agencies who have contributed data so far.

View Webinar Recording (tylertech.com)

Drill Downs

Visualization drill downs have been available in the data portal for a little over a month. Using this functionality gives viewers the ability to drill into and explore your data in a meaningful way. The functionality is currently available for bar charts, column charts and pie charts. I highly encourage you to look over this support article to learn how to configure a drill down in a visualization.

Read Visualization Drill Downs (support.socrata.com)

Better Labels on Charts

Users can now show data labels on both stacked and 100% stacked bar and column charts. Additionally, stacked bar and column charts now display the percentages of each section of the stack.

The Causes, Costs and Consequences of Bad Government Data

This article is a little dated, but with the increasing reliance on data to manage projects, avoid fraud, and assess program performance - it is still very much relevent today. In this Governing article, Katherine Barrett and Richard Green answer the question "How good is the information state and local governments collecting in the first place?" They outline the causes, costs and consequences of bad government data.

Read the Article (governing.com)