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UN Makes Its Statistical Data Free and Searchable
NorseWolf writes "Since its foundation, the United Nations system has been collecting statistical information from member states on a variety of topics. The information thus collected constitutes a considerable information asset of the organization. However, these statistical data are often stored in proprietary databases, each with unique dissemination and access policies. As a result, users are often unaware of the full array of statistical information that the UN system has in its data libraries. The current arrangement also means that users are required to move from one database to another to access different types of information. UNdata addresses this problem by datapooling major UN databases and those of several other international organizations into one single Internet environment. The innovative design allows a user to access a large number of UN databases either by browsing the data series or through a keyword search."
*does victory dance*
I love that things like this happen. Free, open and searchable - Bill Gates must be turning in his... Oh, wait...
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I just ran a Query. As it turns out, people DO prefer food or death. Thanks UN! *high fives*
Not to knock this applaudable achievement, but what exactly makes this solution innovative? Or has the meaning of this word simply been diluted more than I thought.
That aside, interesting project
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
I wish that every organization and government would do this. It is a great tool for research. In the Netherlands "public" data is still regarded as property and our government charges us for this.
Data is worthless unless you know how it was collected.
Without such information, you cannot ascertain the accuracy of the data & you cannot compare it to any other data sets.
Where are the links to the source reports?
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
He asked for this and it's finally here!
In my case, while searching for greenhouse gasses in the world and sorting by -value-, i got this result: Fun!
:(){
So now we can see how much money it spends trying to force its futile prohibitionist American-style anti-drugs policy on the world?
select * from countries where cameras == 0 and wiretaps == 0 and privacy > 'NONEXISTING';
No records found.
Maybe, just maybe, in an alternate reality, this might have been useful.
You can't send a takedown notice to an already printed newspaper.
I remember one of my professors mentioning that he was in the office of the president of some African country assisting them with "determining" the value of various financial (and other) metrics for large, unnamed NGOs like the UN.
For most countries, statistical information is really wishful thinking. If you can't control your borders, tax your citizens effectively, or provide infrastructure, you can't collect accurate statistics. Indeed, even for developed countries statistics may be suspect, especially trade data.
However, as people like to say, even bad data is better than no data.
Now if only they will be followed in this by the World Bank, IMF, OECD... Not to mention all those national level organisations.
Touche!
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
A laudable project indeed. However everytime I look at that "UNdata" project name, I can't help but think of it as a data source for Uncyclopedia.
Comment
How much for Cowboy Neal with the irrational waist size and gravitational force?
All very good, but in the true spirit of the idea, anyone should be able to submit data. The site could rank data by 'authoritiveness', but in many cases it's better to have slightly questionable data than none at all (especially if it matches up with other questionable data).
For example, in the energy usage section I might want to create metadata to see which energy type has grown the quickest etc.
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Go to http://www.nationmaster.com/ . I use it often to convince people about the problems we have in the UK =p
Sourcing if of paramount importance. Some UN agencies, for example, spread pure BS
Yes!!!!!
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