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UN Makes Its Statistical Data Free and Searchable

Posted by Zonk on from the can't-argue-with-free dept.

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."

22 of 79 comments (clear)

  1. YERRSS!!! by AndGodSed · · Score: 4, Funny

    *does victory dance*

    I love that things like this happen. Free, open and searchable - Bill Gates must be turning in his... Oh, wait...

    --

    Seven Days with Ubuntu Unity

    1. Re:YERRSS!!! by neonmonk · · Score: 5, Funny

      Turning in his deckchair on his billion dollar yaught?
      Turning in his feather soft mattress on his million dollar gold plated four poster bed?
      Turning in his 1988 Porsche 959 Coupe?
      Turning in his 1999 Porsche 911 Convertible??
      Turning in his wife to the authorities???

      The suspense is killing me!!

    2. Re:YERRSS!!! by AndGodSed · · Score: 4, Funny

      ...turning in his Vista laptop for a Dell/Ubuntu offering.

      TADAAAAAAHHH! *drrrrummmrrroolllll*

      --

      Seven Days with Ubuntu Unity

    3. Re:YERRSS!!! by rabbit994 · · Score: 2, Informative

      I'm not really sure how he's turning in his whatever since UNData is written in ASP.Net 2 powered by Windows 2003. He's probably laughing all the way to bank though.

  2. Innovation? by pembo13 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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

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    1. Re:Innovation? by zappepcs · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Innovative? Well, to get multiple departments, countries, people to agree on a single thing is amazing if not innovative. To get them to agree on a database, and data formats as well? I've not seen to much of that in the world of governments or big business. Perhaps there was some innovation going on there? It may well have been just innovation in how to politically leverage a size 10 shoe into a size 2 ass, but it does sound like they have done something different. :)

      --
      Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
    2. Re:Innovation? by baboonlogic · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This kind of statistics that I can actually link to while making a point... That's about as innovative in my book as wikipedia was. This will forever change how geeks discuss things.

    3. Re:Innovation? by baboonlogic · · Score: 4, Informative

      Like this?

      Gapminder is the tool. I hope they incorporate these fresh stats soon!

    4. Re:Innovation? by sumdumass · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I don't think they are in as much agreement as you might think. The UN requires individual countries to record their own data and sets guidelines but doesn't expect a country to duplicate efforts if they are already collecting similar data.

      What this will lead to is information that is useful withing a well defined set of parameters but on the whole can't be directly compared between countries. Crime rates and infant mortality are a couple of prime examples on how reporting differences can change the entire outlook on things. So at least keep that in mind when looking at it.

    5. Re:Innovation? by sumdumass · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That's because China has 5 times the population as we do or more. Here is one on usage without the per capita BS. Something else to remember, the data stops at 2004 for some reason. A lot has been going on in 4 years. I doubt any of those numbers are close to accurate today.

      Personally, I'm not sure why the per capita really comes into play without population density.But either way, the problem is supposedly Co2 not Co2 per person. Take a look at Australia when I add it to the ops chart. Notice how AU is listed at 15 or so and produces less Co2 then the UK as to the previous chart. Well hell, even India is misleading. It is the lowest with 1 on the per capita chart and they produce more Co2 then the UK and AU put together.

      Now I am going to suggest something that most people want to ignore, look at the countries on the lists with a low per capita rating and think about the standard of living compared to the higher ones. And I don't mean how rich people charter choppers to goto their kids little league softball game. I mean the person at the poverty line who has a car, TV, cell phone, Air conditioning, Cable TV in some cases, compared to people living in those low emission per capita countries.

    6. Re:Innovation? by OptimusPaul · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I have to agree, there in nothing innovative about that database. Perhaps if they had described the techniques used to "convince" the maintainers of the various databases to combine the data then maybe we'd see some innovation. But even then I'm suspecting it's nothing that many IT departments of merging companies have not already thought of, or nothing that the CIA hasn't already dreamed up. I think the right word here is incredible or perhaps unbelievable.

    7. Re:Innovation? by bangthegong · · Score: 2, Informative

      Love the gapminder, figured someone would post that. If anyone is not familiar, this presentation from TED should shed some light on why this UN development is important.
      http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/92
      I also encourage you to check out their podcast, just search "gapminder" on iTunes.

  3. Libaration by spatialguy · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.

    1. Re:Libaration by Rashdot · · Score: 3, Informative

      Translated from cbs.nl:

      http://www.cbs.nl/nl-NL/menu/cijfers/statline/default.htm

      "StatLine is the free electronic database of the CBS (Central Bureau of Statistics). You can create your own tabels and graphs. The information is free and easy to print and download."

      "StatLine is de elektronische databank van het CBS. U kunt in StatLine zelf tabellen en grafieken samenstellen.
      De informatie is gratis en gemakkelijk te printen en te downloaden."

      --
      This is not the sig you're looking for.
  4. Maybe by TubeSteak · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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?

    --
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    1. Re:Maybe by kmarshallbanana · · Score: 4, Informative

      Its there for anyone who cares to look, eg. http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods.htm

    2. Re:Maybe by 216pi · · Score: 5, Informative

      If you really would have been interested in the source, you would have seen the BIG BOX below the data that says 'SOURCE' with a short description and a link ORIGINAL DATA that links to the organisation that provided the data. and after 2 minutes of browsing, I found this: http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/SeriesDetail.aspx?srid=749 where you can find information how the data was collected.

      stop whining, start looking. thanks.

  5. Drugs by Threni · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So now we can see how much money it spends trying to force its futile prohibitionist American-style anti-drugs policy on the world?

  6. Funny you should say that by mveloso · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Funny you should say that by penix1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      However, as people like to say, even bad data is better than no data.


      Whoever says that deserves the bad policy they get that was based on that bad data. You can never achieve 100% accuracy but it is a goal that still should be attempted. To accept otherwise is not only foolish but also dangerous. It leads to such stupidity as the US is currently experiencing with global warming and evolution. Screwing up the data bad enough gives the opposition to proper policy the ammunition to call "junk science" on that policy. So no, it isn't better to have bad data over no data.
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    2. Re:Funny you should say that by fondacio · · Score: 2, Insightful

      large, unnamed NGOs like the UN Sorry to nitpick, but the UN is not an NGO. "NGO" stands for non-governmental organizations and examples of NGOs are Greenpeace, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Oxfam, Cordaid, the International Red Cross etc., which operate independently from governments. The UN is very much a governmental organization, since it is composed of member states represented by their governments - in some circles they refer to these kinds of organizations (UN, NATO, EU, OSCE, OAS, ASEAN) as IGOs or international governmental organizations.

      However, as people like to say, even bad data is better than no data. As some of the previous posters have said, no data may be preferable to bad data in many cases as well. However, in the cases that you mentioned I think the bad data may also be interesting for a completely different analysis: to see how governments believe they have to manipulate their data to look as good as possible to IGOs and NGOs. When you study this, you can adjust practices, standards and supervisory mechanisms in those organisations to make it more difficult for unreliable governments to rig the system.
  7. What about all the others? by kmarshallbanana · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Now if only they will be followed in this by the World Bank, IMF, OECD... Not to mention all those national level organisations.