Getting Hands On with Open Data


Practical Exercise

Stephen Gray | Bob Harper ยท @StephenGray | @bobdata

Exercise

Find, download and assess an open dataset

Visit data.nicva.org and find the dataset about agricultural land grabbing

Find the dataset

  • Is it easy to find?
  • Are you able to understand the dataset?
  • Does it meet the definition of open?
  • How many open data stars would you give it? (1 to 5)

Download and open the dataset

Open in Excel or use OpenRefine (advanced)
  • Does the data look complete and as described?
  • Are there any apparent errors in the data?
  • What questions could we answer with this data?

Cleaning the data

  • Remove formatting
  • Standardise variables
  • Save it in a non-proprietary format
  • Summarise hectares "grabbed" by country
  • Create a chart. Who had the most land grabbed?
ODI Creative Commons