Community Data Science Workshops (Spring 2015)/Day 3 Projects/Civic data

Building and visualizing datasets using data.seattle.gov and Google apps

In this project, we will explore a few ways to gather data from data.seattle.gov using the Socrata API, the Google Maps API, and Google Fusion tables.

Goals

Collect data on building permits in Seattle, by neighborhood and by year awarded.
Combine those data with neighborhood data from the Google Maps API
Download the results in a CSV file
Upload results to Google's Fusion Table visualization engine

Download the Day 3 Socrata project

If you are confused by these steps, go back and refresh your memory with the Day 0 setup and tutorial and Day 0 tutorial

Today's dataset: Seattle Building Permits database

Topics to cover

creating API queries and filtering and grouping the results
combining results from multiple APIs
downloading API results as CSV files
building visualizations of timeseries and geolocated data

Questions we will try to answer with our data

which Seattle neighborhoods have had the most multifamily residential construction (apartments and townhomes) since 2010?
how much has the rate of apartment construction increased since 2010?
where are the most expensive construction projects currently being built?

Resources

About Google Fusion tables: https://support.google.com/fusiontables/answer/2571232
Google Fusion Tables mapmaking tutorial: https://support.google.com/fusiontables/answer/2527132?hl=en&topic=2573107&ctx=topic
API sandbox tool: https://www.hurl.it
API-powered app: http://web6.seattle.gov/mnm/
Socrata API help resources: http://dev.socrata.com/consumers/getting-started.html

filtering results: http://dev.socrata.com/docs/filtering.html
dealing with timestamps: http://dev.socrata.com/docs/datatypes/timestamp.html
writing API queries: http://dev.socrata.com/docs/queries.html

Data.seattle.gov datasets with lat/long or street addresses

Instructional videos

Other Socrata sites that use this API