Two month milestone

By on May 18, 2011 in Database, Musings, Programming

flowering tree in Childs Park

Monday marked two completed months with the National Priorities Project. Though these weeks haven’t produced much writing, they’ve been a whirlwind of learning:

  • Python
  • Django
  • MySQL
  • The joy of setting up a proper Windows dev environment using the above three items
  • Piston, a tool for powering APIs through Django
  • Linux
  • Git/Github
  • The Federal Budget process
  • The Consolidated Federal Funds Report , a huge annual file of government expenditures.
  • Various other indicators about the state of our union: gas emissions by state, average teacher salaries, people in poverty, insurance enrollments, etc.
  • Finally, I’m NPP’s interim Twitterer, a fascinating distraction.

One day soon I’ll write a Dummies Guide to Setting up Python/Django/MySQL on Windows post. In the meantime, it’s great to be back in the hands-on tech saddle.

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Save the data, save on FOIA?

By on April 3, 2011 in Data, Musings

Last week I wrote my first entries on the National Priorities Project’s (NPP) blog. Friday’s piece concerned the potential $32 million cuts to the Federal government’s open data initiatives.

Alexander Howard wrote a tremendous overview of the situation, from the recent history of open government platforms to the less-than-perfect implementation of those platforms to the implications of having their funding cut from $34 million to $2 million.

He quoted some of NPP’s numbers that try to put $32 million in context. In terms of the Federal budget, it’s a tiny sum of money–.0009% of the proposed FY11 spending.

That’s an interesting figure, but even if $32 million is just a drop in the bucket, that’s not to say we should spend it carelessly. I’m new to the open government scene, but you don’t have to dig too far into Data.gov to realize it’s far from perfect. Howard’s primer provides some insight into the perverse incentives behind quirks like datasets split up by geography and agencies that don’t publish their juicy stuff.

But consider another number we published: $32 million is 7.7% of the amount that the government spent processing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests in FY10.

A compelling story would be to find out what types of FOIA requests could be serviced via the Data.gov suite of sites. Even better, why not use these requests to prioritize the data that’s released online?

If we can use $32 million to take a bite out of that $416+ million FOIA bill*, why not pursue that investment?

Some of my colleagues would say because it’s not about the money—it’s about policy. As a developer, I have a hard time wrapping my brain around that. Policy? Why wouldn’t our elected officials just make decisions that are logical?

It seems I have much to learn.

*figure pulled from FOIA.gov/data.

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The new gig: return to data

By on March 27, 2011 in Data, Musings
Open Government Data Venn Diagram

diagram by Justin Grimes

I’m about two weeks into a new job with the National Priorities Project (NPP), a small, non-profit organization based in Northampton, MA.

NPP’s mission is to educate citizens about their federal budget: the budget process, the proposed numbers, and how our government ultimately spends money. All too often, it’s difficult for people to understand how the huge numbers bandied about in Washington, DC affect their states, schools, and communities.

The organization began in 1983, long before technology made it easier to analyze and share this information and long before the likes of sites like Data.gov.

NPP has formed some exciting partnerships in recent years, and I’m excited by our direction: combining the staff’s budget experts with an improved database search tool (launching soon) and an API developed in conjunction with the Sunlight Foundation. Finding additional indicators that, when combined with spending data, will tell a richer budget story. Telling those stories and giving our constituents the means to tell theirs too.

My role will be to look after and augment our database and help create visualizations and web tools for general use. Naturally, I took it upon myself to expand the job description to blogging, so look out budget analysts: I’m coming to gum up your blog with data stories.

It’s daunting, but I’m very excited to jump into the government data transparency community and learn the ropes. I’m also thrilled to return to a data-oriented job.

The ecosystem of government departments and agencies and their respective datasets is downright crazy, but I like crazy. It makes for good blog stories.

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New Opportunities

By on February 21, 2011 in Musings
City Hall and Masonic Temple

City Hall and Masonic Temple

In less than two weeks, after years of discussion, my husband and I are moving away from Philadelphia.

Yes, it’s a terrible time to leave good jobs and find new ones, and it’s not the best time to sell a house. We have no friends or family in our new town. But the time is now.

I truly and deeply love Philly. However, for many reasons—some related to the city, and some related to us—I know it’s not our forever home.

After spending the last month of my father’s life in Lititz with my family, I witnessed the importance of community and the forever home. I saw the same thing again in Galloway, NJ after Nana died. The forever home is more than an investment, more than a five year plan. And community is so much more than acquaintances, loose connections, and professional networks.

After a lot of research (and a spreadsheet, of course),we decided to relocate to Northampton, Massachusetts. The Pioneer Valley has everything we could want from nature (rivers, lakes, trees, and mountains), and Northampton has most things we could want from a town (thriving retail, restaurants, theaters, and music venues).  My new job is local and promises to be challenging and interesting.

Taking the leap without a bridge is hard, but the house, jobs, and other details fell into place after we committed to the change. Because why wait?

Thanks to Wharton Computing for 5 ½ years of opportunity. It’s a great place to work and a tough place to leave.

And goodbye to the Philadelphia characters and friends we’ve met over the years through blogs, neighborhood dramas, work, clubs, and just wandering around this great city of ours. Walking away from you after 15 years is downright heartbreaking.

(cross-posted with some favorite Philly pics over on my personal site)

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Kindle: a fling, or a long-term relationship?

By on January 10, 2011 in General Tech, Musings
Amazon's Kindle 3

Amazon's Kindle 3

For the last four months, I’ve been having a love affair with the Kindle 3.  It’s a sleek, sexy companion, and with the push of a button it can deliver a whole universe of books and magazines.

And it’s easy.  Easy to carry, easy on the eyes, and easy to use.

But the Kindle ecosystem reminds me of another product that makes it easy to access digital content—iTunes.  When iTunes came along those many years ago, it was so fun to download one-hit wonders from the 80s and to grab albums that the much-cooler-than-me girl across the hall listened to in college.

The geeks complaining about DRM were just chatter in the background of my new-found music.

But now I regret spending money on content that’s locked to a single family of devices and can’t be shared with the rest of the household.  I’ve long since migrated to Amazon and eMusic, but I still own a large set of captive songs from the iTunes days.

Which raises the question:  a few years from now, will I have the same regrets about Kindle purchases?

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Testing the PowerShot S90 in South Philly

By on December 13, 2010 in General Tech

My latest mantra for all things tech is easy. Which is why, although I covet the beautiful photos taken by friends with DSLRs (digital single-lens reflex), I refuse to use a complex, heavy camera.

It’s not that I’m too dumb to learn a DSLR (in fact, most have an auto mode for people like me). Rather, the disinterest is because a DSLR is not compatible with my lifestyle and goals, namely to take decent vacation pictures while not carrying something around my neck.

So I’m strictly point and shoot. The main limitation of that has always been low light. Luckily, my friend Scott owns many cameras and loaned me his Canon PowerShot S90, which he claims is the best option out there.

These are the results of my very unscientific “use the camera to shoot South Philly Christmas lights” test. The results are inconclusive.

Basically, this whole entry is just an excuse to post pictures of South Philly Christmas lights. Should you ever have a chance to visit Smedley Street during the holidays, don’t miss it!

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How eMusic changed my music shopping

By on November 28, 2010 in General Tech, Musings
music is in the air

Music is in the air by *MarS

Earlier this year I signed up for eMusic, a long-running service that operates on a “download to own” model; you pay a monthly subscription fee and redeem that money for DRM-free MP3s.

I joined eMusic only because I saw an offer for a bunch of bonus credits and also needed to get a copy of Leonard Bernstein’s MASS immediately (long story). I had every intention of joining, using the free credits, and quitting. Who needs another monthly bill?

But I forgot to quit, and now I look forward to the monthly charge. The subscription model has changed my music shopping process–it’s like giving yourself a monthly music allowance. Psychologically, it’s easier to allocate pre-paid money for something unknown than it is to buy it outright. So I finally have those songs I bookmarked on Pandora back in 2008 and the album that’s spent years on my Amazon wishlist.

And the subscription model leads to more music discovery. If you know you have money to spend on the site, you’re more likely to browse around and see what your neighbors are into, what’s newly-released, and what’s recommended for you.

So welcome, The Young Knives and Starlight Mints and Hellogoodbye. Serge Gainsbourg, you’re only here because I was on a lot of cold medicine that day, but welcome to you too. Viva la subscription.

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Choices, curation, and CSAs

By on November 10, 2010 in Musings
Greensgrow haul

CSA share from Greensgrow Farms

Back in 2005, I read Barry Schwartz’s Paradox of Choice, a life-changing book*.  I think of Schwartz’s maximizers and satisficers whenever I’m paralyzed by many choices in, say, the toothpaste aisle of Target.

But what if you’re not in the toothpaste aisle of Target?  What if you’re on Amazon.com and can choose from millions of book?  Or you’re facing a feed reader with thousands of unread items?  Assuming that funds and time are finite, how do you choose?

It’s no longer a matter of choosing the first option that meets your needs.  We need to pre-screen and remove the cognitive load of irrelevant options altogether, either through a human curator or an algorithm.

When I tell people about our community supported agriculture (CSA) membership, the first question is usually, “is pre-paying for a season of farm food cheaper than buying it at the store?”

Frankly, I have no idea.  This is the wrong question.  We’re paying first and foremost to support local farmers, but we’re also paying the good folks of Greensgrow (our local urban farm) to build relationships with growers and choose the week’s produce.  We pay them to make sure each delivery has leafy greens, veggies, fruit, and cheese.  In other words, we pay them to curate our food, and it’s a great investment.

*Barry Schwartz recently signed my copy of the book—so cool!

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Student Experience and EDUCAUSE 2010

By on October 23, 2010 in On the Job

Earlier this year, I took a new job within Wharton Computing: “IT Director of Student Experience,” a position that acknowledges the need for a dedicated liaison between students and the various contingents of our large IT organization.

Students are challenging constituents because they’re transient and incredibly busy—there’s little opportunity to develop long-term relationships.  Aside from that challenge, the whole not-coding-for-a-living thing has been an adjustment.  Now when I do something wrong, there’s no error message to explain the problem.

But so far it’s been a fun ride.  Last week I had the opportunity to attend EDUCAUSE 2010 and, along with a colleague, tell the story of why we created the Student Experience role and what we hope to accomplish.  I’m especially proud that Spock, The Dude, Harry Truman, and Wile E Coyote make appearances the presentation.

Getting Back to Business: A Strategic Plan for Supporting the Success of Your Students

View more presentations from Becky Sweger.
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Higher Ed Web Symposium: Don Norman and Cory Ondrejka

By on July 26, 2010 in Design, General Tech, On the Job

Cory Ondrejka's outstanding Angry Dinosaurs keynote

Last week, the third annual Higher Ed Web Symposium was held at Wharton.  Despite being a speaker at the inaugural symposium in 2008, this was the first year I’ve been able to enjoy the event as an attendee.

The keynote sessions were especially outstanding.

Don Norman, a user interface legend and personal hero of mine, spoke about Living With Complexity, also the title of his upcoming book.  Basically,  he argues that complexity is good for us as long as it’s accompanied by good design.  Mr. Norman is a personal hero because so many principles from1988′s The Design of Everyday Things still hold true.  Also, because his work is a comfort whenever I’m confused by an elevator or walk into a glass door.

Watch Don Norman’s talk here.

Cory Ondrejka, a Second Life co-founder, blew away the audience with his Angry Dinosaurs talk on Day Two.  In 75 minutes and 300+ slides, Cory talked about institutional incompetence and hacks for accelerating change by citing examples from the music industry, the newspaper business, and the 19th century US Navy.  A fast-paced, fascinating talk.  I’ve already watched it twice.

Watch Cory Ondrejka’s talk here.  It has implications for everyone in an organization, not just designers and technologists.

To all of my colleagues who organized the Higher Ed Web symposium and its virtual counterpart, congratulations and thank you!

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