Use data to show how your country is unique!

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The question and the goal


Quick overview of what we will cover in this course and worked examples.

Data isn't an end in itself. We usually want data to help us answer some question or help us do some activity. To begin with, we will give you an example below, but your task is to find your own question about your country. In the following steps you'll find data to analyze and answer it.

In this course you will argue that your country is unique in some way and use data to back up your claim.  At the end you should be able to make a statement like this:
 
"Namiba is unique in terms of population density. It's a vast (and beautiful) country with a population of only 2.1 Million people. It's population desntiy is 2.54/km2 which makes it 235th of all countries."
 
The statement would be backed up by some nice and tidy data in a spreadsheet.
 
Worked examples:
 
Here are some worked examples that show how different people tackled the question in different ways:
 
Your task:
 
  • Review at least one of the worked example above
  • Post any questions / comments you may have below
  • No questions? Move straight on to the next task ... 
 

Task Discussion


  • val dander said:

    Wow, everything but simple:

    http://pad.okfn.org/p/first_take

    Still a lot to learn about this, I guess..

    Anyways: thanks for the challenge!

    on Oct. 29, 2013, 11:45 a.m.

  • christinad said:

    The example helps illuminate the process of trying to identify and mine a data set.  

    on Oct. 27, 2012, 11:04 p.m.

  • Jon Mason said:

    In the example provided on Lesotho, Wikipedia is just cited in passing & useful for some background info. Seems to me, though, it is a source of richer data so why not make this more prominent?

    on Aug. 9, 2012, 12:31 a.m.

  • Newben said:

    I hope there will be some possibility to transmate this  french site in english : http://www.histographe.com/ is a site that collects historical data which is amazingly interesting and great ressources for both historians and schoolchildren.

    on July 23, 2012, 2:17 p.m.

  • Emily Puckett Rodgers said:

    DataKind (formerly Data Without Borders) has some great examples of problems, datasets used, and results from their datadives. For example: http://datakind.org/york-city-datadive/.

    These probably need to be cleaned up to be succinct but they are great resources for getting familiar with data needs, resources, and solutions.

    on May 24, 2012, 8:35 a.m.