{"id":828,"date":"2016-10-16T01:37:51","date_gmt":"2016-10-16T08:37:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh101f16\/?p=828"},"modified":"2016-10-16T01:37:51","modified_gmt":"2016-10-16T08:37:51","slug":"blog-3-city-appropriations-expenditures-and-revenues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh101f16\/2016\/10\/16\/blog-3-city-appropriations-expenditures-and-revenues\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog 3: City Appropriations, Expenditures, and Revenues"},"content":{"rendered":"

I explored the Appropriations, Expenditures, and Revenues<\/a> data set from the LA\u2019s Controller\u2019s Office<\/a>. This data set includes the ledger transactions for the city\u2019s appropriations, expenditures, and revenues. I thought this set would be a way to gain insight on where and how the city is spending money. <\/span><\/p>\n

This data set specifies information such as the fiscal period, department, funding type and name, account name, revenue source, activity name, total expenditures, budget, and more. Each record is a specific transaction and keeps track of when money was spent, by what account\/department, for what purpose, and how it alters the budget for the city.<\/p>\n

Using Wallack\u2019s and Srinivasan\u2019s article to examine this dataset closely, this dataset\u2019s meta ontology was created by the city as a way to organize and materialize information regarding expenditures that needs to be monitored by administration. This ontology makes the most sense from a policy maker and city official point of view. They would use this data set to see where the resources are being allocated and if new policies need to be enacted as a way\u00a0allocating funds more effectively.<\/p>\n

When states create these meta ontologies, it unfortunately \u201csheds much of the local context in order to ensure tractable management for policy purposes\u201d (Wallack and Srinivasan 2). These data sets provide an essential form of infrastructure to the administration of the city, but the city cannot fully understand the community they are trying to represent. Ontologies \u201cimpede communities ability to impart and communicate information and states ability to fully understand the territories they govern\u201d (1). This is problematic because this meta ontology is aiming to monitor economic activity for the city, but the way it\u00a0represents information shapes how funds are being allocated to the community.<\/p>\n

How the communities are being affected by these expenditures is being left out of the data set. This data set notes what department and activity this money went to but it does not specify how exactly the money was used or how it directly served the community. Community input could make this data set better to show the city how their expenditures and efforts may or may not be effective. Since the data is published digitally, community members and citizens can take this data and manipulate it to represent their own needs. This data could be used more effectively if this ontology was more inclusive to community attributes and if it noted how the expenditures affected community utility and wellbeing.<\/span><\/p>\n

If I were to start over with this data set from a different person\u2019s point of view, I would note how interesting it is that the city published their expenditure and revenue report online to the public. I would like to see a more community based ontology with descriptions on how each transaction was used to affect the citizens. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I explored the Appropriations, Expenditures, and Revenues data set from the LA\u2019s Controller\u2019s Office. This data set includes the ledger transactions for the city\u2019s appropriations, expenditures, and revenues. I thought … Continue reading “Blog 3: City Appropriations, Expenditures, and Revenues”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh101f16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh101f16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh101f16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh101f16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh101f16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh101f16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh101f16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh101f16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh101f16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}