Blog 3

For my blog I chose to look at the What’s Happening LA Calendar Dataset, which is under the category of “A Liveable and Sustainable City.” The dataset was created on March 9, 2014 and it was last updated on January 8, 2017. The dataset has a total of 7,510 views and 1,138 downloads. The dataset has approximately twenty-nine thousand rows, and a total of twenty columns, which records what events have taken place since 2014 along with the variety of metadata categories that make up a data file. Metadata categories include but are not limited to: event name, fee required, type of event, and event sponsor

For example, the most recent event listed in the data is the West Hills Neighborhood Council Joint Special Mtg. of Board & Budget Committee (which occurred on May 18, 2017). No fee is required for this is a neighborhood council meeting. When one looks through the event sponsor category, it’s easy to spot full names of organizations that are interspersed in a list containing abbreviations. For example, someone who is not familiar with the data would have to search what AAGLA, BPW, and ITA each stand– to the best of my knowledge the abbreviations listed represent the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles, Board of Public Works, Information Technology Agency. ITA sponsors the event listed above, yet, most importantly, it is because of what is listed in the sponsor category that shines light on who may benefit from the dataset.

Internal employees who organize events for the city are those who may benefit the most. The information is exact and very detailed, but it’s also very clean and linear. The dataset’s purpose must be to serve as a location, one that lists events that occur by, for, and at city government.

The information that is left out of this dataset is much more detailed information on the event itself. Sure, the name of the event and the type of event is listed, yet details on themes or discussion topics are not listed. It’s purely a reference source that employees may come back to when they have logistical questions that need to be answered. If I were to crate this data for intrigued audience, I would add more detail about the event. And most importantly look into moving the data to a different server or website altogether. But overall, it’s a reference resource and it serves its purpose well. Moreover, there are a trillion other dat sets!