This week I decided to examine the What’s Happening in L.A. dataset’s ontology.
Through the reading and this class, I learned that ontology is the organizational strategy for categorizing information into data and reflects the worldview of the person or organization who created the data. This dataset contains a list of city events in Los Angeles, California. There are 29478 events listed with 20 different columns. The categories include different event logistics: Event name, Event Description, Fee Required, Type of Event, Subject Matter, Age Groupings, Event By Service Area, Event Sponsor, Event Date/Time Start and End, Location, Location Address, Contact Information, Website, Elected Office and Official’s name, Neighborhood Council, and City Reference ID. This dataset is probably most useful to city officials of L.A. and also to the general public who lives in this city/community. City officials may find it useful because it gives a run down of events relative to their job which are categorized as “government” under subject matter. This includes public works, economic development, entertainment and facilities committee or board meetings. It will be easy to find know the date/time of the meetings so they could put these events in their own calendar. The other type of events are more relative to the community and their interests. Whether it is an expo/convention, conference, class/workshop, volunteer event, or a community meeting, people could look up events they want to attend or get involved in, find the location and date, a website, and contact information of the organizer. People planning events would be aware of events that usually happen on certain dates or locations based on the data and plan accordingly to avoid potential conflicts. People who want to plan similar events or get more information can use the contact information of the sponsors or organizers.
Information that could be potentially left out is the number of attendees for each of these events and the limit of attendees that they could allow. This could give organizers are general idea of how many people are participating in certain events and if these venues reached full capacity, do they need to find a new one for next year or for a different event. Also, a good amount of the columns were blank for certain types of events so it would more useful if as much data could be gathered to fill the existing categories in order to gain the whole picture.
Gaby I think this is an excellent tool for those who want to be more active and engaged within their community to go out! This database is useful because it provides the name and contact information of the organizer so patrons can get even more information regarding the event. It is also useful for sponsors and vendors who are seeking avenues to promote their brand. Leaving out the attendance is critical though for these vendors and sponsors, who are more than likely seeking large audiences of people but they won’t be able to find that here.
Hi Gaby,
I think you’ve done a great job summarizing the ontology of this data collection. I agree that the attendance information would be a useful inclusion to this data collection, as it could impact whether or not similar meetings occur in the future. I’m wondering how you would how you would recreate the ontology of this data collection if you were making it so that it was most useful for vendors and sponsors to look at? Would you still include information such as Neighborhood Council, or would you replace it with something else?
I thought your analysis was nice and thought out. I agree that the information is useful for city officials as well as regular citizens of Los Angeles who may want to attend these events. I think this data set could also be useful to other cities who are trying to increase the number of activities available as well as different things to do. These other cities may look to Los Angeles as inspiration on what they want their city to be like in the future.
If it hadn’t been for your post I would have completely missed this data set! I thought your analysis was insightful, and agree with your cretic of missing informations. The data is helpful for business as well as pleasure. It provides opportunities for people of different levels of the community to come together and get to know different parts of their city. And more importantly, as you mention, provides the names of different companies that would be willing to engage in events and activities.