Computational Methods in the Civic Sphere // 2018

This week

Week 10

Homework

For Friday: Write a short summary (400 words) of what you want to find out and report on re: Senate disclosures. Include at least 5 URLs to relevant news stories.

Project due Thursday, March 22, 11:59 PM.

  • Code for scraping/parsing data
  • Code for creating a visualization (MATLAB)

In-class

Write scripts to scrape saved files from Senate site.

(download TK)

Create project repo:

cd ~/Desktop/compciv-2018-SUNETID
mkdir senate-disclosures
cd senate-disclosures
echo 'Final project repo' >> README.md
git add .
git commit -m 'first'
git push

Readings

Help Us Map TrumpWorld (example of a financial disclosures project): https://www.buzzfeed.com/johntemplon/help-us-map-trumpworld

Look at the data created: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Z5Vo5pbvxKJ5XpfALZXvCzW26Cl4we3OaN73K9Ae5Ss/edit

Example of a (complicated) graphic from that data: http://www.kmov.com/story/34363878/all-of-president-trumps-web-of-business-ties-in-one-interactive-graphic

Street Views: http://antiboredom.github.io/streetviews/

OpenSecrets releases new 2015 personal financial data: Senators get richer; others not so much https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2017/10/opensecrets-releases-new-2015-personal-financialdata/

OpenSecrets methodology: https://www.opensecrets.org/pfds../methodology.php

Online:
Homepage: 2018.compciv.org
Slack: compciv.slack.com (invite link)
Class:
McClatchy Hall, Building 120
Room 410

Monday and Wednesdays, from 1:30PM to 2:50PM
Instructor:
Dan Nguyen
Lorry I. Lokey Visiting Professor in Professional Journalism
Contacts:
Email: dun@stanford.edu
Twitter: @dancow
Office: Room 342, McClatchy Hall
Hours: After class (M/W 3-5 PM) or by appointment.