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rebeccawilliams / foiatools2014.md
Last active May 2, 2020 21:35
Tool Features Open Source Technology? Documentation? Deployment
Alavateli An open-source platform for making public freedom of information requests to public bodies.Built to help citizens request information, and view and comment on other people's requestsAll requests made through Alaveteli, and their responses are published online for everyone to see.Used all over the world to open up governments and other public bodies. Built with Ruby on Rails 3.x, etc, see the documentation for developers. Learn about the project at www.alaveteli.org. Read Turbo Transparency, a paper about how and why to use Alaveteli for Freedom of Information systems, and a Getting Started guide. The documentation covers installing, [customising
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rebeccawilliams / selfrespect.md
Last active February 25, 2018 00:40
On Self-Respect: Joan Didion’s 1961 Essay from the Pages of Vogue

On Self-Respect

Joan Didion’s 1961 Essay from the Pages of Vogue

Once, in a dry season, I wrote in large letters across two pages of a notebook that innocence ends when one is stripped of the delusion that one likes oneself. Although now, some years later, I marvel that a mind on the outs with itself should have nonetheless made painstaking record of its every tremor, I recall with embarrassing clarity the flavor of those particular ashes. It was a matter of misplaced self-respect.

I had not been elected to Phi Beta Kappa. This failure could scarcely have been more predictable or less ambiguous (I simply did not have the grades), but I was unnerved by it; I had somehow thought myself a kind of academic Raskolnikov, curiously exempt from the cause-effect relationships that hampered others. Although the situation must have had even then the approximate tragic stature of Scott Fitzgerald's failure to become president of the Princeton Triangle Club, the day that I did not make Phi Beta Kappa nevertheless

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rebeccawilliams / thereaderasartist.md
Last active August 24, 2017 03:24
The Reader As Artist By Toni Morrison; markdown version of: http://www.oprah.com/omagazine/toni-morrison-on-reading/all#ixzz4qd1lFTcd

The Reader As Artist

By Toni Morrison

The words on the page are only half the story, says Toni Morrison. The rest is what you bring to the party.

Mr. Head awakened to discover that the room was full of moonlight. He sat up and stared at the floor boards—the color of silver—and then at the ticking on his pillow, which might have been brocade, and after a second, he saw half of the moon five feet away in his shaving mirror, paused as if it were waiting for his permission to enter. It rolled forward and cast a dignifying light on everything. The straight chair against the wall looked stiff and attentive as if it were awaiting an order and Mr. Head's trousers, hanging to the back of it, had an almost noble air, like the garment some great man had just flung to his servant….

The above opening to a short story by Flannery O'Connor is, to readers content with grasping information, straightforward enough. It introduces a character, Mr. Head, waking up at night and noticing moonlight. To readers who enjoy

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rebeccawilliams / preview.md
Last active December 21, 2016 21:05

Appendix A: Sample Dataset Metadata

Standard Dataset Fields

The U.S. federal government has created the Project Open Data metadata schema standard to implement the federal open data policy. The Project Open Data schema is based on the international DCAT metadata schema used by open data programs around the world and has been mapped to many standards. The Project Open Data schema must be preseneted as a JSON file to be ingested by Data.gov. This schema is natively available with many open data portal providers including: Azavea, Esri Open Data, NuCivic's DKAN, OpenGov, and Socrata, and is easily added to CKAN sites with an extension or can be generated on an ad hoc basis with these tools.

Field | Label | Definition | Required

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rebeccawilliams / opendatapolicies.csv
Last active June 21, 2016 04:30
Open Data Policies by Type, see more at: https://sunlightfoundation.com/policy/opendatamap/ & https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ETZuGZBK24J2viZdxmhyIlIKiJuytAu3Bh1ofo_HVBw/; if there was an amendment/new EO I counted it again, also DC is listed as a city here w city-counties being counted as counties
year how many ordinance or law resolution exective order or directive admin memo, IT policy, etc city county state
2006 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0
2009 3 2 0 1 0 2 1 0
2010 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0
2011 4 2 1 0 1 1 2 1
2012 7 5 0 2 0 5 1 1
2013 16 7 0 5 4 8 3 5
2014 20 11 1 6 2 14 3 3
2015 8 1 1 3 3 8 0 0
2016 9 2 4 3 0 8 0 1
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rebeccawilliams / futurelaw2016.md
Last active May 20, 2016 21:13
#FutureLaw2016 Links
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rebeccawilliams / DATAActTraining.md
Last active May 4, 2016 17:46
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rebeccawilliams / houseplants.csv
Created November 23, 2015 01:39
We can make this file beautiful and searchable if this error is corrected: Unclosed quoted field in line 4.
"Accepted Symbol","Synonym Symbol","Scientific Name","PLANTS Floristic Area","State and Province","Native Status","Flower Conspicuous","Fruit Conspicuous","Height, Mature (feet)","Shape and Orientation","Toxicity"
"ACAM","","Acorus americanus","NA (L48, AK, CAN)","USA (AK, CT, DC, DE, IA, ID, IL, IN, MA, ME, MI, MN, MT, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, SD, VA, VT, WA, WI), CAN (AB, BC, MB, NB, NF, NS, NT, ON, PE, QC, SK)","L48 (N), AK (N), CAN (N)","No","No","3.9","Erect","None"
"ADPE","","Adiantum pedatum","NA (L48, CAN)","USA (AL, AR, CT, DC, DE, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, NC, NE, NH, NJ, NY, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VA, VT, WI, WV), CAN (NB, NS, ON, QC)","L48 (N), CAN (N)","No","No","1.3","Semi-Erect","None"
"AGGR2","","Agrimonia gryposepala","NA (L48, CAN)","USA (AL, AR, AZ, CA, CT, DE, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV, WY), CAN (BC, MB, NB, NS, ON, PE, QC)","L48 (N), CAN (N)","
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rebeccawilliams / opendatabrownbag.md
Last active October 19, 2015 15:48
Links and resources for: "Two years later: How are agencies performing on M-13-13 Open Data Policy-Managing Information as an Asset??"

Two years later: How are agencies performing on M-13-13 Open Data Policy-Managing Information as an Asset?

Agenda

  • 12:05 - Welcome
  • 12:10 - Hello Open Data Policy / CAP Goal / IDC
  • 12:15 - How are CFO-Act agencies doing?
  • 12:20 - Project Open Data Dashboard 101
  • 12:35 - How to help move agencies forward with M-13-13 to become more data driven
  • 12:40 - Tips on helpful data that is currently being reported by agencies
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rebeccawilliams / legalhackingDCtalk2015.md
Last active October 14, 2015 04:19
Legal Hacking in DC -- Talk for Legal Hackers Congress 2015