Work can be fun. Is it still work?

As preparation for some more serious assignments down the road, I was tasked with exploring the availability of datasets both formatted and unformatted. Here are some of my findings.

White Glove tracking (formatted)

Tracking the position of Michael Jackson’s white glove within the video frame (640×480) during the nationally televised landmark performance of Billy Jean.

Data Sample

Source: www.whiteglovetracking.com | Direct Data Download

The National UFO Reporting Center Online Database (formatted)

Indexed by event date. I don’t think this needs any further explanation.

Data Sample

Source: www.nuforc.org

Unemployment Statistics (formatted)

Seasonally adjusted statewide unemployment statistics for the state of New York in 2000.

Data Sample

Source: www.data.gov

Meetup (unformatted)

Visualize the number of people meeting up around the world for a specific Meetup Everywhere.

Worflow

1st API call: https://api.meetup.com/ew/containers?urlname=mashable

Response:

{
"results": [{
"twitter_urlname": "socialgood",
"link_name": "Mashable",
"link": "http://mashable.com",
"facebook_urlname": "socialgood",
"scheduling": "date",
"id": 159,
"time": 1285286400000,
"created": 1274843176000,
"updated": 1284431267000,
"description": "Can social media be used to make the world a better place? Mashable & (RED) believe it can. We invite you to join the social media for social good movement by taking part in Social Good Day on September 23rd.\r\n\r\nWe’re inviting you to attend or organize a meetup in your community to celebrate, share, educate, and engage in a discussion on how social media can be used to tackle some of the world’s social challenges and issues. What's your solution?",
"name": "Mashable",
"meetup_url": "http://www.meetup.com/Mashable/",
"event_create": "anyone",
"urlname": "Mashable",
"founder": {
"name": "Mashable.com",
"member_id": 5371635
}}],
"meta": {
"lon": "",
"count": 1,
"signed_url": "http://api.meetup.com/ew/containers?order=name&urlname=mashable&offset=0&callback=jsonp1284952454962&format=json&page=200&sig_id=12227610&sig=a2df62aa973f92f0cd4b5c1f999fd3de8080a40d",
"link": "https://api.meetup.com/ew/containers",
"next": "",
"total_count": 1,
"url": "https://api.meetup.com/ew/containers?key=2322511356a5e3912394c2b25b855&order=name&urlname=mashable&offset=0&callback=jsonp1284952454962&format=json&page=200&sign=true",
"id": "",
"title": "Container",
"updated": 1284431267000,
"description": "API method for accessing containers",
"method": "Containers",
"lat": ""
}
}


2nd API call: https://api.meetup.com/ew/events?urlname=mashable

Response:

{
"zip": "95926",
"lon": -121.85,
"status": "pending",
"state": "CA",
"city": "Chico",
"country": "us",
"id": 19968,
"updated": 1281707927000,
"created": 1281707927000,
"container": {
"id": 159,
"name": "Mashable",
"urlname": "Mashable"
}, "meetup_url": "http://www.meetup.com/Mashable/19968/",
"lat": 39.79}, {
"zip": "44035",
"lon": -82.11,
"status": "pending",
"state": "OH",
"city": "Elyria",
"country": "us",
"id": 18947,
"updated": 1281352254000,
"created": 1281352254000,
"container": {
"id": 159,
"name": "Mashable",
"urlname": "Mashable"
}, "meetup_url": "http://www.meetup.com/Mashable/18947/",
"lat": 41.37}
}


3rd, 4th, 5th, etc API call: https://api.meetup.com/ew/rsvps?event_id=event_id=19968

Response:

{
"results": [{
"member": {
"name": "Sisterlisa Bertolini",
"member_id": 12742397
}, "id": 67419,
"created": 1281707927000,
"event_id": 19968}, {
"member": {
"name": "Nick Griffin",
"member_id": 12941813
}, "id": 76064,
"created": 1284176060000,
"event_id": 19968}],
"meta": {
"lon": "",
"count": 2,
"signed_url": "http://api.meetup.com/ew/rsvps?event_id=19968&order=time&callback=jsonp1284952454965&offset=0&format=json&page=200&sig_id=12227610&sig=330d2ce4c211bd84f64e737861ff36d94dfdff62",
"link": "https://api.meetup.com/ew/rsvps",
"next": "",
"total_count": 2,
"url": "https://api.meetup.com/ew/rsvps?key=2322511356a5e3912394c2b25b855&event_id=19968&order=time&callback=jsonp1284952454965&offset=0&format=json&page=200&sign=true",
"id": "",
"title": "Rsvps",
"updated": 1284176060000,
"description": "API method for accessing event rsvps",
"method": "Rsvps",
"lat": ""
}
}


Source: Meetup API

Data Organization:
Everywhere Name | Date | Time | Venue | City | State | Lat | Lon | # RSVPs

Hunch (unformatted)

A visualization of, “If I like ______, there is a high probability I will like ______.” Utilize the Hunch API.

Table 1: Rank | Person
Table 2: Rank | Place
Table 3: Rank | Thing

Flickr (unformatted)

A visualization of the images uploaded to flickr on a given day categorized by their tags. Utilize the flickr API.

Data Organization:
Table 1: Image ID | Image Title | Image Description | Lat | Lon | Time Uploaded | Time Taken
Table 2: Image ID | Tag

Other Sources

Infochimps
Freebase