Questions About Big Data

My partner for this assignment was Hanna Tibbetts. Below are the questions and answers for the assignment.

The website we chose was Measure of America: Mapping America, which was an interactive map that had many subsections about different populations of people and contextual factors that are important for legislative action, or just general knowledge - factors including health, education, poverty rates, and more.

What is this website potentially useful for? What kinds of problems could the provided information be used to solve?

This website is used to assess the “wellbeing” in America. So demographics are given per state about health, education, income, and more. The provided information can solve any problems associated with these demographics, like for example acknowledging that a state has more health problems than other states which may be linked to environmental factors. If there is data collected on environment, then a correlation can be made between the two in order to “solve” or target the problem.

Is the provided visualization useful?

Yes, it shows the different demographics of each state.

Does it provide insight into the data? How does it help you look at a lot of information at once? How could it improve?

Yes, it does by clicking on a different state, it shows different demographics based on the state. The bar graph when you first look at the website gives you each state's population, so you can compare the difference in each state. This could improve by having clearer lines on the graph so that you know when it is a new state. It could also be helpful to be able to look at multiple state’s health, education, income, race, and well being at the same time; so that you can compare the two.

Where is the data coming from?

Check for “About”, “Download”, or “API”. You may also need to do a web search.

The data is coming from the American Human Development Index, national and state reports, and DATA2GO.NYC.

Is the data from one source or many? Many sources

Is it static or live? Static

Is the source reputable? Why or why not? Yes, the source is reputable. It became an initiative of the Social Science Research Council in 2008 and is endorsed by qualified intellectual, CEOs, presidents, professors, and more which can be found on this page: http://www.measureofamerica.org/project/

Add a link to the raw data if you can find one. https://data2go.nyc/map/?id=107*36047015900*ahdi_puma!undefined!ns*!other_pop_cd_506~ahdi_puma_1~sch_enrol_cd_112~age_pyramid_male_85_plus_cd_20~median_household_income_puma_397~median_personal_earnings_puma_400~dis_y_perc_puma_102~poverty_ceo_cd_417~unemployment_cd_408~pre_k_cd_107!*air_qual_cd~ahdi_puma*family_homeless_cd_245#10/40.8278/-73.9593

This link encompasses not all of the data used but some data for the state of New York as well as the site itself influenced Measure of America.

Do you consider this “big” data? Explain your reasoning.

Yes, because it is gathering information from every state in the U.S. Big data is a large amounts of data that is analyzed to show patterns and trends. The map of America shows the population in states, metro areas, counties, and districts. By collecting all this data, it is creating a big data set showing trends within a population. It shows how life expectancy varies in each area, the education that people are receiving, how far in education people are going, the income, and the race within a certain area. The map shows different aspects in life within a part in the U.S by gathering all this information, we can see trends in more populated areas compared to less populated areas. We can also look at the trends men, women, different ethnicities. By collecting data from various groups, we can see trends and patterns within a certain group or gender.