Set up a new section (on the codeforsanjose.com site?) with links/howtos for easy ramp-up tools for civic hacking

[jamestyack]

For new users (and existing) it would be cool to have a page that everyone can contribute to containing links and tutorials for things like CartoDB, Mapbox, platforms etc. that are useful for civic hacking / visualizing / mapping open data sets.

These tools can be used to build quick POCs around data.

To get things started, here are some platforms/tools that are easy to use/good for ramp-up that we can add to this new page:-

Mapping

CartoDB

Free to use - just create user account, upload data and it gets mapped. Results can be published/linked. Also possible to do a lot of customization. Advantage is that a POC can be created very quickly.

• https://cartodb.com/
• Nice tutorial from the Guardian https://vimeo.com/59791629
• Good examples of maps https://cartodb.com/gallery/

  Mapbox

Easy to create account and then make a simple map by dragging and dropping markers etc. Good choice if you want to do a quick map and don't have a data set containing the data. Mapbox served maps can be extended and built upon using Javascript.

• https://www.mapbox.com/

  Geocoding tools convert addresses to Lat/Lng co-ordinates

• Mapquest offers open-source tools http://open.mapquestapi.com/

  Data analysis/cleanup

• Google forms are quick and simple to implement and allow you to collect data from people that goes right into a Google spreadsheet https://www.google.com/forms/about/
• Google sheets - free online spreadsheet that can be really useful for analyzing, filtering, graphing and cleaning up data https://www.google.com/sheets/about/
• Openoffice - good free downloadable Spreadsheet that can import most formats. Good for quick quick data analysis, filtering, graphing and exporting https://www.openoffice.org/download/

  List more tools

[mthong]

Terrific idea! I have long wanted a library of civic tech tutorials for our many members, including myself, who are trying to learn new skills.

@jamestyack: Where do you think this page should live and how would people contribute to it? Right here, somewhere else on Github, on the Code for SJ web page, or elsewhere? There's a "Resources" section on the web page that might make sense as a home -- but it's more static, not as easy for anyone to add content.

[jamestyack]

wonderful @mthong One thought is to have this on an editable wiki page that everyone can add to and we can link from 'resources' (Github provides this right here https://github.com/codeforsanjose/Project-Ideas/wiki ) ... also, this week I noticed that Andrew Hyder tweeted about another page being contributed to across brigades - https://github.com/codeforamerica/awesome-civic - I can't see tutorials/links to tutorials there which I think is important for all of us learning new stuff.

[jamestyack]

For now, I've started the page on the wiki here at https://github.com/codeforsanjose/Project-Ideas/wiki - I also added a link on that page to the 'code for america' tools page. Perhaps we can see how this works and also @mthong could you add a link to this page from the 'resources' section perhaps saying that people can see existing ideas as well as contribute?

[mthong]

@jamestyack For now I've added a link to Tools for Civic Hackers from the Resources->How to Start a Project page of the website: http://codeforsanjose.com/how-to-start-a-project/. (@vivek does the "How to Start..." page need updating?) The website itself is being reorganized, so in that process perhaps we can find a better place to link to the tools, and invite people to contribute as well.

[3vivekb]

@jamestyack @mthong The How to start a new project page needs friendlyizing. I updated it a little...

[jamestyack]

Cool, thanks @mthong @3vivekb . Looks like I can close this issue now. Hopefully we'll see people add to the tools page now it's set up.