Third party data sources

[cchristelis]

Problem

There are possible spacial data sources, which could add value to the search criteria.

Proposed solution

Investigate these and advise on sources.

[cchristelis]

Hi @gubuntu, it would be great if you could give us some input about what data we could use to enhance our searches or 'filter' them by.

[gubuntu]

This is a broader braindump of potential extra search criteria with some input from my sixteen-year-old. I will flesh out criteria you are interested in pursuing.

Spatial

• distance of the institution away from where I am (or from a point I choose)
  • actual distance
  • straight line
  • along roads
  • driving distance
  • walking distance
• public transport options
  • costs
  • travel times

We could use http://opentripplanner.org (by establishing our own instance), various public APIs for isochrones, routing, multimodal transport, etc. Or our own street network e.g. from OSM, and use pgRouting or GRASS network tools. 1Map and T4A also have street network and POI datasets we could exploit via their services.

• bicycle friendliness / access

http://opencyclemap.org/

• safety
• campus layout and environment, information about the surroundings, typology
  • campus
  • inner city multi-storey
  • university town
  • discrete campus
  • remote / small town / suburban / metropolitan
  • shops, police, etc.
  • census information
  • economic activity

Use various public datasets and services and perform spatial analysis to arrive at these descriptors if they are not direct attributes of the datasets

Non-spatial

• course and related costs
• length of course
• chances of getting in / demand
• income, race or other conditions
• funding, bursaries options
• academic requirements
• career options arising from a qualification
• market demand for the qualification
• similar alternatives
• how your school affects entrance and performance
• reputation / ranking / rating of the institution
• do they have online / correspondence courses?
• accommodation / residential options
• other facilities
  • sports
  • internet / wifi
  • music / cultural
• history of strikes, protests, disruptions
• ratings and comments from past and current students or graduates of that course (this could be some type of feedback we build in to the site but would require some level of trust e.g. no anonymous comments or ratings)

Some of these might already be attributes of the datasets we have at our disposal, or able to be derived from the data with some analysis. Others should be available from public datasets and reports