mathbabe

I just signed up for an upcoming datafest called “Big Data, Big Money, and You” which will be co-hosted at Columbia University and Stanford University on February 2nd and 3rd.

The idea is to use data from:

• GovTrack.us,
• MapLight,
• National Institute on Money in State Politics,
• Open States,
• Pew Research Center,
• ProPublica,
• The Center for Responsive Politics,
• State Integrity, and
• The Sunlight Foundation

and open source tools such as R, python, and various api’s to model and explore various issues in the intersection of money and politics. Among those listed are things like: “look for correlation between the subject of bills introduced to state legislatures to big companies within those districts and campaign donations” and “comparing contributions per and post redistricting”.

As usual, a weekend-long datafest is just the beginning of a good data exploration: if you’re interested in this, think of this as an introduction to the ideas and the people involved; it’s just as much about networking with like-minded people as it is about finding an answer in two days.

So sign up, come on by, and get ready to roll up your sleeves and have a great time for that weekend, but also make sure you get people’s email addresses so you can keep in touch as things continue to develop down the road.