…about information on Places to Go, Things to Do
RSS icon Home icon
    Print This Post Print This Post

  • The Plings Stats tool

    Posted on January 4th, 2010 Tim Davies 2 comments

    The main contact for Plings in each Local Authority taking part in the pilot will shortly be receiving a log-in to the Plings Stats tool.

    The statistics tool is our way of helping Local Authorities to review what their local offer really looks like – by navigating the activity offer contained within the Plings database.

    As you can see from the screen-shot below, the tool will allow authorities to pick any date-range and explore what activities were on offer then, of what sort, and by run by which providers.

    The Plings Statistics Tool

    The Plings Statistics Tool

    Knowing more about the activities currently on offer can help local authorities to identify gaps in provision.

    This is the first public release of the statistics tool, but we will continue to develop it over the coming year – exploring ways that the statistical information on what is on when, can be complemented with feedback and comments from young people about local activity provision.

    If you’ve got ideas for developing the stats tool, then of course, do let us know.

    Plingback, Research
     

    2 responses to “The Plings Stats tool” RSS icon

    • I’ve just be sent a link to this great 5 min video: Chart Wars: The Political Power of Data Visualization – http://bit.ly/7W3hYM

      As one of the people behind the Stats tool, I thought this talk was particularly good.

      With the tool, we’re trying to make it easy for people to understand large data sets, and as such, much of the ‘power’ behind the presentation is in our hands. We decide what data to present, and how to present it (e.g. using a pie chart or a line chart).

      The talk reminds us how we need to look critically at such data visualisations and sometimes how we have to work out what the picture is really telling us. (I often have to do this just to check that the graph is showing me what I expected it to as I coded it!)

      I hope that as people start to use the tools, we’ll start getting questions about what we’re doing, how we’re doing it and why, as people become engaged in understanding their data.

      Reply – Quote

    • I like the comment in the talk that “pie charts suck”!

      Reply – Quote


    Leave a reply

Subscribe to updates

You can keep up to date with the latest news from the Plings Information and Signposting project by using our RSS feed or entering your e-mail address below.

Enter your email address:

Powered by WordPress
Designed by My Mobiles