{"id":20116,"date":"2022-10-28T12:21:46","date_gmt":"2022-10-28T11:21:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.economicsobservatory.com\/?post_type=question&p=20116"},"modified":"2022-10-28T12:21:47","modified_gmt":"2022-10-28T11:21:47","slug":"two-million-views-and-our-new-approach-to-data","status":"publish","type":"question","link":"https:\/\/www.economicsobservatory.com\/test\/two-million-views-and-our-new-approach-to-data","title":{"rendered":"Two million views, and our new approach to data"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Newsletter from 28 October 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data were a cause for celebration for the Economics Observatory team this week as we passed two million views on our website. Google also tells us that our \u2018dwell time\u2019 \u2013 how long people hang around on a page \u2013 is far above the industry standard. So, people seem to be enjoying the blend of economics and policy that we are publishing. Congratulations to the team and thank you to all our contributors for making this possible.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Too often data are a cause for concern. We are living through a data revolution but are beset by data problems. Charts and analysis are often out of date. Many seen online are opaque, both in terms of the provenance of the data and the way the numbers have been manipulated.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The very worst are plain fake. Even when charts are accurate, they often look dreadful with fuzzy lines in a dull blue that would make Yves Klein<\/a> \u2013 the master of that colour \u2013 shudder.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UK boasts some giants when it comes to data \u2013 from William Playfair<\/a> to Florence Nightingale<\/a> to John Snow<\/a> \u2013 so we have the guidance to do this work well. At the Economics Observatory, we are launching a new project to put things right.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cousin FRED<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The idea is to build our existing Data Hub<\/a> into something like a cousin for FRED<\/a>, which we think is the best data bank on the planet. I say cousin rather than twin, since we want to emulate that success, but make some changes too. As a first step, we\u2019ve built a modest new dashboard, which can be found here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dashboard pulls data for several metrics directly from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and displays the numbers live in the page. All the underlying code is open source, and the background data can be checked easily and quickly.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We think this type of unified, live and automatically updating service is dearly needed here in the UK and are excited to have started building something that meets this challenging brief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Behind the scenes, there are a few differences here, as they set a kind of blueprint for what we intend to work on:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n