I recently discovered this website: www.data.govt.nz
It’s basically a catalogue of all publicly available data held by government departments. It pulls together a lot of the information that those ‘bureaucrats’ National keeps complaining about compile. There is some really useful info in here.
The site has been setup by the Department of Internal Affairs. I think it will be hugely useful for researchers, journalists, analysts, businesses, in fact just about anyone! Keep up the good work DIA…
That sounds great.
Which part sounds great Spud?
To be fair, I dont think that the Nats are opposed to the WORK that’s done in those departments, but anyone who’s been employed in a government department (myself included) know that they’re almost without exception ridiculously top heavy. Most of the work is done by (usually underpaid) workers, who then have to filter it up through two three or four levels of “management” who, to be brutally honest, often only fill a position to justify it’s existence!
Your stunning array of evidence convinces me entirely, Nathan. Or wait, didn’t one of the so-called fat trimmers hired at thousands of dollars a day to work from home say that there was no fat to trim?
Gosh, it’s just so confusing.
That’ll probably be deleted for being horrifically off topic and rightly so.
So, on topic, brilliant stuff. It’d be nice if it was a single location for all the data on a single set of APIs but beggars can’t be choosers and you have to start some place.
You discovered it Chippie?
I heard about it. Same thing perhaps?
Frankly, I’ll stick to stats table building data now that I’ve got the hang of it. Which leads me to the next question
Why has DIA completed it when its simply information that stats holds, albeit on a different site?
Jeez Sam, take a chill pill. I’m expressing my point of view, or would you prefer I just sucked up and agreed to everything that’s written on here??! As it happens, I DON’T agree with employing thousand dollar consultants to work from home. Doesn’t mean I don’t think that the level of bureaucracy in SOME government departments is out of control.
It’s entirely likely that in some areas, they’ll find that there is no fat to trim. But in others, there’ll be a lot.
And yes, I think this data website is great.
@Sheralyn – The fact that people can go online and use the information from the government departments to do things.
I agree with ParkDrive, infoshare is a great site; but I’m always glad to bookmark another good statistics site when it is pointed out to me.
@ParkDrive/Sean,
Why has DIA completed it when its simply information that stats holds, albeit on a different site?
Because; it’s not just StatsNZ that produces numbers – the RBNZ, MED, and lots of others have information which isn’t necessarily easy to find if you don’t already know what you’re looking for.
@Nathan Mills
Yes. I to have worked at three different govt departments, and it very much like that. I did processing and returns that had fallen into error, trying to work out where and why they have fallen into error, then fixing the problem with the accounts, answered phones in a call centre in another and office hand in another. They can be very much like that. Yet when you are on the phones, you get the abuse for the stupid desisions that are made from the top heavy management. You have no say in any new policies but you get the abuse.
It is a good site.
[...] Chris Hipkins discovers http://www.data.govt.nz. I agree it is an excellent resource – Nathan Guy launched it around a week ago. I am already a frequent user. [...]