Dec 15, 2022Data@Urban’s Top Posts of 2022Choosing the right OCR service for extracting text data Optical character recognition (OCR) services vary by cost, ease of use, confidentiality and ability to handle other types of data. We compared four examples that vary across these dimensions. 2. How can data communicators lead equity awareness and inclusivity efforts for…Data Science2 min readData Science2 min read
Nov 3, 2022How We Adapted the Capital for Communities Scorecard to Better Understand Community NeedsIn 2019, a collaborative group of researchers, programmers, and designers set out to design an evidence-based tool that could support positive outcomes among Opportunity Zone (OZ) investments. …Community4 min readCommunity4 min read
Oct 20, 2022Considerations for Consistent Terminology When Teaching Data Privacy MethodsEarlier this year, members of the Urban Institute’s Data Science Team worked with the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) to provide trainings on data privacy and confidentiality. …Data Privacy5 min readData Privacy5 min read
May 5, 2022Continuing Our Journey to Open Data with the Urban Data CatalogIn September 2019, Urban announced the public launch of the Urban Data Catalog, a web-based data repository powered by the open-source DKAN data platform. The data catalog has become crucial to furthering Urban’s mission by offering high-value datasets to facilitate research by analysts who can use our data to create…Data Catalog7 min readData Catalog7 min read
Apr 14, 2022How We Designed a User-Friendly Web Data Connector*An earlier version of this post incorrectly referred to Reboot Representation as Pivotal Ventures. Pivotal Ventures is one of Reboot Representation’s major funders (corrected 6/3/22). The Urban Institute’s Education Data Portal contains a vast amount of information and pulls data from varied sources, features that offer immense potential to our…Tableau4 min readTableau4 min read
Mar 25, 2022Choosing the Right OCR Service for Extracting Text DataOptical character recognition, or OCR, is a key tool for people who want to build or collect text data. OCR uses machine learning to extract words and lines of text from scans and images, which can then be used to perform quantitative text analysis or natural language processing. …Ocr8 min readOcr8 min read
Mar 3, 2022How can data communicators lead inclusivity efforts for visualizations?Following the June 2021 release of our Do No Harm Guide on how to take an equitable and inclusive approach to data communication, my coauthor Alice Feng and I have presented our work at numerous panels, conferences, and other engagements, where we’ve been asked thought-provoking questions. I have compiled some…Data Visualization7 min readData Visualization7 min read
Feb 3, 2022How Data4Kids Helps Students Log on to LearnWhen the COVID-19 pandemic first shut down in-person learning, we knew education wouldn’t be the same. How could kids — especially younger kids in elementary schools — learn and socialize if they weren’t in a real classroom? In late 2021, we worked with a team of people from various groups…5 min read5 min read
Jan 14, 2022Three Lessons for Measuring Rural StrengthsHow do we describe rural America based on its strengths? Instead of focusing on traditional, deficit-based measures like poverty, population loss, and unemployment, Urban researchers wanted to consider the factors that create high quality of life in small communities and towns. But what could these shared assets between diverse communities…6 min read6 min read
Dec 21, 2021Data@Urban’s Top 5 Posts of 20211. Graphing food insecurity in the United States Although researchers have developed an alternate method for comparing food insufficiency datasets from before and after the pandemic, three graphing tactics could more effectively visualize the sector's methodological challenges around missing data and comparability. 2. Quality checking to ensure data are ready…2 min read2 min read
