βetaWorks

Your Suggestions

1. #1: Melanie20/11/2012 06:47:18

   Another +1 for an API

2. #2: Jonny01/10/2012 14:35:58

   +1 to an API...

3. #3: Gary15/08/2012 15:24:06

   Another for an API...there is so much that would be possible, please make it a priority.

4. #4: Alex30/07/2012 19:09:32

   Please, I'd love an API which lets me download up-to-date data in a consistent format. It need not be complex -- a simple GET to a URL that delivers predictable CSV data would solve the problem. You guys can probably do that in your sleep.

5. #5: Tom01/04/2012 14:54:35

   An API would be a fantastic (and almost necessary to ensure consistency with international peers). Thanks for the great data.

6. #6: David20/04/2011 18:02:20

   Would love to see the ABS Release Calendar export to iCalendar format, rather than only supporting Outlook.

   { Link }

7. #7: Jarryd25/03/2011 10:42:43

   Hi Jim,

   Thank you for sharing the link to the RBA Chart Pack. We appreciate you taking your time to make the suggestion and providing us with an interesting concept. I agree the RBA Chart Pack is a useful dashboard and the ability to export as a pdf is excellent. We'll add this to our work program as a potential concept to develop and we will generate a something similar based on your suggestion to demo on BetaWorks next month.

   Thanks again

8. #8: Jim24/03/2011 16:20:29

   The ABS generates terrific data, but you need to make a short series of 'at a glance' publications that are frequently updated, in a common format, and are accessible. Look at the RBA Chart Pack. This comes out monthly and is their best shot at what matters to financial types. It's downloaded countless times. ABS should generate equivalents on other issues.

9. #9: Josh23/03/2011 12:25:20

   I suggest paying a bit more attention to aesthetics as well (of course) as to functionality and accessibility.

   The current site design and colouring is a bit behind the times in my opinion. Maybe consider hiring some graphic design/artistic staff or perhaps outsource the site design to a good graphic agency?

   Please see: { Link } for some examples.

10. #10: Julia19/11/2010 10:18:18

    Easier search-ability of stats, and ability to sort results by date and topic

11. #11: Sharon24/08/2010 15:54:12

    Now this is powerful data visualisation!

    { Link }

12. #12: Sharon23/08/2010 11:31:09

    { Link }

    Data comes alive!!

13. #13: Charly16/08/2010 12:43:42

    API for automatic updates within external BI/charting tools would indeed be great!!

14. #14: Ursulla29/07/2010 20:09:36

    When trying to establish whether our living standards have improved in the last 30 years or so, I’ve found many ABS references to “factors contributing to greater inequality” and on “income distribution”, such as “trends in earnings distribution” and “trends in household disposable income”. But I could not find much on living standards. I’m not so much interested in the great gap between rich & poor which your many articles focus on, but more interested in whether my individual standard of living has improved after the “golden age” of the post-war economic boom! Can you please emphasise the positive (e.g. “purchasing power”), & not only the negative!

15. #15: Steve03/07/2010 22:56:48

    Guys you really need an API.

16. #16: Mark06/06/2010 16:55:16

    As others have suggested, "Open data" - via an API and/or CSV datasets would be great.

17. #17: Stephen23/04/2010 13:48:52

    I've recently been using Tableau data viz software and it's extraordinarily powerful for making complex data readily understood through charting and graphing functions, as well as being interactive and filterable.

    There's a publicly available version as well as commercial licenses.

    I'd recommend making a lot of the data readily available to this application, in simple ways to import, so users can create great data viz applications

18. #18: Steph16/04/2010 11:41:51

    There are a lot of duplicate links throughout the site structure, particularly in the grey navigation panes on the left of pages.

    This crowds the pages and often does not leave much room for the eyes to rest. Axing some of these redundant links would also decrease the length of the pages and, for instance, would remove the scrolling from the home page.

    Also, the columns of banners placed on the right side of some of the pages are all battling with each other for attention, hence none of them can really be read. The simultaneous colour contrasting of these banners also contribute to them being a bit of a loud mess to view, which is a shame because they link to some really awesome resources.

19. #19: Paul15/04/2010 17:07:41

    Why not make all the ABS data available online as other government around the world have been doing? { Link }

20. #20: John12/04/2010 12:24:38

    It would be useful for me if the 6 month future release calendar was available as a downloadable excel file that was updated either daily or weekly. This way I can automate a download within VB to update my data calendar in Excel.

21. #21: Michael31/03/2010 11:11:18

    Another vote for an API where we can source live data - JSON and XML are obviously preferred formats but whatever, really.

    I wouldn't mind if this were semi-private/required registration (like the ABR API) and had some load limits on it, just as long as we can pull down the data automagically.

    I have a dream that one day, indexation clauses will be replaced by fields that automatically update with the latest price... I dream of a time where social data and electoral data lie side by side on a third party map created with only three lines of code...

22. #22: Marcus10/02/2010 10:17:01

    Yes...an API is the way to go. It would need to serve both spatial and statistical data.

23. #23: Neil09/02/2010 03:03:28

    I'd like to add my vote for an API, that returns JSON and/or XML.

24. #24: Amar05/02/2010 14:02:16

    To provide a snapshop of any project when the cursor hoovers over the link. This way one does not have to click on the link to know any basic information.

25. #25: Jonathan06/01/2010 12:50:28

    1. By far the biggest reaching impact would be a fully developed API for the stats. That way anyone would be able to call the data they want and present it in any way they choose.

    2. A flash implementation to view data for nonprogrammers through google's chart API that runs in a totally point and click interface.

26. #26: Joseph03/12/2009 17:19:27

    I've made a simple programmatic interface to your data. { Link }

    Its simple but incomplete. It would be great if you guys provided an API like that instead. Then you could make better data quality guarantees and encourage more usage of the great work you do. (There's only one of me! I can't check the data.)

27. #27: Di05/11/2009 14:03:37

    Use visualisation/graphics, like "The Billion Dollar Gram"

    { Link } - stuff non-statisticians can appreciate instantly.

28. #28: H23/09/2009 20:06:31

    Hiya guys! It would be handy to see a list of all the projects, possibly sortable by implemented, or not.

29. #29: Simon04/08/2009 01:31:07

    I agree, a good API or something along those lines would be really good.

30. #30: Craig22/05/2009 14:18:56

    Hi guys,

    CData is great - but it would be ten times greater if the ABS provided an API or at least machine-readable and geocoded data which can be easily integrated into other peoples' websites.

    This would really open up the great data provided by the ABS

31. #31: Anne13/05/2009 13:13:10

    one idea of improving the interactivity of the ABS website is to enable live on line chat. Example, if I have a question regarding some stats figures I am able to chat to some in the Bureau. It can also extend the way of contacting NIRs, currently users have to call a 1300x or static ways of getting touch ie email etc.