---
redirect_from: /2013/07/community-update-data-wrangling-list-and-moving-day-for-the-progress-page/
title: 'Community update: Data wrangling list, moving day for our progress page and
  more'
authors:
- Anders Pedersen
---
It has been a few busy weeks around OpenSpending, and so it is time for another community update!

###Introducing Datatoload: a place to list datasets that you would like to add to OpenSpending
Two months back we launched <a href="http://progress.openspending.org">progress.openspending.org</a> in order to make it easy to show and tell what datasets you are working on. Since the launch we however noticed that progress.openspending.org seems to be ill suited for actually tracking and collaborating on the uploading process, as the site does not offer a place to discuss the data but only list it. We therefore recently created the repo <a href="https://github.com/openspending/datatoload">Datatoload</a> on the OpenSpending Github site, which will replace progress.openspending.org going forward.

With Datatoload you can now not only list your dataset, but also <strong>ask a questions</strong> to <a href="https://github.com/openspending/datatoload/issues/4#issuecomment-21298852">to other users and discuss how to work with your dataset</a>. You can learn more about the easy steps for getting to use Datatoload in this guide<em>.</em>

<strong>Please note:</strong> For you to use Github to track datasets going into OpenSpending does not mean that you will need any programming skills!

###Welcome to new community members!
Are you sensing that the OpenSpending community is growing? Well, you are right! This week we have had a look at how you are using the site, and got quite thrilled from what we saw.

- The last month: 79 public datasets were added by 78 users
- The last three months: 115 datasets were added by 138 users
- This is compared to 171 users throughout all of 2012.

The City Spending Party was certainly a big part of this as we went from 91 mapped city budgets in early July to <a href="http://apps.openspending.org/maps/">135 cities today</a>.
We are eager to take on the community growth and ask you to get in touch if you can help assist on blog editing, data wrangling or code review via info [at] openspending [dot] org.

###New on the blog
- The bankruptcy of Detroit through the lens of open data: Marc Joffe from Public Sector Credit Solutions wrote this excellent piece on the <a href="http://blog.openspending.org/2013/07/29/predicting-city-bankruptcies-with-open-data-the-case-of-detroit/">fragile finances of Chicago and Detroit</a>.
- How to visualise local budgets? Niels Erik Kaaber Rasmussen wrote about <a href="http://blog.openspending.org/2013/07/11/opening-up-municipal-spending-data/">how he visualised Danish municipal finances</a> using bubble charts.
- Getting stuck cleaning spending data? Tony Hirst from School of Data wrote an excellent <a href="http://schoolofdata.org/2013/07/26/using-openrefine-to-clean-multiple-documents-in-the-same-way/">guide for cleaning spending data with Open Refine</a>
- Hiroichi Kawashima gave an <a href="http://blog.openspending.org/2013/07/10/where-does-my-money-go-activities-have-become-infectious-in-japan/">exciting update from Japan</a> and the many deployments of Where Does My Money Go? satellite sites there.
- The community members who took part in the City Spending Party provided stellar updates for our <a href="http://blog.openspending.org/2013/07/26/city-spending-party-around-the-world/">blog post touring city spending parties around the world</a>.

Are you doing work on spending data or did you just complete a budget visualisation that you would like to share? Write a guest post for the OpenSpending blog by getting in touch at info [at] openspending [dot] org

###Sign up for a volunteer task in our brand new community Trello board
OpenSpending is first and foremost a community project, and we are thrilled about the growing engagement. We however need your assistance to move forward on the many new tasks for making OpenSpending a good place to come for beginners as well as budget nerds. We have created this <a href="https://trello.com/b/nLZBzdRS/activities">public Trello board</a>, which will help us manage our many task as community from <strong>translations</strong> to <strong>guest blog posting</strong> that are ahead of us.

If you have not used Trello before, fear not, but simply <a href="https://trello.com/c/xeGcPRCv/1-read-this-first-to-get-started">read this ticket</a>, which explains how you can get started contributing to the various tasks at OpenSpending, small or big, while using Trello.

###A Datawrangling mailing list
Last week we welcomed our Data Wranglers for a first introductory call and our announcement of the Data Wrangling team is right around the corner. A key task for the Data Wrangling Team will be to help community members to clean, load and visualize data with OpenSpending. We would therefore like to offer a place where community members can ask all these questions about how to scrape, clean and load spending data. For this reason we have created the <a href="http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/os-datawrangling">Data Wrangling mailing list</a>, where you can join such a conversation and get tips and tricks for working on budget and spending data from community members including our fantastic the Data Wrangling team.

You can <a href="http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/os-datawrangling">join the list right here</a>!

###Events and hangouts
We have got an Introduction to OpenSpending, a Community Hangout and the fantastic <a href="http://okcon.org">OKCon</a> coming up, so mark your calendar!

####Introduction to OpenSpending Tuesday 6 August
Are you looking to get started using OpenSpending: either to add your first dataset or create a visualisation? We will be running an online training on 6 August, at 16:30 CET / 15:30 BST / 10:30 EDT<strong> - <a href="http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=OpenSpending+introduction&amp;iso=20130806T1030&amp;p1=263&amp;ah=1">your time zone</a> </strong>via Google Hangout

Sign up for the introduction to OpenSpending in the Google form below:
<iframe src="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1GaXw9mQYdJ6xjkADw-eg4vH5Uq6mM7o0T9029Hn6akk/viewform?embedded=true" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" width="600" height="500"></iframe>

####Next community Hangout on Wednesday 7 August
From August we will reintroduce the bi-weekly meeting schedule, and scale back from the weekly calls we ran while preparing for the spending party. This means that we will host Community Hangouts every two weeks dedicated to both community updates and a data clinic, where you can get help with the dataset that you are working on.

We will organise our next Community Hangout on 7 August, at 19:00 CET / 18:00 BST / 13:00 EDT - <a href="http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=OpenSpending+Community+Hangout&amp;iso=20130807T13&amp;p1=263&amp;ah=1">your time zone</a> via Google Hangout

Sign up in the form below:
<iframe src="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1vi2LNysNsu346-X8H5oIp00OUjDFsiR_pYcQSWrQAiY/viewform?embedded=true" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" width="600" height="500"></iframe>

####OKCon in Geneva 16-18 September
OKCon will feature several budget and spending related sessions on topics such as on open finances and spending standards. Have a look at the entire <a href="http://okcon.org/schedule/">schedule and featured speakers</a> and get your ticket. We would be thrilled to see you there!

