---
redirect_from: /2013/10/news-editors-and-data-wranglers-hangout-live/
title: News Editors and Data Wranglers Hangout - Live
authors:
- Teodora Beleaga
---
<em>The News Editors' and Data Wranglers' Teams are catching up tonight in a joint Hangout. In the interest of transparency we are running this live-blog as an experiment. </em>

<em>Refresh at your convenience.</em>

<strong>7.02pm (GMT)</strong> We are wrapping up, as our to-do lists are growing. Final points include allocation of more administrative tasks and an awesome project that Steve came up with which is to map all monies spent on energy management, specifically with regards to global warming and the funds budgeted there.

<strong>6.49pm (GMT)</strong> Berlin-based Michael is sharing his project of opening up budgets across German cities, including <a href="http://www.opendata-hro.de/">this one</a> and <a href=" http://opendata.devtal.de/tree.php">this one</a>. In partnership with <a tabindex="0" href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/101270320595909457186" target="_top">Miriam Ruhenstroth</a> they aim to get the data up on Open Spending.

<strong>6.42pm (GMT)</strong> Another insight from the call is that <a href="https://docs.google.com/a/okfn.org/document/d/1-RhyBc7rFgBW78160BA0mxD6cpVZ-PtfM8QL_WEoPqY/edit#heading=h.79vyyu8n203g">our guide</a>, which aims to help communities get started and has been translated (by volunteers) in four languages, may yet again be in need of a refresh. Steve is going to go through it with a pair of fresh eyes and help update it. If you want to help too, please let us know. Getting communities started as seamlessly as possible with Open Spending is very important to us.

<strong>6.32pm (GMT)</strong> We're talking data cleaning now. Big Data that is. Elain's data is a 1GB file of over 1m lines. She is currently attempting the task with MySQL and OpenRefine. Do you have any other suggestions?

<strong>6.27pm (GMT)</strong> One of the data wranglers, Elaine Ayo is working cleaning the data on EU structural funds for Italy, which she claimed <a href="http://progress.openspending.org/">here</a>. "It's quite large and so I am still working on trying to figure out how to deal with it," she told us. Can you help?

<strong>6.22pm (GMT)</strong> Turns out we have Berlin and Toronto represented in the call too.

<strong>6.17pm (GMT)</strong> We are taking rounds to reinforce who we are and what we're in this game for. George Adcock (aka Steve) underlined the need for an infographic map showing the relationships between all the tools we use, especially here at OpenSpending, whether to produce our work, keep up with it or share it. Great insight!

<strong>6.10pm (GMT)</strong> Welcome! Hooking up on a call from across the world take a few minutes. We are joined from DC, London and Louisiana to name but a few places. In the call tonight we have Anders Pedersen, George Adcock, Elaine Ayo, Michael Horz, Neil Ashton and myself.

