The Census Bureau is rethinking the way it will produce the data published from the Census 2020. APDU member Jan Vink gives his views on how the Census Bureau can reassure data users about the quality of their data.

The Census Bureau’s solution to protecting privacy is a new DAS based on a methodology referred to as Differential Privacy (DP). The Census commissioned the Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to host a 2-day Workshop on 2020 Census Data Products: Data Needs and Privacy Considerations, held in Washington, DC, on December 11-12, 2019. This post provides an overview of the findings.

APDU is welcoming proposals on any topic related to the privacy, accuracy, and access of public data.  Proposals can be for a single presentation or panel, whether based on a particular project, data practice, or formal paper.  In keeping with the theme of the conference, our interest is in highlighting the breadth of public data to both producers and consumers of public data. Deadline: February 28, 2020.

The next nationwide count starts in most of the country this March, and companies can help ensure its accuracy by encouraging employees and customers to participate.

The House has passed appropriations bills to the Senate for FY2020, and there are important developments for statistical agencies. The Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), and Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) each received modest to substantial increases in their budgets.

Congratulations to this year’s winners! Register for the 2019 APDU Annual Conference today to learn from awardees about how they created these excellent visualizations.

Although many APDU Conference attendees show up to share information about their government agencies’ data products, private companies like PolicyMap have a compelling business reason to attend:  it’s the easiest, most reliable way to learn about what’s in store for data, and data is our lifeblood. 

The 2019 Association of Public Data Users (APDU) Annual Conference, “Wide World of Data,” will be the place to be July 9-10!  The meeting will not only offer attendees cutting edge information about advances affecting public data collection, dissemination, and application, but also will provide them with insights into the politics and policies affecting federal statistical agencies and surveys. 

If you ask a data user to name public data sources, she might name the decennial census, American Community Survey, National Vital Statistics System, or Current Population Survey. Each of those sources provides robust, timely, accurate public data on important topics like population, housing, and employment. Yet the “big name” public data sources merely hint at the breadth and depth of data available, which includes information on consumer expenditures, healthcare access and utilization, and participation in the arts.

Be sure to register for the 2019 APDU Annual Conference! The conference is being held at the Key Bridge Marriott in Arlington, VA on July 9-10. The agenda is set and there are some very exciting speakers.

As 2019 APDU Annual Conference Committee Chair, I would like to cordially invite you to attend what is shaping up to be a fantastic 2019 APDU Annual Conference July 9 – 10 at the Key Bridge Marriott in Arlington, VA. 

The Association of Public Data Users (APDU) is pleased to announce the 2019 Data Viz Awards. We are once again soliciting creative and meaningful graphic designs that use publicly-available data (for example, data from the Census Bureau or Bureau of Labor Statistics) to convey a compelling point or story.

APDU staff attended the Census 2020: Navigating the National and Local Challenges panel discussion hosted by the Brookings Institution to hear legal, demographic, and Census experts discuss a Decennial Census that has garnered interest both for its importance and for its controversies. Primary questions from the meeting revolved implications of including the citizenship question in the Decennial Census, cybersecurity, and how to encourage residents to respond.

After over a year of waiting, the Senate has confirmed William Beach as Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for a term of four years. He replaces William Wiatrowski, who had been serving as Acting Commissioner since 2017.

The 2019 APDU Annual Conference is welcoming APDU members and friends to join with our theme of “Wide World of Data” by submitting a proposal for a presentation or panel related to public data. The conference, to be held in Arlington, VA in July 2019, brings together data users and data producers for conversations and presentations on a wide variety of data and statistical topics.

APDU is pleased to announce the results of the elections for our Board of Directors.

It is imperative that sophisticated data users respond to this FRN. As John Abowd’s blog makes clear, we can control the fitness-for-use of the 2020 Census data products, but the Census Bureau cannot give every use case the same margin-of-error (just as we currently cannot give every statistic from the ACS the same MOE).

This year, in mid-July, public data collectors and users across the country gathered in Arlington, Virginia to discuss the future of public data and its promise to inform public and private sector decisions. APDU Vice President and Conference Chair Kevin McAvey gives his thoughts in this blog post.

The Secretary of Agriculture announced on Thursday, August 9 that the Economic Research Service will undergo several significant changes in the coming year.

APDU wants to point out to our readers pending requests for comments from two groups of particular importance. We know our readers are all busy professionals, but we urge you to take the time to read, think about , and respond to at least one of these requests. UPDATE: The Department of Commerce is requesting  Phase 2 comments on the Federal Data Strategy.

APDU is pleased to announce the winners of the 2018 APDU Data Viz Awards. Register for the 2018 APDU Annual Conference today to learn from awardees about how they created these excellent visualizations. 

Just keeping current isn’t enough; organizations like PolicyMap need to be ready to anticipate changes in the data universe. That’s why it’s so important to have a conference like APDU, where you can really hear what people around the country (and around the world) are talking about in the realm of public data. Experts, practitioners, data providers, and public officials are all there, discussing their work, their challenges, and their solutions. Read this article from PolicyMap’s Bernie Langer to learn more about why organizations like yours will benefit from attending the APDU Conference!

At the upcoming APDU conference session on “Lessons from the Data Visualization Process” we will hear from three experience and accomplished speakers who have recently developed successful data visualizations.  They will talk about their experience choosing the right tools, making them work for the project, building the visualizations, and how they then used the results to communicate their work to a wider audience. Intrigued? Join us in Arlington , VA on July 17 and 18, 2018 at APDU’s annual conference to learn how to get started on building your next great data viz!

Imagine a website that brought together data from 35 public data sources with 600 measures of child health and well-being: This website exists, at Kidsdata.org. Join us in Arlington, Va. July 17th & 18th, 2018 at APDU’s annual conference to learn more about navigating the public data around us by learning how Kidsdata.org was pulled together and how it has been used to inform decision making around children’s issues in the state of California.