http://puffbox.com/2010/02/03/dont-go-comparing/ Adventures in government, politics and open source. Mostly WordPress-related. Sat, 11 Feb 2012 10:55:07 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://puffbox.com/2010/02/03/dont-go-comparing/comment-page-1/#comment-1262 Simon Thu, 04 Feb 2010 12:13:31 +0000 http://puffbox.com/?p=1337#comment-1262 Further clarification <a href="http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/news/statistics-authority-sets-out-position-on-violent-crime-figures.pdf" rel="nofollow">from the UK Statistics Authority</a>, again courtesy of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markeaston/2010/02/grayling_crime_stats.html" rel="nofollow">Mark Easton's blog</a>: unlike recorded crime data, the British Crime Survey <i>is</i> a consistent measure, and points to 'a 49% fall in violent crime since 1995'... but this is a national figure, and local breakdowns aren't published. Further clarification from the UK Statistics Authority, again courtesy of Mark Easton's blog: unlike recorded crime data, the British Crime Survey is a consistent measure, and points to 'a 49% fall in violent crime since 1995'... but this is a national figure, and local breakdowns aren't published.

]]> http://puffbox.com/2010/02/03/dont-go-comparing/comment-page-1/#comment-1261 Tony Hirst Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:19:30 +0000 http://puffbox.com/?p=1337#comment-1261 In my talk at News:Rewired, I tried to flag some of the dangers of the casual use of data, including the fact that some data points in published datasets might actually be errors... In the limiting case: "every cell is a fact, and if you want to use it in a story, check it". In my talk at News:Rewired, I tried to flag some of the dangers of the casual use of data, including the fact that some data points in published datasets might actually be errors... In the limiting case: "every cell is a fact, and if you want to use it in a story, check it".

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