Best practices for data projects about data-projects

[aithnefeay]

1. What questions do we answer when we begin a data project?

2. What makes for a good data project?

[soooh]

This is the open source license that goes out with other Vox Media projects:

Copyright (c) 2015, Vox Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

BSD license

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

Neither the name of the copyright holder nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

[soooh]

• Provide explanation of dataset (whether it's publicly available, etc.) and what exactly we are claiming as copyright. E.g., if we're using public domain government data, then what we claim as copyright is any script that transforms the dataset into something usable for a project. The data itself is still publicly domain.

[aithnefeay]

• Include guidelines for the processing of data or at the very least document changes that have been made to the source and include it alongside the output.

[aithnefeay]

• Good data projects are an extension of the reporting process that rely on quantitative information to inform and educate. They should accompany and help flesh out a story. A good data project should reveal information by means of analysis that would not otherwise be apparent.

[aithnefeay]

• Context should always accompany data and aid in the understanding of a set.

[aithnefeay]

Should we place our composed doc in the readme?

[soooh]

• information on contributing, particularly for one-off projects that likely will not be updated https://github.com/voxmedia/data-projects/tree/master/vox-elections-2016/clinton_employers#contribute

[soooh]

@alfeay re: Should we place our composed doc in the readme? -- yes