Getting Started With ChattaData
Before we get started, here’s a quick glossary that will make getting started in ChattaData much easier.
Display Name - This is the name that will show up alongside your shared views and visualizations in the Open Data Portal. It is also the name that will show up on the top-right of the screen when logged in.
Dataset - The common name for a set of data that you will find throughout our portal, it can be thought of as a large spreadsheet that you would see in Excel. There are columns (also known as fields) and the data itself is shown in rows. Datasets also have metadata that describe the dataset, its columns and rows.
Metadata - This term technically means ‘data about data’ and that is exactly what it is. A dataset’s metadata describes when the data was last updated, the dataset contact (most often a City employee), the number of views/downloads and how many rows and columns it contains. The metadata further describes a field/column to help make sense of the rows in the dataset.
View - Views or Filtered Views are datasets that have been filtered down for public view. In many cases, this is simply to make the data more easy to understand by filtering out extra columns that include jargon or are only used internally. Sometimes though, the filters are necessary for privacy reasons.
Visualization - Visualizations are a catch-all term that explain different ways of turning data into interesting and presentable graphics. Some of our data contains locations and addresses, those can be used to make maps. Others contain dollar amounts for spending categories, those can be used to create charts or histograms showing average spending in an area over time. Visualizations are the real bread and butter of ChattaData, this is what you’ll make yourself to help make sense of the data found on the Open Data Portal
Let’s get started by signing up.
Getting Logged In
While a large amount of our data and visualizations are publicly available without a login, it’s not possible to save any of your own work without creating an account so that’s a recommended first step.
How to Sign Up:
Go to https://www.chattadata.org/
Click on ‘Sign In’ at the top right
If you already have a login, simply enter your existing username and password
Continue to the other How To guides once you have logged in.
- How To Explore the Site
- How To Find The Right Data
- How To Present the Data (create visualizations)
If not, click the ‘Sign Up’ button
On the Sign Up page, fill out the User Details page keeping in mind that your password must:
- be between 8 and 40 characters and satisfy three of the following four criteria:
- contain a digit
- contain a lowercase letter
- contain an uppercase letter
- contain a non-alphanumeric symbol
Check the ‘I’m not a robot’ box and answer the challenge provided
Click ‘Create my Account’ to sign up
Once you have created your account, you will see a page that lets you know you must verify your account before you can start exploring the Open Data Portal
You should get an email within a few minutes that looks like this. If not, click ‘Resend’
Click the ‘Confirm your email address link’ in this email to verify your new account.
You’ll be taken to a sign-in screen where you can login with your chosen username and password and get started browsing the Chattadata website
Success!
This is the final step of the sign up process, please continue on to our other How To Guides to learn more: