The Scottish Parliament Motions Map
I was at conference a while ago and asked a journalist what I thought was quite a good question. What sort of data would she like to see from a public institution like the Scottish Parliament? Her answer was even better than the question, and it gave me an idea. What did Ema Sabljak reckon would interest punters?
- Something hyper-local,
- map based,
- and health related.
It occurred to me that the Scottish Parliament produces loads of location-based content that otherwise doesn't get used. These are what are called 'standard' motions, the kind that are not meant for discussion in the chamber. Motions like:
Unlike questions or motions for debate, standard motions don't really go anywhere, so it would be nice if they got their place in the sun on a map. The problem is they don't have geographical co-ordinates, but I reckoned I could use Ordnance Survey data to match placenames to their co-ordinates, and stick the result on a map.
This caused some problems. Loads of schools have the same name, for example, and a lot of places mentioned in the early years of Parliament no longer exist. Plus plenty of other issues I won't bore you with. It meant I had to do a manual quality check on each motion's location, and the biggest problem became sheer volume: from Session 3 (2007 onwards), the Parliament was cranking out several thousand standard motions a year. This was a wee hobby project, and I frankly didn't have time or inclination to go through them all. However, if I could match them to a school or hospital, I did, and the Scottish Parliament Motions Map v.1 is the result:
Not exactly hyper-local! But enter a place or even postcode, and the map zooms in. Now you can see all the times your own locality has been mentioned in the Scottish Parliament.
If you live in Scotland, give it a go and see what comes up. I'd be very interested in your feedback, and especially any suggestions for:
- other data sets
- making the map better to use
- how to match motions to locations more efficiently
- how to scale the map so it performs better with tens of thousands of data points
Current Version
0.1 Map created. Uses OS Open Names for location data, and Title (not motion text) from Parliament Motions where EventSubTypeID = 13 (i.e. Standard Motions). Data exposed in JSON format, one file per session. Session 1 & 2 have as many locations as I could match. Session 3+ only shows locations classified by OS as health or educational facilities.
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