RE: [CTPP] Re: AFF2 and its well-known faults

Fair question. I earlier recommended 3 sites that I consider user-friendly (good UI) and functional for data query and download. All 3 sites are run be experienced DBAs and afficionados of Census data -- I expect we're all similarly understanding the best practices for organizing and compiling Census data. - University of Missouri Census State Data Center is run by a very savvy Census data expert and database guy. - NHGIS.org (National Historical Census GIS) is the work of a team at Univ of Minnesota Population Center. They are also a Census State Data Center member. - The IRE.org folks are Census data experts working within the news media industry, and relied upon by a large network of reporters. I suppose there is slim possibility of load and compilation errors -- but is it any more/less risky than downloading the big SummaryFile set from www2.census.gov and assembling your own database? For my part, these are 3 sites I trust. --Todd Graham ________________________ Todd Graham Principal Forecaster Metropolitan Council 390 Robert Street North Saint Paul, MN 55101 ph: 651/602-1322 email: todd.graham(a)metc.state.mn.us in: www.linkedin.com/in/toddgraham web: www.metrocouncil.org ________________________ ________________________________________ From: ctpp-news-bounces(a)chrispy.net [ctpp-news-bounces(a)chrispy.net] On Behalf Of mkaminowitz(a)baltometro.org [mkaminowitz(a)baltometro.org] Sent: Sunday, August 28, 2011 4:51 PM To: ctpp-news(a)chrispy.net Subject: Re: [CTPP] Re: AFF2 and its well-known faults Can data from third party distributors be trusted? I would like to break free of AFF2, in fact I have to since half the time the data won't download or the table is mysteriously unavailable. But I am concerned about relying on data that has been removed from the original source. If there were an error in a table the the Census corrected the data, would the correction carry over to these sites? Mara -----Original Message----- From: Graham, Todd [mailto:todd.graham@metc.state.mn.us] Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2011 05:36 PM To: ctpp-news(a)chrispy.net Subject: [CTPP] Re: AFF2 and its well-known faults I know you?re frustrated with AFF2. I no longer recommend it to anyone. So if you need Census 2010 summary tabulations, here are best online alternatives to AFF2 (my picks): ? http://mcdc.missouri.edu/pub/data/sf12010/Datasets.html if you need many tables for a large number of locations (for example, all Census Tracts in Minnesota). User interface looks complex the first time ? but you?ll see it?s easy ? and allows output in SAS, or flat-file or other formats. ? http://nhgis.org<http://nhgis.org/> if you need a few tables (a few topics) for a large number of locations + you want ArcGIS shapefile too. ? http://census.ire.org/data/bulkdata.html if you just need one table (1 at a time) for a large number of locations. This is the quickest to navigate. The drawback is: this site does not provide descriptive column headings/labels. You?ll need SF1 documentation to decipher and re-label the column headings it provides. ________________________ Todd Graham Principal Forecaster and Project Manager Metropolitan Council 390 Robert Street North Saint Paul, MN 55101 ph: 651/602-1322 email: todd.graham@metc.state.mn.us<mailto:todd.graham@metc.state.mn.us> in: www.linkedin.com/in/toddgraham web: http://www.metrocouncil.org/data/ ________________________