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User:Mcnabber091

From Outreach Wiki

Hello, my name is Alex Peek.

My primary contribution to the Wikimedia Foundation is through the Global Economic Map project and uploading economic data to Wikidata.

Currently I have a blog at Econ Analysis Tools. A directory of posts can be found at this link: https://econanalysistools.blogspot.com/2017/04/econ-analysis-tools-blog-posts.html. This blog can also be found at: https://alexpeek.org/

Below is a list of guidelines and standards I have proposed for collecting and organizing information on the internet beyond Wikimedia projects.


Information blogging guidelines

Information blogging guidelines (IBG) is a list of templates and goals for displaying information on a webpage. There are 5 templates and 2 goals listed below.

Templates

  • This post is a list of...
  • This post is a collection of...
  • This post is a timeline of...
  • There are __ _____ listed below alphabetically.
  • There are __ _____ listed below chronologically.

Goals

  • Minimalism and clarity
  • Standardization across IBG posts
  • Networks of IBG websites and blogs

With the exception of Wikipedia, I believe information on the internet is very disorganized. To address this, we need a standard for displaying text information on a webpage that enables different websites to work together on the same information collection project. I also believe such a standard should have a method for creating small chunks of information. Chunking allows information to exist in a more granular medium which allows greater flexibility when organizing and arranging pieces of information in a directory.

The curators who create directories (or search engines) of IBG posts would be responsible for helping readers find posts and essentially create the network.


Belief analysis

Belief analysis is a list of rules for displaying the structure of a belief. There are 6 rules listed below.

  • The belief should be stated using a single sentence
  • List reasons to support the belief (no more than 4-5 reasons)
  • Each reason should be stated with a short sentence
  • After each reason, list sub-reasons to support that reason (quotes or original writing)
  • Each sub-reason should be no longer than 2-3 sentences
  • There should be no more than 2-3 sub-reasons per reason

Belief analysis requires reasons to be stated clearly and provides a consistent format to organize supporting material. By making the structure of a belief more transparent, I believe this method can help opposing sides in an argument understand each other more clearly. Instead of reading through paragraphs to interpret somebody's reasoning, belief analysis ensures that the main points are clear to the reader.


Econ Factbook standard

Macroeconomic data websites like World Bank Indicators and FRED have a large amount of economic statistics, but I believe they could do a better job at illustrating an economy in a concise, readable format. The Econ Factbook standard is designed to eliminate excess statistics and only display the structure of an economy. By focusing on the structure, I believe it can help people better understand an economy.

The standard has 8 sections: industries, employment, households, companies, government, banks, central bank, international accounts. Each section has a few statistics to illustrate the condition of that sector.

What can this standard be used for? I believe it would be difficult to analyze an intricate economic issue with this standard. Instead, I think this question can be best answered by analogy with a globe. Nobody says a globe is useless due to its lack of direct practicality. Instead it's meant to be an educational tool to help people to better understand our home planet. I believe the same idea can be applied to the Econ Factbook standard.

I hope that someday every country, state and city in the world could have their own page using this standard updated with current statistics. Presently, economic data about localities is difficult to find on the internet and I believe centralizing this data in a clear format would be useful.

Below is a list statistics in the standard.

Basic statistics

  • Population
  • GDP
  • GDP per capita
  • GDP growth rate

Regions

  • Table of largest regions ranked by GDP along with population, GDP per capita and GDP growth rate

Industries

  • Table of GDP by industry

Employment

  • Unemployment rate
  • Table of employment by industry

Companies

  • Table of the largest companies ranked by revenue along with their profit and assets

Households

  • Total household assets
  • Total household debt
  • Household wealth per adult
  • Gini coefficient

Government

  • Central government total revenue and expenditure
  • Central government total debt
  • Central government 10 year bond rate
  • State and local government revenue and expenditure
  • State and local government debt
  • List of public funds and assets
  • Personal income tax rates and thresholds
  • Corporate tax rate
  • Table of central government revenue by source
  • Table of central government expenditure by source

Central bank

  • Money supply (M0)
  • Benchmark interest rate
  • Total reserves
  • Exchange rate
  • Inflation rate

Banks

  • Table of the largest banks ranked by assets along with their revenue and profits

International accounts

  • Exports
  • Imports
  • Foreign direct investment inflow
  • Foreign direct investment outflow
  • Foreign aid inflow
  • Foreign aid outflow