Here’s three big problems with PDFs—and three ways your organization can get around them.

LiveStories is excited to introduce a new series of stories called Five Facts. These articles take a close look at the data behind some of the most important issues facing Americans today.

Join LiveStories in our upcoming webinar discussion to help ensure your data will be used to achieve social impact.

In a representative democracy, citizens make their voices heard. But communication is a two-way street. How can modern governments cut through the noise and speak effectively to the citizens they represent?

New data from the United States Census Bureau track population shifts in all 50 states from July 1, 2015 to July 1, 2016. LiveStories put together a quick look at this data that visualizes the components of these population changes.

While social media can be empowering, the same tools enable falsehood and lies to spread faster and farther than ever. How did we get here, and what should governments and citizens do about it?

The work of government has always made for some great stories. Here's how to tell yours.

When you produce something for an audience, remember that you are asking them to give you a treasure: their time.

Open data can be uploaded in a variety of formats. This post discusses the main ones.

Open data is free to the public, easily accessible, and usable as an input for programs and other functions. 

The government has a vital role to play in the "Internet of Things" (IoT)—both in wielding these technologies for the public good and in regulating them against malfeasance.

To really capture the meaning and potential of data, you need people to bring it to life —in the form of local collaborations, news stories, and apps that provide the audiences you’re trying to reach with easy access to information and services.

If publishing data is Open Data 1.0, the next iteration will involve putting these data to good use. Open Data 2.0 should inform policymaking budgetary decisions, raise awareness of issues, and ultimately, empower communities.

We have gathered some of the most interesting data articles from 2016.

The next administration will need to make important choices about both government data and Iraq. What can Mosul’s ruins tell us about the future of government data?

LiveStories learned a lot from the NACCHO conference in Pittsburgh. Here are some of our takeaways.

In this final excerpt from our e-book—Happy Citizens: Measuring Performance in the Public Sector—we explore how governments can use Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs to target and contextualize their initiatives and programs. 

Feeling safe, and feeling loved, are the second and third most fundamental requirements for happiness, according to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. 

Physiological needs relate to the necessity of food, water, and shelter for survival. In a modern society, this concept translates to money.

In many ways, government policies are responsible for the happiness of the public. How, then, can happiness function as a metric for success?

In many ways, government policies are responsible for the happiness of the public. How, then, can happiness functions as a metric for success. 

This e-book provides a framework that can help you link your performance metrics and your policies to the happiness of the constituents you serve. 

Governments have always relied on others to help achieve impact, and vica-versa. By promoting collaboration between government and nongovernment groups, important data can reach more people.

Like peanut butter and jelly, INDEX and MATCH are two Excel functions that work better together. Here's how to use them.

The HLOOKUP function is useful when you have to find a value in a spreadsheet with many columns. Here's how it works. 

Unfortunately, some data visualizations just don’t work. Here are five examples of classic data visualization fails.

At his inauguration, President Trump detailed a list of social maladies facing Americans, including child poverty, a crippled manufacturing industry, poor education, crime, and drugs. We look at the data.

The CDC's 500 Cities Project released vital health measures at the city level. See how LiveStories explores this data in a series of new stories. 

New data from the United States Census Bureau track population shifts in all 50 states from July 1, 2015 to July 1, 2016. LiveStories put together a quick look at this data that visualizes the components of these population changes.

Garbage in garbage out. You might have heard this saying before, and it’s especially true when it comes to data - the quality of your data has a big effect on the quality of your output. There is a lot of data available online, but finding or gathering data can be cumbersome. To help you speed up that process and save time, we have curated a list of online health data resources.