This is for PRO DATA COLLECTORS.

In order to gain access to the JUNAR PUBLISHER button you first have to graduate. Yes, you need to get to the point of knowing what is collecting data. 

Try collecting a Data Stream (click here). Pick any of the suggested sources if you don´t have a website from which to collect. Get to the point in which you SAVE and then you will find it on your right, as shown in the picture.

Next time you are surfing the web and you find any interesting table with data, just click on the Junar Publisher link and the collection process will start.

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Hi everyone!

Today we have released two new features for the Junar API which I would like to talk about.

First of all we have added a new output format of type XML for API´s invoke method. You can now enable the XML output for your calls just by adding the argument output=xml. This will return a standard XML document structure which then you can manipulate.

The other new cool feature we have added to our API is the ability to page through our Data stream invocation calls. This will enable you to properly manipulate and display big data sets with faster response times than requesting the whole dataset in one call.

We have added to following to parameters to our invoke method:

• page: Is of type Integer and represents the page number your requesting starting by 0.  
• limit: Is of type Integer and represents the amount of rows or records to be retrieved per page.

If your invocation call does not provide given parameters the whole dataset will be returned, if one of the above parameters is not provided the request response will be a 400 error.

Hope these new features come in handy in your applications and for any help or support on the new features please contact Junar support.

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What: Junar English Webinar for Developing the Caribbean

When: 5pm Jamaica // 6 pm Trinidad & Tobago 

We are very close to the Developing the Caribbean competition and we want to give all participants a chance to learn more about Junar and how to unleash the potential of open data into their apps. We wil cover the web platform as well as our API so developers and non developers can take full advantage of the platform during the event

To register please go to the following link (https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/853581025) and enter your information. You'll be provided then an e-mail with the link to access the webinar at the time above.

Hurry up! Space is limited

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The Open Data movement is everywhere. Organizations in the Caribbean are striving to educate and impulse the awareness on Open Data by organizing the Caribbean Open Data Conference. During the conference  (Jan 26 and 27) there will be a competition called Developing the Caribbean where participants will create for two straight days applications that take use of the Open Data.

And who better than Junar to boost their applications with Open Data? Yes! We will be sponsoring the competition by providing data issued by the three countries governmental and non profit organizations that's open and free for anyone to use. The data will be available both through our website and our API so anyone can play with. Of course the whole platform will be available as well to extract or upload interesting data to use.

We are also very happy to announce we will have on site support for the Dominican Republic and Trinidad & Tobago (in Trinidad) as well as online support during the event.

Thanks to all collaborators and organizers for making us part of the event. We are really looking forward to the event and bring all the power of open data to the Caribbean.

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With our release some months ago of our API we hoped that we could be able to power up platforms, web services and even applications so they all could benefit from the open data on the web. For this task we developed several methods and technology that would allow others developers to connect into Junar's engine (more info here).

Our first partner to start taking advantage of our API was Startbull, a colombian startup aiming to bring investment education and knowledge where people could learn how to invest with others (crowd sourced) in Latin America.

As a startup, Startbull couldn't afford paying Bloomberg or other similar platforms for the data of Stock Markets, data that was available on the web but difficult to extract and use. Instead they turn to Junar to help them with the quest: Using our collection tool we where able to give them data streams they needed and use them through our API to get all market information for Chile, Colombia and Perú. This data is being pulled directly from the Stock Market websites and real-time (not with the 20min delay bloomberg has on LATAM stock market) into their own platform.

"  Junar has been crucial for us, not only because of the data they deliver, but also because of the excellent data management tool they have developed on their API.  " Santiago Pineda-Startbull

Today Startbull keeps growing it's platform, just completed the StartupChile program and just went finalist on Innova Brasil 2011.

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Tomorrow, hundreds of hackers will battle for 30 straight hours in the Desarrollando America contest (hackathon) where developers compete to create unique and innovative applications around topics like education and security, using open data.

Junar will support the 'biggest hacker event in the region' with relevant and interesting data so they can power up their ideas. Also we will be through the entire event providing tips and support so they can unleash all our API's power. We have set a special place to review a sample of the data gathered for the event on the following site: http://www.junar.com/desarrollandoamerica

For those who want more information on the event you can visit:  http://www.junar.com/desarrollandoamerica (spanish)

We have open up channels for support such a Yahoo Group  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/junar-developers and of course our e-mail support@junar.com .

See the full gallery on Posterous

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Hello! Bonjour! Hola! Shalom!

We just finished Global Entrepreneur Week (#GEW on Twitter). No matter where you were last week, there were events focused on entrepreneurs! We think this is awesome (Junar is, after all, a start-up and we’re entrepreneurs ourselves).

To continue the spirit of last week's celebrations, we’d like to share with you some data on global  entrepreneurship, including this data stream about the events that took place last  week.   

We also want to mention that most of the  data we are sharing in this post comes from the research done by our friends at Global Entrepreneur Monitor (aka our “GEM” friends).

So, without further ado: some data on all of the entrepreneurs in the world.

Meanwhile, this is a good round-up of some world entrepreneurship indicators for 2010.

We also have some country specific entrepreunership indicators. Check out the business start-up scene in Israel, Latin America, and France, for example.

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Last week, the daily deal website giant, Groupon, went public. It was largest public offering of an internet site's stock since Google went public in 2004.

While every one likes discounts and deals, the questions still arise as to how the stock (and the company) are doing. This week, we're here to share with you some data about Groupon (GRPN), the site with an amazing mail list that consists of over 83 million subscribers and a supposed $64 billion in revenue.

Here's some data that shows just how much the site grew from 2009 (with only 152,000 subscribers) to 2011,

Groupon also acquired a number of other sites along the way, take a look.

But then again, they also acquired over $1 billion in funding, as seen here.

For even more info, see our Groupon Dashboard.

So, how's GRPN stock doing?

Here's where it's trading today.

And here is how it compares to the overall market.

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By Lizzie Cranberry

On November 1^st, the world’s population officially reached the 7 billion mark. This week, we take a look at the data behind that figure. Who are the 7 billion? Where do most of them live? Which countries are growing the fastest, which are declining? And which of them are the happiest? Have more info you want to share? Please let us know and we’ll create some more data streams.

Click here if you want to know which are the most populated  (aka most crowded) countries.

And a chart to follow, showing which of the most crowded countries are growing the fastest:

Powered by Junar

Meanwhile, you can check the top 10 countries with the fastest population growth.

How about the country with the most smiling faces? Check out the happiest countries.

And the grand finale: our population data round-up in the form of a Dashboard.

That’s today’s Data Dosage. Thanks for being our Data Amigo. It’s a big world out there and we love having you as our friend. J

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If embedding live data in your blogs or websites wasn't cool enough, we have added yet another functionality: embedding charts. And of course if you create a chart from a data stream that's constantly updating that means live charts!

You can create charts from data streams on your dashboard, and the just click Actions>Embed to retrieve the code to paste on your blog or website, it's that easy!

Below an example of a nice chart showing the vartiations of metal commodities, the chart is fed from this data stream and now the chart changes as the values on the market move.

Go ahead, create your own live charts and embed them everywhere!

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Do you spend countless hours collecting data from the web?

Analysts spend over 70% of their time collecting data for their every day work and only 30% in analysis.

Maximize your productivity with Junar and let us do the hard part.

What's Junar?

Junar is a platform that allows users to extract data from the web and manage it from one single site. It's designed to be very easy to collect data from webpages, just add your URL in the collect page and start creating your own data streams (conections between Junar and a website or file on the web). 

Stop wasting time copy/pasting values, downloading files or going back everytime you need to update: Junar keeps your data updated automatically and in real-time.

Integrate data in Junar to your everyday tools like Google Spreadsheets or MS Excel. Let us update your documents for you, no more copy pasting, no more errors, no more time consuming in updating your data.

Create your own dashboards for easy access, add 'live' graphs and embed them to your websites. Certainly your blog/website visitors will bennefit from fresh data and graphs.

Change the way you collect, track and use data forever.

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By Mark Boyd

Junar user, freelance writer based in Barcelona, who specializes in using data to tell stories and share information. 

Two international human rights organizations have recently published a report ranking the world’s right to information laws. Access Info Europe and the Centre for Law and Democracy are dedicated to ensuring citizens have open access to data and information from public authorities. In their surprise research findings, it is the member states of the European Union that fall way behind other countries in enabling citizens to easily access public data and government information.

89 countries were assessed in the study. Researchers scored each nation’s right to information laws using 7 indicators. These indicators assess how well the laws define rights to information access, how complicated the processes are when requesting information, what information authorities can refuse to provide, how citizens and community groups can appeal, and other elements.

In the Right to Information Ranking Study, the total score for each country reflects the strength of citizen rights in accessing data and documents held by public authorities. Key findings included:

·      The more recent the law, the greater the likelihood that it details better information rights for citizens.

·      This meant laws in Serbia, India, Slovenia and other countries who have updated their right to information laws since 2000 scored the highest results.

·      15 of the bottom 20 scoring nations were European member states which have more antiquated legislation.

·      Junar’s home country of Chile, which introduced right to information laws in 2008, scored 93 out of 150 – falling behind 4 nations in the Americas that scored above 100 and coming in 7^th among all nations in the Americas.

Helen Darbishire, Executive Director of Access Info Europe, spoke to Junar in between attending sessions at the International Conference of Information Commissioners currently being held in Ottawa, Canada. She explained how data advocates who use Junar to manage their data can make use of the research. In particular, she pointed to the detailed excel data available for each country that shows individual nation’s scores for each of the 7 indicators:

“We hope that [individuals and communities] will use the data in advocacy in their countries. One of the strengths of the research is being able to take a particular indicator and compare across the 89 countries. So, for example, if a country is planning to introduce fees for filing requests, it can be demonstrated that this is very rarely done (Canada, Ireland, India – that’s about it). And we hope that Ireland and Canada will see sense to abolish fees using this comparative information.”

Ms Darbishire encouraged Junar users to mine the data to make local comparisons and advocate for better right to information laws. “Some nice data visualisations showing how a country lags behind its neighbours on a specific indicator should be useful for advocacy work,” she suggested.

One effort to use the results to improve access to data has already emerged. The findings demonstrated that many European nations need to update their right to information legislation to reflect contemporary standards for access to data and government documents. Access Info Europe has followed up the findings with a new advocacy push and web portal, “AsktheEU.org” which aims to document Europe’s openness and responsiveness to new information requests. At present, the human rights group estimates only 0.0024% of Europeans (or 12,000 of the 500 million residents) are exercising their right to access public documents and data.

Access to information is seen as fundamental to human rights and the availability of open government data is increasingly essential for political transparency and economic development in societies around the globe.

The robust methodology of the research project involved scoring each nation’s legislation against the seven key indicators that measure rights of local citizens to access government information. This was then followed by a process of double-checking the scores with a leading expert in each nation, and finally by rigorous independent assessment of the results by a global Advisory Council committed to international standards on the right to information.

The study could only assess legislative rights to information and has not been able – at this stage – to measure how well governments implement their laws. It is hoped that a new body growing out of this agenda – the Open Government Partnership – will be able to focus more closely on how well countries implement right to information laws and how well they respond to individual requests for access to data.

How well does your nation rank in the right to information debate? Have you needed access to data from public authorities? Review the Junar dashboard on World Rankings of Right to Information and share your thoughts with us.

Powered by Junar

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Viewing large sets of data is many times painfull. This problem is worst whenever you have a table with a header and when you scroll down you loose sight of it. Now, whenever you embed a Junar data stream you can freeze as many rows as you want so viewing them it's a breeze. For example, here we have a data stream that's particularly long (...most common men names in the US) and lets say I want to embed it on my blog but keep the first row frozen, so Name, % Frecuency, Aprox Number and Rank can be fixed on top and don't move as users scroll down the data.

Now if you are on a data stream details (viewing a single data stream) you can click ACTIONS>EMBED and now you'll have a new field called Freeze that allows you to set how many rows you want to stay frozen (fixed)

Finally the data stream is now embedded and if you scroll down the first row (now in grey) will remain fixed for your viewing comfort. 

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Some Junar news for you all... a lot of users asked us for graphs, and here they are. We tweeted about this a few days ago but below is a more detailed description on how to make your Dashboards look even better with good graphs and visualizations.

Step #1 - Go to one of your dashboards and pick one of those Data Streams that you can use to tell a story from the Data. For this example, I'm using my VC investments Dashboard and my latest 10 Emergence Capital investments Data Stream.

Step #2 - In the Dashboard View, go to the Data Stream you want to use to create a graph, click first on Actions and then on 

Step #3 - Follow the steps to create the graph you want. Start by selecting the figures to be displayed and then select chart type, and add some clarifications and labels

Step #4 - Organize and enjoy your new Dashboard brought to life !

... and if you enjoyed doing this even half as much as Mati enjoyed coding this for you, please share your cool graphed Dashboard with the world !

Please contact us if you have any question,

Junar Team 

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A week ago we announced how to bring Junar Data Streams into Google Spreadsheets.

Google insisted on returning the favor so it is possible now to publish Data Streams from pieces of Tables in your Google Spreadsheets !

Say you are passionate about Venture Capital, you have extracted some interesting information from LinkSV, and you now want to publish this data to the world. Here´s what you do:

#1 - You create the table you are interested in publishing and to honor the sources you write them below

#2 - You ensure that there are no protected areas in the document. This means that the column and row freeze bars are in the top left corner as you can see in the image above.

#3 - You need to publish the sheet in which the table is located. Ensure that you (i) publish as a webpage, (ii) select ONLY the one sheet.

#4 - You can get the link of this public sheet

#5 - And now you go to Junar to "collect a new Data Stream" as you already know, or you just use our bookmarklet if you are a Junar Ninja

And in case you want to check out this Data Stream, just go visit "Last 50 VC investments distribution"

Cheers, 

The Junar team

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A new feature released by Junar, here it is: Insert live data streams into your Google Spreadsheets.

Very simple

1. Find the Data Stream you like (in this example a LinkSV sourced Data Stream on investments in Silicon Valley)

2. Click on ´Actions´ and then on ´Google Spreadsheets´ to get the ´code´

   -> =ImportHtml("http://www.junar.com/datastreams/html/34755/top-10-largest-vc-rounds-in-2011-linksv-investments-summary/" ; "table" ; 1)

3. Then, just go to your google Doc and insert the code in a cell

4. The Data Stream coming from a site in the web (or from a computer of a Junar Data Publisher) will be updated by Junar in your google doc

For sharing Spreadsheets you certainly use Google Docs... Start embedding live data from the web that you find in the Junar growing catalog of pre-curated data. Let us know what you think (support@junar.com).

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Join us on Wednesday, August 24 at 6:30pm in Storify´s office (149 9th street, Suite 404, San Francisco, CA)

Click to join Hacks and Hackers San Francisco Meetup.

Event Agenda:

The latest Hacks/Hackers panel will showcase companies that are solving the challenges of this Age of Data. We are living in a data deluge where every day, governments are opening up datasets and unleashing massive amounts of information to the public. This is creating a snowball effect where data continues to pile up far more quickly than ever before.

Each panelist will give a short demo of the technologies and tools they are building to help cope with data overload. Demos will be followed by a Q&A.

Presenters:

-Eva Ho, VP of Marketing Operations at Factual

-Diego May, CEO of Junar

-Tasneem Raja, Interactive editor of data apps at Mother Jones, formerly at The Bay Citizen.

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Data Geeks. If you are looking for country data information to be used in reports:

 - Take a look at Junar country Dashboards

 - Use the Dashboards in your spreadsheets, 

 - Embed any of these Data Streams in your blogs

Here the countries included and you can click on them to go to the respective dashboards: United States, China, Germany, and search for others as well (France, UK, Brazil, Italy, etc).

Hope you like it.

Junar Team

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Junar has now opened its Engine for developers to do some magic with it. We'll keep working on it such that you can always get the live data coming from different sites in the web or from different users publishing relevant data they own. We have a created a page with all the information and documentation so all developers can get started on how to use it: http://www.junar.com/developers/

Developers can now focus on creating interesting applications that we will promote as much as we can.

The Junar server API enables direct access to the Junar data catalog and engine from your application. It allows discovering Data Streams & dashboards, invoking Data Streams, and soon....collecting data and publishing it as Data Streams.  It uses a RESTful interface and returns data in JSON.

Data streams invoked through the API provide online and standarized  access to data contained in HTML pages, XLS and CSV files available on the web.

- What is a Data Stream? A Data Stream is a set of data collected by a Junar user from several sources in the web to even self-publishing of relevant data that Junar users posess and want to share. Junar keeps the Data Streams updated.

- What is a Dashboard? A Dashboard is a group of Data Streams that a Junar user creates. For some crazy reason Junar users like grouping data that together make sense.

If you are interested in playing with our API, please send us an email at Develpers@Junar.com or contact Joaco aka APIMan if you have any doubt.

Junar Team

07_Junar-Api-Doc.pdf Download this file

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The Challenge: the web is filled with massive amounts of constantly changing data that is hard to organize and collect.
The Solution: Junar, a new tool that makes collecting data easy.

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