About Service
Information in the database and its quality
Service Datanest is a database with diverse information about the functioning of Slovakia: the governments, bureaus, political parties, economy, but also the relations between the various subjects operating in the country.
Most of the information related to the management and functioning of the country must upon request be provided by the state agencies by law. The Fair-play Alliance requests such information and subsequently distributes the raw data in Datanest.
All the information compiled in Datanest is located in the section “Katalog udajov”/Data Catalog. This contains data from several main segments:
- register of organizations, NGO’s and foundations
- database of public procurements
- register of persons: lawyers, MP assistants, party officials, ambassadors and diplomats, advisors to government
- offices and Euro-parliament members
- information on debt obligations against the state; for example a list of tax debtors
- information on grants and subsidies from the euro-funds
- list of government members, heads of state bureaus and enterprises
- information on privatization, sale and lease of public property.
All the information is disclosed in Datanest in the form of tables in a simple graphic resolution. Tables may be searched with the use of search engine in the upper right corner of the website. For more detailed work with data, API – application programming interface, is available in some tables.
How we collect data for Datanest
Large part of the information disclosed in Datanest was acquired by the Alliance from state institutions on the basis of Act no. 211/2000 on free access to information.
Another part of the information comes from publicly available sources, such as Public procurements’ bulletin or Statistical register of organizations.
In extraordinary cases (list of MPs, list of ministers) we draw the information from the official communications of the institutions.
Data, which can be gathered mechanically (for example Public procurements’ bulletin) is downloaded automatically from the bulletin and published in Datanest. We receive the information obtained on the basis of the Law on free access to information from institutions by mail or email, convert it to an appropriate format and subsequently publish it in Datanest. Data obtained from the institutions’ websites is edited and published in a similar manner.
Data error rate
Due to large amount of data we try to publish in Datanest, we cannot give a 100% guarantee the available data is error free. Most of the information is manually prepared for the publishing, and in such circumstances the human factor is always a risk.
We try to remove the inaccuracies and defects that we notice. Where it is not possible or appropriate to correct the error, we try to address the problem by giving a note of the particular errors. Error description is posted in the tables in the section “Informácie/Information”.
Data recency
Some of the data published in Datanest may not be up to date. We try to update all the tables that lack data for certain periods, but this is a gradual process. For this reason, please pay attention to the dates, on which the information was marked as up to date, or to which the information was related.
The published information gets updated in various time intervals. Information on updating is in individual tables.
Legal status of data and verification
Due to the possible inaccuracies, we recommend to use the data only for reference points. Data is not usable for legal acts. In case you need certainty, we recommend checking the data at the appropriate bureau/agency.
We recommend posting the warning that the information has merely a benchmarking function in the applications, which are using data from Datanest.
How to work with Datanest API
API serves for deriving information from Datanest in a format, which is easily workable with external websites and applications. These applications are not produced by the Fair-play Alliance; they should be produced by the public while simultaneously using the data from Datanest.
All the registered users must have an activated account to use the API. If you encounter an error access_denied, ask the administrator to activate your account for using the API.
API key is necessary for using the API. Every registered user receives this and every API user’s key is unique. You will find it in the section “My account”/Moje konto, in which a new key may also be generated.
To work with the API, in most cases it is necessary to have the ID of the dataset you want to work on. Dataset ID is a unique dataset number. When you open a dataset, in the address you will see for example /datasets/1, where 1 is the dataset number.
Interface API methods is at the address: /api/[metóda]?api_key=[váš kľúč] and other parameters.
To download a dataset description in the XML and other formats there is a method dataset_description with parameter dataset_id. Example: /api/dataset_description?api_key=123&dataset_id=1
To download the whole dataset there is a method dataset_dump with parameter dataset_id. Example: /api/dataset_dump?api_key=123&dataset_id=1
To download a record in the XML and other formats, there is a method dataset_record with parameters dataset_id and record_id. Example /api/dataset_record?api_key=123&dataset_id=1&record_id=1
Documentation
Source codes and documentation are located at:
- http://github.com/fairplaysk/datacamp
- http://github.com/Stiivi/Datacamp-ETL
Other interesting data (applicable for mash up) can be found at: http://px-web.statistics.sk/PXWebSlovak/