The state fact book is a prototype inspired by the CIA World Fact Book. However, rather than making information viewable on HTML pages, the State Fact Book prototype is about what this information would look like and how you might be able to use it if it were readable by a computer application.  The prototype is used to compare and contrast a number of XML formats including: traditional XML, XHTML, XBRL, iXBRL, RDF, RDFa.

Quick Overview

To better understand what I am trying to figure out, go to this blog post and note the many different web pages which provide information about the US States.  Try and put any of that information together.

What if the information was all hooked together or in one or more formats that allowed you to create mashups of this information?  This page is a starting point where you can begin to experiment with the different information formats should you choose to do so or take a look at my experimentation.

Try really using this information.  Grab this Excel spreadsheet which has macros for extracting information from the various XML formats.  Reverse engineer the code, write better code, play around with the information.  Add your own information.  Create additional data points for the US states in one or more of these formats.  Create some mash ups.  Think about the characteristics of your information, figure out what information format best suits your needs.

My blog has more information and analysis, you might find it helpful to check that out. The other tabs on this web site contain additional information and analysis.