Have you been planning to submit a data visualization entry to our Best City in the World Contest and help the Economist Intelligence Unit find new ways to rank the world’s cities? Time is running out — don’t let your chance to win $10,000 slip away.

Submitting your entry correctly involves a few steps; make sure you get it to us properly so your efforts aren’t wasted. Take a few minutes to watch our submission guide video to ensure you know how:

Best City in the World Contest Submission Guide from BuzzData on Vimeo.

How to Enter

First, read the Contest Rules. By participating in this contest, you agree to be bound by these rules. We also suggest that you bookmark this page and the Contest Rules page for future reference; please check back from time to time for any updates.

1. Log in or sign up to BuzzData to download the two EIU datasets:

 EIU 2011 Liveability Index

 EIU 2011 World Cost of Living Index

2. Create a new dataset and name it in the format: “Best City Contest - < First Name > < Last Name >.”

   a. Upload your new dataset to BuzzData, making it “Private”. See BuzzData Help for guidance on doing this.

   b. Add the topic “Best City Contest” to the dataset (mandatory) and start to follow this topic (optional but we recommend it).

3. Build your project on BuzzData - work on your dataset offline (e.g. mash it up with other, publicly-available data) and re-upload to take advantage of BuzzData’s excellent version control as you get it ready for submission.


4. Produce a visualization of your dataset, using your visualization tool of choice, and associate it with your dataset. See BuzzData Help for guidance on adding visualizations to datasets.


5. Create a document (PDF, Word or Pages document) that clearly identifies the best city and explains your approach and the value in your index (e.g. why you’ve weighted it as you have) (max 1,000 words). Upload it as an attachment to the dataset.


6. When your dataset, visualization and document are ready for submission:

   a. Make the dataset “Public”. See BuzzData Help for guidance on doing this.

   b. Invite the user “BuzzJudge” to become a collaborator on your dataset. This will confirm your submission.



7. All submissions (that have invited BuzzJudge as a collaborator) will be considered final at 11:59pm (PST) on March 4, 2012. Any subsequent updates to datasets will not be accepted as part of the submission.


8. Drum up support for your submission by Tweeting about it, Liking it on Facebook, +1-ing on Google+, showcasing it on your blog or website using BuzzData’s badges, etc.

Our ‘Best City in the World’ contest in partnership with the Economist Intelligence Unit forges ahead — there’s only one weekend left to submit your entry! The deadline fast approaches: March 4, 2012. If you’ve got data visualization skills and urban design knowledge to show off, don’t let the chance to redefine city liveability and win $10,000 slip past you. 

Some quick updates on the contest:

1) Eager data-visualization enthusiasts continue to iterate on the EIU’s liveability data sets on our Best City Contest topic page, mining for interesting and telling trends:

Some very interesting ways of interpreting the data are popping up — follow along and join the discussion!

2) One contestant recently asked us a question regarding climate vs. weather indicators in the EIU’s liveability index:

At “Category 3: Culture and environment” in the document “About Liveability Survey.doc”, the indicator Humidity/temperature rating is mentioned.

This indicator does not appear in the (liveability) spreadsheet, instead there is a “Climate rating” indicator.

Does this indicator relate climate in the sense of weather, and in that case which factors is this indicator taking into account?

EIU Cost of Living editor Jon Copestake clarified as follows:

“The climate category has two indicators: a general comfort indicators supplied by the correspondent and also a quantitative indicator calculated from average weather conditions. The enquirer is right - these are the same indicator.”

To help further clarify, Copestake also passed along the EIU’s climate scoring methodology, which is now found under “Attachments” of the EIU’s contest liveability index data set.  

The EIU has been very open to answering contestant inquiries as completely as possible, so do take advantage! If you have a question, ask Copestake directly through a BuzzData private message or ask us at contest@buzzdata.com.