Data & Tools

Here’s a GitHub repository with a simple script you can run to turn an .mbox file, the format your emails are exported to, into a .csv file, which you can view as a spreadsheet. Instructions for how to install and use it are included in the repository’s home page.

dataportals.org hosts a huge collection of (collections of) data, organized by place. This is a great source for municipal data sets: for example, zooming down onto Boston will lead you to the Metro Boston DataCommon, where you can explore visualizations relating to culture and the arts, among many other categories, and export the raw data from those visualizations or from new ones you create.

The New York Public Library has a lot of excellent digitized collections, among them a huge set of maps of New York and other areas. In addition to browsing and search interfaces, they provide an awesome tool called Map Warper which lets you overlay historical maps onto a dynamic present-day map. You can check out some hightlights here, and view the collection itself at maps.nypl.org.