Clarification Requests

We’re collecting the questions we’ve received onto this page to help keep everyone informed on the clarifications.

1. Data Anomalies

Question

Are data anomalies intentional?

Clarification

The data anomalies reported by participants are intentional and part of the messiness of the data.

2. Interest Group and Business Definitions

Question

What is the meaning of interestgroup in the Participants.csv? Does it mean a group of people with the same hobby or is it a concept related to economics? Also, what is the scope of the term “businesses”?

Clarification

Sharing an interest group label does not directly imply an economic connection between two people (though it does not preclude one, either).

Regarding “businesses”, this covers all businesses about which data is available: employers (where participants earn money) and restaurants, pubs, etc. (where they spend it).

3. Location Coordinate System

Question

Which coordinate system is used for the “location” mentioned in the dataset?

Clarification

The coordinate system of the map is a Cartesian coordinate system, and the units are meters. Since the city is fictitious, there is no associated coordinate reference system (CRS) - you may simply project them as is.

4. Hosting the Answer Sheet

Question

What are the requirements for hosting the answer sheet? We’d like to incorporate live visualizations using online resources.

Clarification

We have two considerations:

• We want to ensure that we have a version of the answer sheet is completely self-contained, so that all reviewers are looking at the same thing regardless of whether they can link to your github (for example) or not.
• We want to ensure that the answer evaluated is the answer submitted on the due date, and that work is not performed after the due date.

Solutions following those guidelines are acceptable.

5. Explanation of rentAdjustment attribute

Question

Could we get clarification on the the rentAdjustment attribute in the column category in the financialJournal.csv. We found a definition in the dictionary of “a string describing the expense category”, but rentAdjustment can come with positive number (Does it mean the one who receive rent adjustment are the property owner?).

Clarification

Short answer: the amount of rent adjustment due to other agents’ moving in or out an apartment.

Long answer: Let’s assume that rent of apartment X is $1000/4weeks. If agent A rents X and does not share X, then A will pay $1000 upfront. After two weeks, if agent B moves in X, they B will pay $500, half of the total rent. In this case, A will receive $250 back, which is the rent adjustment. It can be the other way around. That is, when A moves out of X, then B needs to pay the rest of rent. In this case, we log the expense as NOT RentAdjustment but Shelter. For clarification, no one earns money from rent as a property owner.

6. Definition of “areas” for MC3

Question

In the Mini Challenge 3 of the VAST challenge, what do you mean by “Do you notice any areas of particularly high or low turnover?”. Are the “areas” referring to geographical areas in the city or business areas (pubs, restaurants, etc.)?

Clarification

Please consider the question in terms of business areas. Note that we will accept interpretations such as geographic areas as well, but we are particularly interested in the business areas.