Welcome to GA statistics’ documentation!¶

Dear reader,

welcome to the documentation of GA Statistics. It is far from complete, but if that would stop us from writing anything, we wouldn’t get anywhere at all. So here we are. I hope you find some useful pages in in this documentation, which help you use and understand GA Statistics.

Yours, Tom and Oliver

What is GA Statistics?¶

GA Statistics is a live statistics platform for enhancing General Assemblies of Sessions of the European Youth Parliament. The original idea was that it is interesting for session participants to be able to see in real time who is speaking in GA, and what they are talking about. GA Statistics lets you do this in the easiest way possible.

All you and your officials team have to do is tell GA Statistics what is going on in GA (when a committee makes a point, or a vote is held etc.) and we will give you a really nice way of visualising it. The feedback we have received from delegates so far is that an overwhelming majority found the GA easier to follow and more engaging when the GA Statistics platform was used during the session’s GA.

Responses from 150 participants at the International Session Izmir 2015

We are convinced that your GA can be more engaging and of higher quality with GA Statistics, but only if you use it correctly. This is why we have put together this guide to help you achieve this goal.

Prerequisites¶

A stable internet connection for the board and each person who will be submitting statistics at your GA venue
Motivation of the whole team to implement GA Statistics fully

Which modules does GA Statistics offer?¶

GA Statistics is composed of five main modules. Statistics, Point Content, Voting and Gender Statistics. There is also a module which activates a smarter GA, called Running Order

Statistics¶

The Statistics module as found on the debate page.

Usually in the statistics module, chairs will submit a point every time their committee speaks in open debate, stating the subtopic of the point - what it was about. As the points accumulate, GA Statistics provides some really cool insight into what is really happening in GA. Are the points evenly distributed among the committees? Which committee had the most direct responses? Which subtopics have been addressed? All this data is shown live in front of the audience, ideally projected behind where the board is sitting.

TLDR; Pretty Graphs

Point Content¶

The Point Content module as found on the debate page

As opposed to statistics only stating which topics have addressed during the GA, point content states what was actually said in each point. Imagine it like a tweet for each point, shortly describing what the point was about. This provides a timeline of what has happened during the debates and is very helpful in understanding what has already been said in a debate. You should consider whether you are going to need a dedicated group of individuals like Journalists or Organisers to manage these point summaries, as it is a demanding job and can be difficult for beginner Chairs to do while managing their committees during GA. When the committees are being chaired by two chairs, even beginner Chairs should not have any problems with summarising the points. Advanced Chairs can also submit the summaries when they are chairing alone. We recommend that chairs let their Delegates write down summaries of their own points on Post-It’s before they even make the point. This will help the Chair who can use the Delegate’s summary as a guideline and even the Delegate who actually needs to think about what to say before they have the floor. Trust us, it is worth the effort.

TLDR; Short summaries of each point

Voting¶

The Voting module as found on the debate page

The voting module does exactly what it says on the tin - it allows digital voting. Digital voting is good for a few reasons, the maths is never wrong, voting is more transparent since you can see how each committee has voted, and - our personal favourite - if it is a close vote, there is an incredibly tense atmosphere as everyone watches the votes come in. Again, the chairs submit this data from their phones.

TLDR; Digital Voting

Gender Statistics¶

Note

These statistics are not publicly visible. While you are free to show them, they will stay internal by default.

Gender statistics allow you to track the gender equality of your General Assembly. A single person tracks gender statistics during GA, and the results are shown only to the session admin. Gender statistics are not only useful for you to keep track of the equality of your GA, but it also helps the organisation as a whole, as it allows the International Office to view and analyse gender statistics for the whole EYP.

TLDR; Tracking Gender Equality

Running Order Mode¶

Different to the normal mode of GA Statistics, where chairs notify GA Statistics once they have made a point, telling the platform which subtopics the point was on and what the point was about, Running Order Statistics gets chairs to tell the board what their next point will be about in advance. The board uses this information to decide the running order of the GA. Perhaps three points should be taken regarding asylum seekers before returning to the proposing committee? The running order is publicly displayed on the committee page, notifying the GA which committees will be speaking next. Once the board recognises a committee, the point is saved using the subtopic the chair predicted.

The interface the board of the session uses to manage GA when the Running Order module is enabled.

All Direct Responses are automatically placed first in the queue, and the subtopic is automatically assigned to that of the last recognised point. If a chair at any point in time predicts the wrong subtopic - or the delegate changes his mind and speaks about something different, each chair can edit the subtopics of all points they submitted on the same page they use to predict the next subtopic.

Note

We think that running order statistics are the most efficient use of GA statistics as it can significantly increase the quality of GA, however, at the time of writing — Running Order Statistics are fairly new and as such have not been tested as much as the other statistics types — there may be small bugs particularly concerning the running order page itself. These are usually fixed by refreshing the browser window, but errors can come up. Please report bugs if you should find any!

What should I pick?¶

You can combine all of the modules together in a way that suits the needs of your session. You need to pick at least the Statistics or Point Content module — the voting and gender statistics are optional but recommended!

Which combinations are possible?¶

Now that you know what modules GA Statistics offers, it is good for you to know in which ways you can submit this data to the GA Statistics platform and which one suits your session best. The explanations you see below directly correspond to the options you see when you are creating a session on GA Statistics.

Please see Which modules does GA Statistics offer? if you would like detailed explanations of the modules themselves.

Statistics Only

Only switches on the Statistics module.

Point Content Only

Only switches on the Point Content module.

Joint Form Statistics

Both the Statistics and Point Content module will be activated - allows whomever is submitting data to GA Statistics to submit both Statistics and Point Content in one form.

Split Form Statistics

Both the Statistics and Point Content module will be activated - each statistics type will be submitted from a separate form.

Running Order Statistics

Switches on the Statistics and Running Order modules. Points are submitted the moment the placard is raised.

Running Order Statistics with Point Content

The Statistics, Point Content and Running Order modules will be activated - allows whomever is submitting data to GA Statistics to submit both Statistics and Point Content in one form. Points are submitted the moment the placard is raised.

Signing up and logging in¶

Signing up¶

Signing up is easy. Just head over to https://stats.eyp.org/create_session/ and enter your session’s details.

What should I name my session?¶

While you are free to name your session in any manner you like, we recommend sticking to Place Year.

Leipzig 2015
Laax 2016
Brno 2017
Diepholz 2018

Logging in¶

You can log in by opening the account dropdown in the top right corner! Your new username is sessionnameyear_admin, where sessionname is the name of the session you put in without spaces and in all lowercase letters.

All special characters will be replaced by their ASCII-equivalents. Some really strange letters like the German ß will be removed from the username completely.

Use the password you entered when you created the session. Then you should start customising your session by adding committees and their topics.

Examples of usernames¶

We recommend, that you stick to the naming scheme mentioned in Signing up. If you wish to deviate from this scheme or your session’s name contains special charachters, you might find the table below useful.

Session’s Name	Submission Username	Administration Username
Basel 2017	basel2017	basel2017_admin
Évora 2016	evora2016	evora2016_admin
Järvenpää 2016	jarvenpaa2016	jarvenpaa2016_admin
NSC Thessaloniki 2015	nscthessaloniki2015	nscthessaloniki2015_admin
1st RSC of EYP XY	1strscofeypxy	1strscofeypxy_admin
Hódmezővásárhely 2017	hodmezovasarhely2017	hodmezovasarhely2017_admin
Süßen 2017	suen2017	suen2017_admin

Note

Usernames are generated when you first create your session. If you change the name of your session later on, the usernames will stay the same as before.

How to manage GA Statistics¶

Note

This section needs further improvements and explanations, tailored to the specific roles. In the meantime, this section covers the most basic aspects.

As a GA Statistics admin, you have got a few tools available to you to help you manage your session. There are three main tools at your disposal. When you are on your session page and logged in as the admin of the session, there should be a dropdown menu in the top right hand of the screen with all three tools, debate management, committee management and session settings. There is also a management overview that contains all kind of useful information for you.

Management Overview¶

The management overview gives you an overview of all links you have at your disposal. This includes all links to the relevant forms for each committee. If you are not quite sure where to go at any point, open the management overview, it should be able to point you in the right direction.

Introduction¶

You have a few options when it comes to running GA Statistics on your own computer. But before you go ahead and do host GA Statistics on your own computer, you should ask yourself, why you would like to do that.

Why?¶

Normally, if you wanted to to use GA Statistics, you would do so by going to our website and setting up your session there. If that sounds like what you want to do, then great! Feel free to go ahead and start using GA Statistics on our server, that’s why we put it there.

If you’re still with me, then this is probably not an option. So why would you like to run GA Statistics locally? Depending on your scenario, different approaches to hosting locally are recommended.

Note

Of course, all of these approaches allow you to host a local copy of GA Statistics in the same manner, so the difference lies in how easy it is to set up and whether you need the extra complexity to achieve your goal.

Lack of good internet¶

The most common reason to host your own local instance of GA Statistics would be to circumvent the requirement of having an internet connection in your GA venue. While we hope, that we will soon live in a world, where a reliable internet connection is available everywhere, we are painfully aware that this is especially not the case in your usual GA venue.

The easiest way to set up a local instance of GA Statistics is using Docker.

Prerequisites¶

Bad internet
- If your internet is good, you should simply sign up on https://stats.eyp.org/create_session/ and use the already available platform
A device, capable of opening up a WiFi hotspot
- Routers, Phones, every MacBook you have ever touched, probably most of the Windows Computers too, it’s just a little harder
- It is not important, whether you can access the internet through this device
- It is important, that the devices connected to the hotspot can talk to each other internally on the same network
- This is the case for any phone’s hotspot for example, so it will probably just work, even if you do not know what any of this means
A will to learn new things
- When setting up GA Statistics for offline use, you will most likely do some things you have never done before
- These things are not hard, but as with everything that is new, they might seem scary at first
- There is no reason to be scared, meaning the next prerequisite should come naturally
No fear of just trying and seeing if it works
- Ideally not on the same day as the GA
- Alternatively, you can take some computer nerd and let them handle it
- Make sure to ask them nicely fist

Becoming a contributor¶

Another humble, but of course less common, reason to run GA Statistics locally would be to become a contributor. You will most likely want to run a development server.

Using Docker¶

One of the best ways to host GA Statistics locally, is to use Docker. Once you have installed Docker, you will not have to worry about any kind of configuration. It will just work as expected.

Prerequisites¶

First of all, you will need to install Docker. This is quite straight-forward and all the instructions can be found on the Docker Website.

Note

If you have a choice of different computers to use, I recommend using a Mac, as the installation of Docker is easiest and creating an offline hotspot for other users to use your local copy of GA Statistics is also very easy.

Docker Installation Instructions by platform¶

macOS
Linux
- Also make sure to install docker-compose, as it is not installed automatically on Linux.
Windows

You don’t need to know how Docker works to hose your own local copy of GA Statistics, but if you are interested, you can check out the Docker Documentation to learn more.

Starting your own copy of GA Statistics¶

Now, that you are all set, it’s time to get your own copy of GA Statistics up and running.

Create a folder in which you want to store GA Statistics data
Save the installation file to this folder.

Tip: Right click the above link and choose Save as... to save the file in perfect condition and correctly named.

Ensure, that the file you just saved is named docker-compose.yml.
Open a new Terminal or command line and browse to the folder, in which you have saved docker-compose.yml.
Run the command docker-compose up and wait until the server is fully started up.

Note: This will download about 600MB of data. Do this at home and avoid using up your monthly mobile data plan accidentally.

Open a browser and browse to http://localhost/.
If everything is working, head to http://localhost/create_session/ to create your session.

Allowing other users to connect to your copy of GA Statistics¶

To allow others to connect to your local copy of GA Statistics, everyone will need to be on the same network. This network does not have to have a connection to the internet. In order to set up such a network, you could open a hotspot on your phone and connect everyone to it. Another option is to find a WiFi router and let it open a WiFi network where you are, without connecting it to the Internet. Everyone will still be able to access the other devices on the same network, even without internet.

To actually connect to the local copy of GA Statistics, you will need to find out what your local IP address is.

How to set up a hotspot¶

Note

The device which sets up the hotspot and the device which is hosting GA Statistics do not need to be the same.

How to find your local IP address¶

To let others connect to your copy of GA Statistics, you must find out at which local IP your device is reachable.

Using the local copy of GA Statistics¶

After everyone has connected to your local hotspot, they must enter the local IP address of the computer which is hosting the local copy of GA Statistics in their browsers.

Congratulations, you are now running your own local copy of GA Statistics, which you can use at any venue, even without any internet.

Using the development server¶

Normally, you would use this method to set up a development environment for GA Statistics. This means, you probably already know what you are doing, but if you’re just getting into it and this is your first time working with Python, Django or both, then these instructions will help you get up and running.

Prerequisites¶

Installing Python¶

Most importantly, you will need to check if you have Python installed. Python is the programming language which is used for all the logic in GA Statistics. The Django Framework is based on Python, so there’s no way around it when working on GA Statistics. Luckily, Python is one of the easiest programming languages to learn, so don’t be afraid. If you already know some programming basics, then understanding Python won’t be an issue for you.

You can find instructions on installing Python on your system on wiki.python.org.

Installing pip¶

pip is a package manager for Python packages. We will use it to install the packages we need for GA Statistics. Depending on how you installed Python, you might already have a copy of pip on your system. If you run the command pip freeze and you see some output, which looks like a list of packages, then you are already good to go. If this doesn’t work, then you will have to install pip.

You can check out pip’s documentation on how to install pip.

Installing git¶

If you want to actually contribute back some code changes, you will need to install git. Git is a free and open source distributed version control system and we use it to collaborate on the code, which makes up GA Statistics. We actually even use it to work together on this documentation.

You can find instructions for installing git in their documentation.

Cloning the repo¶

Doing what? Cloning the repo(sitory) could be translated as downloading GA Statistics’ code. To do that, you will use git, which you should now have on your computer.

To clone the repository from GitHub, run the following command.

git clone https://github.com/eyp-developers/statistics.git

You will now find a copy of GA Statistics in a folder called statistics. To change into the directory, run the following command.

cd statistics

Setting up the development environment¶

If you have followed the above steps, you are now ready to set up the development environment. These steps assume, that you are inside of the statistics folder.

First, we want to install a tool called virtualenv. It allows us to install python packages into a virtual environment. This ensures, that no other packages or older versions of packages get in our way and break things.

pip install virtualenv

Now, you create a new virtual environment in the local directory, as indicated by the ., which refers to your current location.

virtualenv .

Now, you will have to activate the virtual environment by sourcing the script located in bin/activate.

source bin/activate

Now, you are going to install the required python packages for running a local copy of GA Statistics. These will only be available while you are in the virtual environment, which you can enter by running the above command.

pip install -r requirements.txt

Alright, we are almost done. You are now ready to run Django, but first, we need to initialise the database. At the moment, it is completely empty and running GA Statistics would lead to errors. The next command will do this for us.

python manage.py migrate

You would probably like to have admin access, so you should create a super user. You can manage any session with this user and also access the administration backend.

python manage.py createsuperuser

This is it, this is the final moment. If everything went alright, then you are now able to run your local copy of GA Statistics.

python manage.py runserver

Please note that this is only a development server which should never be used for production scenarios.

You can now login to the admin area of your local development server and start using your local copy of GA Statistics. If you’d like to create a session, you can do so here.