Improving access to non-domestic energy consumption data

I recently wrote a post describing the data ecosystem for non-domestic energy consumption data in the UK. In that post I summarised my current understanding of the different actors involved in that data ecosystem, and some of the challenges of trying to access data from the perspective of a third-party service provider. In an earlier … Continue reading Improving access to non-domestic energy consumption data →

Wonky fruit and data standards

There was an article in the Guardian this week about supermarkets selling "wonky" fruit during the current drought. It got me thinking about how our perceptions of what is good, normal or acceptable get shaped by decisions made by others. This lead me down a bit of a rabbit-hole reading about cosmetic standards for fruit … Continue reading Wonky fruit and data standards →

The data ecosystem for non-domestic energy consumption data in the UK

Since joining Energy Sparks I've started investing time in trying to understanding the UK energy system and, in particular, the parts of its data infrastructure and broader ecosystem that we work with. It's a big, complex system so lots to wrap my head around. I looked at one part of that data ecosystem in a … Continue reading The data ecosystem for non-domestic energy consumption data in the UK →

The struggle for readability

Adverts and search engines have massively impacted the ways in which we read online. I don't just mean how we find things to read, but impacts on how we read and the quality of reading online. Adverts make content worse in many different ways Even simple banner adverts add visual clutter to a page. Pop-ups, … Continue reading The struggle for readability →

A prompt to condition a Positronic Brain to follow the Three Laws of Robotics

Gopher is Deep Mind's new language model. I saw a tweet that highlighted the text prompt that the researchers used to prepare the model for having a conversation with users. The prompt is taken from the Gopher paper (see Table A30, page 114). The paper says that: In order to produce a conversationalist, we use … Continue reading A prompt to condition a Positronic Brain to follow the Three Laws of Robotics →

Behavioural use licensing won’t fix the negative impacts of AI

I recently read a paper called "Behavioral Use Licensing for Responsible AI" in which the authors make a case that licences can be used to create a legally enforceable way to limit the ways in which AI can be used, and in particular in-line with response AI guidelines. Here's the abstract: With the growing reliance … Continue reading Behavioural use licensing won’t fix the negative impacts of AI →

Using a collaboration spectrum alongside the data spectrum

According to the ODI data spectrum, data exists on a spectrum from closed, to shared to open. Closed data is limited to internal use in an organisation. Shared data might be available to specific groups. Open data is data published under an open licence for anyone to access, use and share. While it's framed around … Continue reading Using a collaboration spectrum alongside the data spectrum →

A commons needs more than open licensing

When I look across the various "open" communities in which I either participate in or monitor, there's a lot of recurring issues. For example, sustainability is a common issue across open data, open source and open science. How do we ensure sustainable access to data? How do we make individual open source projects sustainable when … Continue reading A commons needs more than open licensing →

Role playing data governance

There's a lot of work happening around data governance that involves piloting and testing new approaches. A few years ago the ODI piloted some data trusts. The Data Trust Initiative is running three pilots. The ODI has also been running a peer learning network as part of its data institutions programme to support a variety … Continue reading Role playing data governance →

Prompting

My feed is full of screenshots of AI generated images made using Midjourney and DALL-E. I've seen Kermit the frog in, well, everything and Foucault on a swing. Creative prompt engineering can lead to some interesting results. And because interesting results leads to clicks which lead to revenue, then engineering interesting prompts will be a … Continue reading Prompting →