With their globe-spanning satellite network nearing completion, Peter Linkage reports on some of the key milestones in the history of the British Hypertextual Society. The British Hypertextual Society was founded in 1905 with a parliamentary grant from the Royal Society of London. At the time there was growing international interest in finding better ways to manage … Continue reading The British Hypertextual Society (1905-2017)
Author: Leigh Dodds
CTO at EnergySparks (https://energysparks.uk), previously Director of Delivery at the Open Data Institute. Proud Dad.
Designing CSV files
A couple of the projects I'm involved with at the moment are at a stage where there's some thinking going on around how to best provide CSV files for users. This has left me thinking about what options we actually have when it comes to designing a CSV file format. CSV is a very useful, but pretty mundane … Continue reading Designing CSV files
Open Data Camp Pitch: Mapping data ecosystems
I'm going to Open Data Camp #4 this weekend. I'm really looking forward to catching up with people and seeing what sessions will be running. I've been toying with a few session proposals of my own and thought I'd share an outline for this one to gauge interest and get some feedback. I'm calling the session: … Continue reading Open Data Camp Pitch: Mapping data ecosystems
Mega-City One: Smart City
"A smart city is an urban development vision to integrate multiple information and communication technology (ICT) and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions in a secure fashion to manage a city's assets – the city's assets include, but are not limited to, local departments' information systems, schools, libraries, transportation systems, hospitals, power plants, water supply networks, … Continue reading Mega-City One: Smart City
A river of research, not news
I already hate the phrase "fake news". We have better words to describe lies, disinformation, propaganda and slander, so lets just use those. While the phrase "fake news" might originally have been used to refer to hoaxes and disinformation, it's rapidly becoming a meaningless term used to refer to anything you don't disagree with. Trump's recent … Continue reading A river of research, not news
Donate to the commons this holiday season
Holiday season is nearly upon us. Donating to a charity is an alternative form of gift giving that shows you care, whilst directing your money towards helping those that need it. There are a lot of great and deserving causes you can support, and I'm certainly not going to tell you where you should donate your money. But I've … Continue reading Donate to the commons this holiday season
The practice of open data
Open data is data that anyone can access, use and share. Open data is the result of several processes. The most obvious one is the release process that results in data being made available for reuse and sharing. But there are other processes that may take place before that open data is made available: collecting … Continue reading The practice of open data
Discogs: a business based on public domain data
When I'm discussing business models around open data I regularly refer to a few different examples. Not all of these have well developed case studies, so I thought I'd start trying to capture them here. In this first write-up I'm going to look at Discogs. In an attempt to explore a few different aspects of the service … Continue reading Discogs: a business based on public domain data
Checking Fact Checkers
As of last month Google News attempts to highlight fact check articles. Content from fact checking organisations will be tagged so that their contribution to on-line debate can be more clearly identified. I think this is a great move and a first small step towards addressing wider concerns around use of the web for disinformation and … Continue reading Checking Fact Checkers
Elinor Ostrom and data infrastructure
One of the topics that most interests me at the moment is how we design systems and organisations that contribute to the creation and maintenance of the open data commons. This is more than a purely academic interest. If we can understand the characteristics of successful open data projects like Open Street Map or Musicbrainz then … Continue reading Elinor Ostrom and data infrastructure
Lost Boy 