Tools For Working with CSV Files

Anyone working with open data for any length of time will have inevitably spent a long time wrangling CSV files to tidy, extract and reformat data. There are various ways to get that job done, but I've been compiling a list of useful command-line tools that can provide some useful functionality. The ability to automate … Continue reading Tools For Working with CSV Files →

CC 4.0 and Open Data

Originally published on the Open Data Institute blog. Original URL: https://theodi.org/blog/cc-40-and-open-data After a lengthy two year development process the Creative Commons recently announced the publication of their Version 4.0 licences. The new licences include a raft of changes based on lessons learned through application of the Creative Commons licences around the world. The changes include a number that relate … Continue reading CC 4.0 and Open Data →

The Proliferation of Open Government Licences

As part of my work exploring compatibility between open data licences, I recently began looking at licences for government and public sector data. I was a little surprised to discover quite how many different licences and licence variants have been created. UK Open Government Licences The UK Open Government Licence (UK-OGL) is now used to support … Continue reading The Proliferation of Open Government Licences →

Its about more than the link

To be successful the web sacrificed some of the features of hypertext systems. Things like backwards linking and link integrity, etc. One of the great things about the web is that its possible to rebuild some of those features, but in a distributed way. Different communities can then address their own requirements. Link integrity is … Continue reading Its about more than the link →

Exploring compatibility between data licences

Originally published on the Open Data Institute blog. Original URL: https://theodi.org/blog/exploring-compatibility-between-data-licences I recently wrote about work underway at the ODI to help improve the machine readability of data licensing information. We've already received some welcome feedback which has resulted in updates to the guides and the Open Data Rights Statement schema. If you've not looked at the material yet then … Continue reading Exploring compatibility between data licences →

Machine Readable Rights Statements

This post was originally published on the Open Data Institute blog. Original url: https://theodi.org/blog/machine-readable-rights-statementsAs the open data movement continues to mature, discussion is focusing on how the publishing and use of open data can be become more sustainable. This includes making the process of opening up data clear and simple for any organisation.The recent launchof the Open Data … Continue reading Machine Readable Rights Statements →

Building the new Ordnance Survey Linked Data platform

Disclaimer: the following is my own perspective on the build & design of the Ordnance Survey Linked Data platform. I don't presume to speak for the OS and don't have any inside knowledge of their long term plans. Having said that I wanted to share some of the goals we (Julian Higman, Benjamin Nowack and … Continue reading Building the new Ordnance Survey Linked Data platform →

Summarising Geographic Coverage of Dbpedia (and Wikipedia)

In "What Does Your Dataset Contain?" I outlined a conceptual framework for thinking about how we might want to describe datasets, e.g. how they're produced, what they contain, etc. I've been reading with interest the series on dataset summaries in Scraperwiki which is exploring similar ideas. I finally found the time to do some quick … Continue reading Summarising Geographic Coverage of Dbpedia (and Wikipedia) →

How Do We Attribute Data?

This post is another in my ongoing series of "basic questions about open data", which includes "What is a Dataset?" and "What does a dataset contain?". In this post I want to focus on dataset attribution and in particular questions such as: Why should we attribute data? How are data publishers asking to be attributed? … Continue reading How Do We Attribute Data? →

Thoughts on Coursera and Online Courses

I recently completed my first online course (or "MOOC") on Coursera. It was an interesting experience and wanted to share some thoughts here. I decided to take an online course for several reasons. Firstly the topic, Astrobiology, was fun and I thought the short course might make an interesting alternative to watching BBC documentaries and … Continue reading Thoughts on Coursera and Online Courses →