Category: Data Infrastructure

Thinking about the governance of data

I find "governance" to be a tricky word. Particularly when we're talking about the governance of data. For example, I've experienced conversations with people from a public policy background and people with a background in data management, where its clear that there are different perspectives. From a policy perspective, governance of data could be described … Continue reading Thinking about the governance of data →

Impressions from pidapalooza 19

https://twitter.com/ldodds/status/1088029286865555457 This week I was at the third pidapalooza conference in Dublin. It's a conference that is dedicated open identifiers: how to create them, steward them, drive adoption and promote their benefits. Anyone who has spent any time reading this blog or following me on twitter will know that this is a topic close to … Continue reading Impressions from pidapalooza 19 →

Talk: Documenting Identifiers for Humans and Machines

This is a rough transcript of a talk I recently gave at a session at Pidapalooza 2019. You can view the slides from the talk here. I’m sharing my notes for the talk here, with a bit of light editing. I'd also really welcome you thoughts and feedback on this discussion document. At the Open Data … Continue reading Talk: Documenting Identifiers for Humans and Machines →

UnINSPIREd: problems accessing local government geospatial data

This weekend I started a side project which I plan to spend some time on this winter. The goal is to create a web interface that will let people explore geospatial datasets published by the three local authorities that make up the West of England Combined Authority: Bristol City Council, South Gloucestershire Council and Bath … Continue reading UnINSPIREd: problems accessing local government geospatial data →

The building blocks of data infrastructure – Part 2

This is the second part of a two part post looking at the building blocks of data infrastructure. In part one we looked at definitions of data infrastructure, and the first set of building blocks: identifiers, standards and registers. You should read part one first and then jump back in here. We're using the example of … Continue reading The building blocks of data infrastructure – Part 2 →

The building blocks of data infrastructure – Part 1

Data is a vital form of infrastructure for our societies and our economies. When we think about infrastructure we usually think of physical things like roads and railways. But there are broader definitions of infrastructure that include less tangible things. Like ideas or the internet. It is important to recognise that there is more to … Continue reading The building blocks of data infrastructure – Part 1 →

When are open (geospatial) identifiers useful?

In a meeting today, I was discussing how and when open geospatial identifiers are useful. I thought this might make a good topic for a blog post in my continuing series of questions about data. So here goes. An identifier provides an unambiguous reference for something about which we want to collect and publish data. … Continue reading When are open (geospatial) identifiers useful? →