Adventures in geodata

I spend a lot of my professional life giving people advice. Mostly around how to publish and use open data. In order to make sure I give people the best advice I can, I try and spend a lot of time actually publishing and using open data. A mixture of research and practical work is the best way … Continue reading Adventures in geodata →

The limitations of the open banking licence

The Open Banking initiative recently began to publicly publish specifications, guidance and data through its website. If you're not already aware of the initiative, it was created as a direct result of government reforms that aim to encourage the banking sector to be more open and innovative. The CMA undertook a lengthy consultation period during which the … Continue reading The limitations of the open banking licence →

What is data asymmetry?

You've just parked your car. Google Maps offers to record your current location so you can find where you parked your car. It also lets you note how much parking time you have available. Sharing this data allows Google Maps to provide you with a small but valuable service: you can quickly find your car and avoid having … Continue reading What is data asymmetry? →

Fearful about personal data, a personal example

I was recently at a workshop on making better use of (personal) data for the benefit of specific communities. The discussion, perhaps inevitably, ended up focusing on many of the attendees concerns around how data about them was being used. The group was asked to share what made them afraid or fearful about how personal data … Continue reading Fearful about personal data, a personal example →

Some tips for open data ecosystem mapping

At Open Data Camp last month I pitched to run a session on mapping open data ecosystems. Happily quite a few people were interested in the topic, so we got together to try out the process and discuss the ideas. We ended up running the session according to my outline and a handout I'd prepared to … Continue reading Some tips for open data ecosystem mapping →

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 →

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 →