The Geospatial Commission have recently published some guidance on Designing Geospatial Data Portals. There's a useful overview in the accompanying blog post. It's good clear guidance that should help anyone building a data portal. It has tips for designing search interfaces, presenting results and dataset metadata. There's very little advice that is specifically relevant to … Continue reading Why are we still building portals?
Category: The Commons
24 different tabular formats for half-hourly energy data
A couple of months ago I wrote a post that provided some background on the data we use in Energy Sparks. The largest data source comes from gas and electricity meters (consumption) and solar panels (generation). While we're integrating with APIs that allow us to access data from smart meters, for the foreseeable future most … Continue reading 24 different tabular formats for half-hourly energy data
Schema explorers and how they can help guide adoption of common standards
Despite being very different projects Wikidata and OpenStreetmap have a number of similarities. Recurring patterns in how they organise and support the work of their communities. We documented a number of these patterns in the ODI Collaborative Maintenance Guidebook. There were also a number we didn't get time to write-up. A further pattern which I … Continue reading Schema explorers and how they can help guide adoption of common standards
Building data validators
This is a post about building tools to validate data. I wanted to share a few reflections based on helping to design and build a few different public and private tools, as well as my experience as a user. I like using data validators to check my homework. I've been using a few different recently … Continue reading Building data validators
Some lessons learned from building standards around Schema.org
OpenActive is a community-led initiative in the sport and physical activity sector in England. It's goal is to help to get people healthier and more active by making its easier for people to find information about activities and events happening in their area. Publishing open data about opportunities to be active is a key part … Continue reading Some lessons learned from building standards around Schema.org
The UK Smart Meter Data Ecosystem
Disclaimer: this blog post is about my understanding of the UK's smart meter data ecosystem and contains some opinions about how it might evolve. These do not in any way reflect those of Energy Sparks of which I am a trustee. This blog post is an introduction to the UK's smart meter data ecosystem. It … Continue reading The UK Smart Meter Data Ecosystem
Examples of data ecosystem mapping
This blog post is basically a mood board showing some examples of how people are mapping data ecosystems. I wanted to record a few examples and highlight some of the design decisions that goes into creating a map. A data ecosystem consists of data infrastructure, and the people, communities and organisations that benefit from the … Continue reading Examples of data ecosystem mapping
12 ways to improve the GDS guidance on reference data publishing
GDS have published some guidance about publishing reference data for reuse across government. I've had a read and it contains a good set of recommendations. But some of them could be clearer. And I feel like some important areas aren't covered. So I thought I'd write this post to capture my feedback. Like the original … Continue reading 12 ways to improve the GDS guidance on reference data publishing
OSM Queries
For the past month I've been working on a small side project which I'm pleased to launch for Open Data Day 2021. I've long been a fan of OpenStreetMap. I've contributed to the map, coordinated a local crowd-mapping project and used OSM tiles to help build web based maps. But I've only done a small … Continue reading OSM Queries
Bath Historical Images
One of my little side projects is to explore historical images and maps of Bath and the surrounding areas. I like understanding the contrast between how Bath used to look and how it is today. It's grown and changed a huge amount over the years. It gives me a strong sense of place and history. … Continue reading Bath Historical Images