Popular Science have recently published three pieces of speculative fiction exploring the question of "will 'we the people' benefit from our data?". They're called "Shared data", "The Memory of Tomatoes" and "Home@Heart". Each of the pieces of fiction is followed up a response from a policy expert. I read the first of these this morning. … Continue reading We need the right data institutions
Assessing data infrastructure: the Digital Public Goods standard and registry
This is the second in a short series of posts in which I'm sharing my notes and thoughts on a variety of different approaches for assessing data infrastructure and data institutions. The first post in the series looked at The Principles of Open Scholarly Infrastructure. In this post I want to take a look at … Continue reading Assessing data infrastructure: the Digital Public Goods standard and registry
Assessing data infrastructure: the Principles of Open Scholarly Infrastructure
How do we create well-designed, trustworthy, sustainable data infrastructure and institutions? This is a question that I remain deeply interested in. Much of the freelance work I've been doing since leaving the ODI has been in that area. For example, I'm currently helping with a multi-year evaluation of an grant-funded data institution. I'm particularly interested … Continue reading Assessing data infrastructure: the Principles of Open Scholarly Infrastructure
Reflecting on “How to Do Nothing”
I recently finished reading "How to Do Nothing" by Jenny Odell. It's a great, thought-provoking read. Despite the title the book isn't a treatise on disconnecting or a guide to mindfulness. It's an exploration of attention: what is it? how do we direct it? can it be trained? And how is it hijacked by social … Continue reading Reflecting on “How to Do Nothing”
How could watermarking AI help build trust?
I've been reading about different approaches to watermarking AI and the datasets used to train them. This seems to be an active area of research within the machine learning community. But, of the papers I've looked at so far, there hasn't been much discussion of how these techniques might be applied and what groundwork needs … Continue reading How could watermarking AI help build trust?
Downloading magazines from the Internet Archive (and making gifs from their covers)
I like reading old magazines and books over at the Internet Archive. They've got a great online reader that works just fine in the browser. But sometimes I want a local copy I can put on my tablet or other device. And reading locally saves them some bandwidth. Downloading individual items is simple, but it … Continue reading Downloading magazines from the Internet Archive (and making gifs from their covers)
The COVID is coming from inside the house
We're two years into the COVID-19 pandemic and I still keep having moments of "Holy shit, we're in a global pandemic". We've all been through so many emotions. And there's more to come. But it still seems surreal at times. I say that not to deny or dismiss what is happening. It's just a lot … Continue reading The COVID is coming from inside the house
Remembering INPUT magazine
In 1984 a new magazine hit the racks in W. H Smiths: INPUT. It offered to help you to "Learn programming for fun and the future" via a weekly course in programming and computing. It ran for a total of 52 issues. I was 12 when it came out. And I collected every issue. INPUT … Continue reading Remembering INPUT magazine
Weather reports, Coronavirus data and Cherry Blossom forecasts – the numbers we choose to see
During the pandemic we've been inundated with data. Every news broadcast and government briefing features the latest figures on cases and, sadly, deaths. Much has been, and will be, written about the process by which that data has been collected, presented and communicated to the public. It hasn't always gone well at any level. This … Continue reading Weather reports, Coronavirus data and Cherry Blossom forecasts – the numbers we choose to see
A map of Bath, 1852 style
I collect links to openly licensed historical images, particularly maps, of Bath. This is a quick blog post to summarise a fun exercise at creating a map of bath drawing on the style of an historical map. There's a useful Python library called prettymaps that allows you to generate some really nice looking maps using … Continue reading A map of Bath, 1852 style
Lost Boy 