Nature Issue dedicated to Data Sharing

September 10, 2009 in Uncategorized by Tracey | Permalink

Public sector information (PSI) aka government data access and sharing is culturally different than the sharing of data between and among scientists. And within science there are many different subgroups that have different takes on data sharing. This is also true when it comes to data preservation and archiving, and the consideration that all of these datasets are cultural heritage and national assets. One could argue that science data are also PSI or government data since most science is paid for with public research dollars. There is of course foundation money as well, and these too have a different data sharing culture.

The Online September issue of Nature is dedicated to the topic of data sharing in the sciences. Note, that does not necessarily include geomatics data, and yes folks, again a different data sharing culture.

Bref – different information ecologies and attention structures dictate how members of data creator communities do things.

DIY BC Budget Cut Visualization

September 10, 2009 in Uncategorized by Tracey | Permalink

Jer Thorp at blprnt has posted a DIY how to visualization of cuts to arts funding in BC. This is citizen science at work!
BC Budget Cuts

Open Dinosaur Project

September 9, 2009 in datasets, openmovement, projects, R&D, resources, science by Hugh | Permalink

This, I love:

The Open Dinosaur Project was founded to involve scientists and the public alike in developing a comprehensive database of dinosaur limb bone measurements, to investigate questions of dinosaur function and evolution. We have three major goals:1) do good science; 2) do this science in the most open way possible; and 3) allow anyone who is interested to participate. And by anyone, we mean anyone! We do not care about your education, geographic location, age, or previous background with paleontology. The only requirement for joining us is that you share the goals of our project and are willing to help out in the efforts.

Want to sign up? Email project head Andy Farke (andrew.farke@gmail.com), and welcome aboard!

[via datalibre]

Copyright Consultation

August 26, 2009 in Uncategorized by Tracey | Permalink

The Government of Canada is soliciting feedback from Citizens on Copyright. The questions being asked are as follows:

1. How do Canada’s copyright laws affect you? How should existing laws be modernized?
2. Based on Canadian values and interests, how should copyright changes be made in order to withstand the test of time
3. What sorts of copyright changes do you believe would best foster innovation and creativity in Canada?
4. What sorts of copyright changes do you believe would best foster competition and investment in Canada?
5. What kinds of changes would best position Canada as a leader in the global, digital economy?

Please take a few minutes to comment as part of the Copyright Consultations.

The most efficient way to do this is a formal written submissions.. You can submit by sending an email to

    info@copyrightconsultation.gc.ca

. You can read all the submissions posted here. (see the right side of the Copyright Consultation Site).

The consultations will run until Midnight Sunday, September 13, 2009, so make sure your contributions are submitted before then.

For the curious, a draft submission by a CivicAccess.ca list member can be found at is Copyright 2009. He welcoms feedback and he also states:

Please grab anything you want from my submission towards your own.

Measuring purchasing power one burger at a time…

August 21, 2009 in Uncategorized by Tracey | Permalink

The Economist

The Economist

This is one of the best representations I have seen in a while. I remember “a football field a minute” when discussing the quantity and speed of rainforest clear-cutting. It is not easy to drive something home and I think this Bic Mac one is stupendous.

City of Calgary Open Data & Some open access for City of Nanaimo

July 23, 2009 in Uncategorized by Tracey | Permalink

Looks like a motion has been drafted for Open Data in the City of Calgary. City of Nanaimo has made some data accessible on its site. This is only a small sample and hopefully there will be more.

Tags:

Open Data Access & APIs

July 7, 2009 in Access, government, international, projects, web by Hugh | Permalink

Jon Udell’s latest innovators podcast, Open Data Access with Steven Willmott:

There’s growing awareness of the need to publish data online, and to support programmatic access to that data. In this conversation, host Jon Udell talks with Steven Willmott about how his company, 3Scale, helps businesses create and manage application programming interfaces to their data.

Says Jon on his blog:

In the latest installment of my Innovators podcast, which ran while I was away on vacation, I spoke with Steven Willmott of 3scale, one of several companies in the emerging business of third-party API management. As more organizations get into the game of providing APIs to their online data, there’s a growing need for help in the design and management of those APIs.

By way of demonstration, 3scale is providing an unofficial API to some of the datasets offered by the United Nations. The UN data at http://data.un.org, while browseable and downloadable, is not programmatically accessible. If you visit 3scale’s demo at www.undata-api.org/ you can sign up for an access key, ask for available datasets — mostly, so far, from the World Health Organization (see below) — and then query them. [more…]

Beers for Canada: Visiblegovernment.ca Fundraiser

July 1, 2009 in open access, openmovement, projects, web by Hugh | Permalink

beers for canadaFor the price of a beer (or a pitcher, or a round), you can support VisibleGovernment.ca … the non-profit that promotes online tools for government transparency, openness and accessibility around government and civic data (yay!).

They’ve got a little fundraiser going, in celebration of Canada Day: Beers for Canada …

How we’ll spend your money

We work on several aspects of transparency:

  • Creating new tools: We work with developers and designers to build websites that encourage citizens and governments to communicate openly.
  • Encouraging government openness: We show elected officials the benefits of open, two-way discourse, highlighting places where information is lacking and celebrating the efforts of those who want to be more transparent.
  • Public awareness: We emphasize the civic importance of transparency and open government.
  • Working with other organizations: We share and collaborate with organizations like the Sunlight Foundation, MySociety and Changecamp.

We’re also organizing Code For Canada, an application design competition that awards prizes to people who build web, facebook, and iPhone apps that provide visualization, analysis, and access to federal government data sets.

So, go support a worthy cause.

Access to Broadband Data

June 11, 2009 in Access, canada, datasets, federal government, infrastructure, maps by Tracey | 1 comment

Last night I attended the Town Hall Discussion on The Future of the Internet: Access, Openness and Inclusion. There was a hint from the moderator Marita Moll that Industry Canada as part of its Broadband Program might be releasing a map of Canadian broadband. There has been some interesting discussion in the US about access to broadband data at Off the Map and a podcast at All Points Blog. An E-Scan report has been done in Ontario on possibilities for the development of a Broadband Atlas for Ontarians. In all cases access to infrastructure data are highlighted as barriers, particularly as infrastructure has increasingly become privatized and splintered.

Social Workers and Engineers

June 3, 2009 in government, Uncategorized by Tracey | Permalink

The UK Guardian has published data associated with an analysis of the employment sex gap. These data have re-affirmed my observations: technology (geomatics, computer science, IT, etc.) conferences = boys, social policy (homelessness, poverty, child abuse, etc.) conferences = girls. If we looked at the salary data associated with these professions, we would see a greater gap. If we played with more data, we could interpolate social status and political influence, and I speculate a greater gap still. Most interesting since many of our biggest challenges are social and not technical, but alas we value it less in terms of remuneration, status and power. I would tell you the Canadians story with data, but alas, these are too expensive to purchase from Statistics Canada.

The sex gap: which jobs do women and men do?

The sex gap: which jobs do women and men do?

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