New York State Joins GitHub to Get Feedback on Open Data Policy
BY Miranda Neubauer | Friday, June 14 2013
New York is the first state to publish an initial draft of its open data guidelines on GitHub to seek feedback from the public, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced in a press release Thursday. Read More
Despite Software Problems, Civic Hackers are Pedaling Bike Share Data
BY Miranda Neubauer | Thursday, June 13 2013
(NYCDOT/Flickr)
Reporters are shoaling around the news that New York City's new bike sharing system, Citi Bike, is benighted with problems stemming from its high-tech software. But that's not putting the brakes on plans to explore what programmers might do with data generated by the system by hosting a Citi Bike Civic Hack Night later this month. Read More
What Happens When You Collect "Metadata" On Multinationals Instead of People?
BY Nick Judd | Tuesday, June 11 2013
Chris Taggart. Photo: Esty Stein / Personal Democracy Media
"In a highly connected, networked world, where the network's evolving all the time, the power comes from being able to connect the dots," OpenCorporates founder Chris Taggart told me. "And at the moment ... citizens, people, other companies even don't have the ability to connect those dots." That's where OpenCorporates comes in — a vast, freely available database of information about the world's corporate world. Read More
Her Majesty's Government Wants to Monetize Open Data
BY Jessica McKenzie | Monday, May 20 2013
A new paper from the chair of the U.K. government's Open Strategy Board outlines the best practices for the government's open data policies. The government-commissioned Shakespeare Review – after author Stephan Shakespeare – looks into ways to monetize open data, and recommends an all-encompassing National Data Strategy.
Read MoreIn Jakarta, Open Environmental Data Meets Freedom of Information Law
BY David Eaves | Friday, May 10 2013
At a recent meeting of environmental advocates, a new idea emerged: that open access to environmental data should become an international standard. David Eaves writes that this is a signal that the open data movement is growing up. Read More
IBM Optimizes Ivory Coast Bus Routes by Mining Mobile Phone Data
BY Jessica McKenzie | Wednesday, May 1 2013
Abidjan, Ivory Coast (credit: Flickr/SoCE)
Cell phone data might be the next indispensable resource for urban planners. Mining mobility data from 2.5 billion call records, a team of IBM researchers identified modifications to bus routes in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, which could slash travel time up to 10 percent. Read More
Canada Post Contests Open Data in the Courts
BY Jessica McKenzie | Monday, April 29 2013
Last year Canada Post filed a lawsuit against a website specializing in geocoding in the US and Canada for offering a free online database of copyrighted Canadian postal codes. They recently updated their claims to include allegations that Geolytica, the company that owns geocoder.ca, has infringed on their trademark on the phrases “postal code” and “code postale.”
Read MoreSan Francisco Tells New York: Our Data Is Bigger Than Your Data
BY Sarah Lai Stirland | Monday, March 25 2013
San Francisco city officials have watched their brethren in New York have a day in the sun for a new emphasis on what you might call data-driven governance — and they're ready for their turn. Read More
A New Tool To Count Chicago's Crimes
BY Miranda Neubauer | Friday, March 22 2013
The apps team of the Chicago Tribune has announced a first release of a Chicago Crime API, offering more than 12 years of Chicago crime data, in an "easy, fast, useful and rich way," news applications developer David Eads writes in a blog post. The City of Chicago already provides access to this data through Socrata. But that interface can be "fussy and hard to integrate," Eads writes. Read More
Open Science Breaks Down International Barriers for Researchers
BY Julia Wetherell | Monday, March 18 2013
The Research Data Alliance website (screengrab).
Two decades ago, scientists at CERN in Switzerland were among the earliest non-military users of the World Wide Web, posting the first photo to what had been a purely text-based medium, among other innovations. This week, an international group from the scientific community aims to set new precedents for the future of the Internet, with the launch of a major open data initiative for research and knowledge.
Read More
