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Truly Open Data

March 09 2010

I'm kicking myself. I have spent a non-trivial number of hours talking to government departments and scientists about open data, talking up an "open source approach" to data, pushing hard to get them to release datasets in machine readable formats with reuse-friendly licenses. I've had more successes than failures, met… read more

Four short links: 9 March 2010

March 09 2010

Cooperative Behaviour Spreads Through a Group, But So Does Cheating (Not Exactly Rocket Science) -- Fowler and Christakis suggest that people tend to mimic the actions of those they played with. They could be directly imitating the actions of other players, or they could be looking out for cues that… read more

Amazon Fires Its Colorado Associates

March 08 2010

I just got interesting email from Amazon: the Colorado government recently enacted a law to impose sales tax regulations on online retailers [...] We and many others strongly opposed this legislation, known as HB 10-1193, but it was enacted anyway. Regrettably, as a result of the new law, we have… read more

Four short links: 8 March 2010

March 08 2010

China's Cyberposse (NY Times) -- is vigilante justice ok if the cause is right? Is it okay if there wouldn't be justice without it? Does the end justify the means? Many interesting questions raised by this large-scale Internet-based "human-flesh-search" in China. In the future we are all 4chan. (via waxy,… read more

Four short links: 5 March 2010

March 05 2010

Rapportive -- a simple social CRM built into Gmail. They replace the ads in Gmail with photos, bio, and info from social media sites. (via ReadWrite Web) Best Practices in Web Development with Django and Python -- great set of recommendations. (via Jon Udell's article on checklists) Think Like a… read more

Four short links: 4 March 2010

March 04 2010

Achievement Design 101 -- advice from the guy who designs the site-wide achievement awards for Kongregate. 7. Achievements will thrust their subject matter into the spotlight; make sure it's worthy. This can be good or bad. In most cases on Kongregate, adding achievements to games will cause the user rating… read more

Four short links: 3 March 2010

March 03 2010

Top 25 Most Dangerous Programming Errors (MITRE) -- I could play bingo with this on some of the programs I wrote when I was learning to code. Now, of course, I am perfect. *cough*cough* RepRap Printing in Clay -- interesting because of the high price of the plastic that fab… read more

Four short links: 2 March 2010

March 02 2010

Visualising Time Series Data in Tweets -- builds sparklines from Twitter Data tweets. GPL Inadequate for Open Source Voting Software -- the GPL prohibits "additional restrictions", but the US Government has requirements for its voting software that fall into that category. An interesting read. The solution will be a new… read more

Four short links: 1 March 2010

March 01 2010

Meet The Sims and Shoot Them -- America's Army has proven so popular globally that, with so many users signing on from Internet cafes in China, the Chinese government tried to ban it. Full of interesting factoids like this about US military-created first person shooter America's Army and other military… read more

Newspaper Paywalls

February 28 2010

Evolutionary history shows us that doubling-down on your defenses is effective against predators but useless against environmental change. Newspapers locking up their content in paywalls and trumpeting loudly against Google might be effective if Google were merely a predator. But this is the Internet, where copies are free, everyone could… read more

Four short links: 26 February 2010

February 26 2010

Who Is Going To Build The New Public Services? -- a thoughtful exploration of the possibilities and challenges of third parties building public software systems. There's a lot of talk of "just put up the data and we'll build the apps" but I think this is a more substantial consideration… read more

Four short links: 25 February 2010

February 25 2010

like python -- lets you write Python in Valleygirl, LOLCAT, fratboy, and rap. Still not a handle on writing Perl in Latin. (via Hacker News) Belief In Climate Change Hinges On Worldview (NPR) -- applicable beyond climate change. Whether you get what you want depends on how it's framed and… read more

Four short links: 24 February 2010

February 24 2010

Maker! Map the World's Data -- web-based tool to make elegant maps from public data. Flat World Knowledge, a commercial publisher of open textbooks (Jon Udell) -- notable if only for Publishers need to be device-agnostic in the broadest sense. The printed book is one of the devices we target..… read more

Four short links: 23 February 2010

February 23 2010

SMS in Disaster Response -- Haitians SMS urgent needs to 4636, where they're translated through crowdsourcing and acted on. All based on the Uhsahidi SMS engine. Inside Open Source's Historic Victory -- open source developer wins against someone who took his work, added it to an open patent application, and… read more

Four short links: 22 February 2010

February 22 2010

Schuyler Erle's blog -- Schuyler, a leading geohacker, is in Haiti as part of a World Bank effort to rebuild geospatial infrastructure. His blog posts and twitpics are excellent. Panton Principles -- basic groundrules for useful open data in science. Raises the flag of licensing: arbitrary license clauses or hastily-repurposed… read more