A GIS team has brought together all sorts of historical and predicted climate data for planners to use.
New data-portal and georabble
The City of Baltimore has made a really usable and welcoming portal for open government data – especially if you are interested in parking fines, violations and repeat offenders.
We had a talk at Georabble last night about these from Lach McCabe : Using geo to reveal the story at the Sydney Morning Herald. He is using something called Google refine to cleanse his data. I’d not come across this before and its worth a look.
Standout presentation for me was Jacqui Kennedy : In Their Honour – Mapping our Anzacs – showing where all our servicemen and women are buried and linking to their records. This was because she told us the story behind this competition winning mashup – how her four uncles headed off to fight for king and country in the first world war and how the debacle at Anzac Cove was due to woeful maps which didn’t even have contours to show the steep slopes and ravines. When I was 15 I went on an exchange to Corbie in France and we visited the VILLERS-BRETONNEUX MEMORIAL cemetery. It was a very moving experience even for a self absorbed teenager.
apps4nsw hackfest
From 8am on Saturday 19th February, 160 website designers, developers and government people got together at the Powerhouse Museum for an apps4nsw development day. Their challenge was to build an app in about 8 hours, using data from the NSW Government.
Find out what happened next… apps4nsw hackfest 2011
Real Time Tube map working again
My first blog posting for almost 2 months! The main reason was a long, cold but very enjoyable trip to the UK. Very impressed with how our Nokia phone navigated us round the country, and especially through central London where it knew all the one way streets and showed us accurately even which lane to be in – though I wonder how many accidents happen as drivers try to drive while looking at the tiny blue arrows on their screen. My job of co-pilot is still safe as satnav reader.
I’m pleased to see one of my favourite mashups the real time London Tube Map is up and running again. It has an chequered history when the real time feed was totally overloaded. More
Survey – economic value of open data
If you want to promote open data in general, or get access to other people’s data, please take a few minutes to complete one of these surveys by 1st October. It is part of a government study project by Helen Moreland of the Victorian Dept of Transport and www.anzsog.edu.au
Respondents can receive a summary of the survey results.
“Economic value of open access to government-held data and information”
We are particularly interested in hearing stories about your experiences with open access to government data and/or information (be they positive, negative or neutral).
Short survey http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/infosurvey 5 minutes
Longer survey which will take about 20 minutes
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/govinfosurvey
The survey should take approximately 20 minutes, depending on how much detail you go into and is divided into the following sections:
1 Introduction
2 Access to data
3 Cost recovery
4 Characteristics of data
5 Benefits of access to data
6 Barriers to sharing data
7 Health questions (for those working in the health industry only)
8 Mining industry questions (for those working in the mining industry only)
9 Conclusion
[Please note the survey deadline is Friday 1st October(deadline has been extended) and that any information in addition to the survey can be sent to helen.moreland@transport.vic.gov.au]