4 ms·

The Open Data Delusion

• 7952 10y ago
  A lot of this kind of information (like public toilets) is not really suitable for fixed schemas and periodic release. It works better as a log of simple events that relate to a particular thing in the real world. For example: * Disabled toilet opened (01/01/2012). * Reports of graffiti from member of public (06/02/2012). * Opening hours changed to 8am - 8pm (14/02/2013). The flow of events contain much more information than a few edited facts. It allows people to enter complete information without needing to agree a schema. The data on its own is useful without complex tools or UI.
  • cossatot 10y ago
    That's an interesting point. How would you make a map from it?
    • reustle 10y ago
      A map of the toilets? Each update could still have a status assigned to it (available/broken) so you could just query the toilets which are available
    • 7952 10y ago
      I think that coordinates could be added in a siumilar way. A problem we have currently is that not information is included on the accuracy of locations. This approach could help solve that: * Postcode - EC1V 0AJ (01/05/2014) * GPS survey of entrypoint - 51.527411,-0.101689 (06/05/2014) * Ordnance Survey Toid linked - 156151456156 (01/05/2015) * Location logged on OpenStreetmap - entity ID 1561561561 (07/02/2015) Of course having a schema and standards is better, but not actually essential. Parsable text is more useful than nothing at all.
  • puntofisso 10y ago
    I accept this point, but versioning can help address it.