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I'm glad to see something coming in this space. I had been very sad to see DabbleDB go away, and Google Fusion Tables, Google Refine, and Google Docs Spreadshee

by afiler 15y ago

I'm glad to see something coming in this space. I had been very sad to see DabbleDB go away, and Google Fusion Tables, Google Refine, and Google Docs Spreadsheets seem promising yet somewhat neglected, unfocused, and disjoint. Surely, though, there must be a more descriptive term for this than a "social network"? Even though you could consider it (to some degree) to be a social network, Github doesn't describe itself as one.

afiler 15y ago
(I'm presupposing, of course, that "social network" sounds as overused of a term to everyone else as it does to me.)
peteforde 15y ago
Dude. Help us find better words. We hate it at least as much as you do. If someone told me two years ago that I'd be passionately building a social network in 2011, I'd have laughed in their face. That said, it's inarguable that you all knew what we were talking about, even if you groaned. That's what we're up against. All I can ask is that you suspend your judgement and assume that this is the effort of people with a clue. We're motivated to be loved, not hated.
- afiler 15y ago
  If I were going to describe this to a friend, I'd probably say "like flickr, but for data"... not something you can put in marketing materials, I know. I'd like to abuse this reply to ask that when you add tools for geodata, that you please please please do what you can to help people produce visualizations and rankings that are not horribly skewed by poor choices of geographic boundaries. I know this is a hard problem, but for people who don't do this all the time, it's really easy to end up with a headline like "Manhattan Leads the City in Pedestrian Deaths Per Square Mile, Study Finds" (Manhattan is, of course, the densest borough in New York City, so this probably isn't terribly useful information). I've seen maps that might show, for example, the areas of the US with the highest number of coffee shops per square mile, but the map is done based on counties, so here in Seattle we end up not looking terribly dense since over half of gigantic King County is mountainous and unpopulated.
  - afiler 15y ago
    (Yes, another reply to one of my own comments.) After looking at your blog, I see that my example above was basically the geodata version of http://blog.buzzdata.com/post/7535032009/25-great-links-for-data-lovin-journalists http://blog.buzzdata.com/post/7535032009/25-great-links-for-... . I think I'm in love.
  - peteforde 15y ago
    I can do two better: 1. Give us good feedback on the things you care about, and we'll listen. We're a small team and we're listening to everything people tell us. 2. We're specifically not providing tools that create visualizations. There's a hundred startups and software products that already do this. BuzzData is where you put your visualizations and articles and apps when you're done.
- salman89 15y ago
  Try collaborative. "Social network" is such an annoying word.
  - peteforde 15y ago
    We don't disagree. However, we've found that hub, community, collaboration are all words that make non-geek eyes zone out. One of our high-level mandates is to demystify the discussion and use of data so that non-technical people are able to contribute in a meaningful way. That means no acronyms, no "push requests" and going for familiar idioms. Again, suspend judgement until you see it!
- arkitaip 15y ago
  How about just calling yourself a community ("We are a community passionate about liberating and sharing useful data on the web.")? Everyone understand what it means, it has a familiar touch to it and very few would oppose it as being to web2-y.

by afiler 15y ago

afiler 15y ago

(I'm presupposing, of course, that "social network" sounds as overused of a term to everyone else as it does to me.)

peteforde 15y ago

Dude. Help us find better words. We hate it at least as much as you do. If someone told me two years ago that I'd be passionately building a social network in 2011, I'd have laughed in their face. That said, it's inarguable that you all knew what we were talking about, even if you groaned. That's what we're up against. All I can ask is that you suspend your judgement and assume that this is the effort of people with a clue. We're motivated to be loved, not hated.

afiler 15y ago
If I were going to describe this to a friend, I'd probably say "like flickr, but for data"... not something you can put in marketing materials, I know. I'd like to abuse this reply to ask that when you add tools for geodata, that you please please please do what you can to help people produce visualizations and rankings that are not horribly skewed by poor choices of geographic boundaries. I know this is a hard problem, but for people who don't do this all the time, it's really easy to end up with a headline like "Manhattan Leads the City in Pedestrian Deaths Per Square Mile, Study Finds" (Manhattan is, of course, the densest borough in New York City, so this probably isn't terribly useful information). I've seen maps that might show, for example, the areas of the US with the highest number of coffee shops per square mile, but the map is done based on counties, so here in Seattle we end up not looking terribly dense since over half of gigantic King County is mountainous and unpopulated.
- afiler 15y ago
  (Yes, another reply to one of my own comments.) After looking at your blog, I see that my example above was basically the geodata version of http://blog.buzzdata.com/post/7535032009/25-great-links-for-data-lovin-journalists http://blog.buzzdata.com/post/7535032009/25-great-links-for-... . I think I'm in love.
- peteforde 15y ago
  I can do two better: 1. Give us good feedback on the things you care about, and we'll listen. We're a small team and we're listening to everything people tell us. 2. We're specifically not providing tools that create visualizations. There's a hundred startups and software products that already do this. BuzzData is where you put your visualizations and articles and apps when you're done.
salman89 15y ago
Try collaborative. "Social network" is such an annoying word.
- peteforde 15y ago
  We don't disagree. However, we've found that hub, community, collaboration are all words that make non-geek eyes zone out. One of our high-level mandates is to demystify the discussion and use of data so that non-technical people are able to contribute in a meaningful way. That means no acronyms, no "push requests" and going for familiar idioms. Again, suspend judgement until you see it!
arkitaip 15y ago
How about just calling yourself a community ("We are a community passionate about liberating and sharing useful data on the web.")? Everyone understand what it means, it has a familiar touch to it and very few would oppose it as being to web2-y.