4 ms·

In the UK, postcodes - unlike US ZIP codes, they're not free Retail product data - books, movies, music, games, electronics, etc: you can kinda do this through

In the UK, postcodes - unlike US ZIP codes, they're not free Retail product data - books, movies, music, games, electronics, etc: you can kinda do this through affiliate programs, but it's not great Drug companies - studies can be killed if the data looks bad; we should be able to see every study, completed or not, and all the associated data so we can do comparative analyses

DarkShikari 17y ago
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/UK_government_database_of_all_1,841,177_post_codes_together_with_precise_geographic_coordinates_and_other_information,_8_Jul_2009 http://wikileaks.org/wiki/UK_government_database_of_all_1,84...
- smiler 17y ago
  Great... except you can't use the information legally and it will not be kept up-to-date which makes it useless I can't believe we have to pay for the postcode data in the UK. It should be freely available
  - windsurfer 17y ago
    Why isn't it legal to use? Even if I download and read a book illegally, I'm still allowed to post quotes from the book on my blog. I'm still allowed to know the material. Why is this list any different?
- kierank 17y ago
  This isn't the full postcode database. The full postcode database maps postcodes to actual addresses instead of co-ordinates. You could map these coordinates to addresses but you'd need Ordnance Survey data which you've also got to pay for.
pplante 17y ago
RE: Drug companies - I imagine that this would be great data to have for the scientific community. But I am sure this would cause many patent issues for the industry...
dazzawazza 17y ago
An open UPC/EAN database would be great. Currently you are forced to use Amazon but are restricted to their TOS (no mobile apps being a big thing) or the UPCDatabase which is VERY small (but a valiant effort). The sad thing is that I can see no commercial reason NOT to open the database. People already pay a small fee for obtaining a legitimate EAN/UPC code.
- hypest 17y ago
  Not open, but an otherwise "free" and official place to get some info regarding a barcode... http://gepir.gs1.org/V31/xx/gtin.aspx?Lang=en-US http://gepir.gs1.org/V31/xx/gtin.aspx?Lang=en-US

DarkShikari 17y ago

http://wikileaks.org/wiki/UK_government_database_of_all_1,841,177_post_codes_together_with_precise_geographic_coordinates_and_other_information,_8_Jul_2009 http://wikileaks.org/wiki/UK_government_database_of_all_1,84...

smiler 17y ago
Great... except you can't use the information legally and it will not be kept up-to-date which makes it useless I can't believe we have to pay for the postcode data in the UK. It should be freely available
- windsurfer 17y ago
  Why isn't it legal to use? Even if I download and read a book illegally, I'm still allowed to post quotes from the book on my blog. I'm still allowed to know the material. Why is this list any different?
kierank 17y ago
This isn't the full postcode database. The full postcode database maps postcodes to actual addresses instead of co-ordinates. You could map these coordinates to addresses but you'd need Ordnance Survey data which you've also got to pay for.

pplante 17y ago

RE: Drug companies - I imagine that this would be great data to have for the scientific community. But I am sure this would cause many patent issues for the industry...

dazzawazza 17y ago

An open UPC/EAN database would be great. Currently you are forced to use Amazon but are restricted to their TOS (no mobile apps being a big thing) or the UPCDatabase which is VERY small (but a valiant effort). The sad thing is that I can see no commercial reason NOT to open the database. People already pay a small fee for obtaining a legitimate EAN/UPC code.

hypest 17y ago
Not open, but an otherwise "free" and official place to get some info regarding a barcode... http://gepir.gs1.org/V31/xx/gtin.aspx?Lang=en-US http://gepir.gs1.org/V31/xx/gtin.aspx?Lang=en-US