Posted by
Karl Dubost on
Jul 07, 2011; 1:56pm
URL: http://civicaccess.416.s1.nabble.com/Toronto-Sun-Toronto-s-data-open-but-almost-useless-tp3414p3416.html
Le 7 juil. 2011 à 09:22, Tracey P. Lauriault a écrit :
> However, I am not sure which format the article's author wants the data in,
> xls is probably the lowest common denominator and many of the City's data
> are in those formats.
But not always an accessible format. And not an open format (owned by MS).
There is an act of balance to maintain in these choices and indeed in the first steps, there is can the data be reused. Frank is making a good point about it, specifically when you are advocating for open data.
Le 7 juil. 2011 à 09:40, Frank Warmerdam a écrit :
> In my opinion it is best to release data in close
> to the working format within the organization
It is tied to understand first how the organization is working. The workflow of information, the tools used, the people into this workflow to see where you can put hooks that will make the life of people easier. Anything that disturbs the established workflow and/or requires more work from people will fail. Abruptly.
The Linked Data crowd has created a scale for data publishing. Discover the 5 stars of publishing linked Data
★ Available on the web (whatever format),
but with an open license
★★ Available as machine-readable structured data
(e.g. excel instead of image scan of a table)
★★★ as (2) plus non-proprietary format
(e.g. CSV instead of excel)
★★★★ All the above plus, Use open standards from W3C
(RDF and SPARQL) to identify things,
so that people can point at your stuff
★★★★★ All the above, plus: Link your data to other
people’s data to provide context
—
http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData> How does a
> city decide on formats? Should they be releasing data in the way that they
> use them in the formats used as part of a city's business processes or
> should they re-format the data for the public?
It depends… :)
--
Karl Dubost
Montréal, QC, Canada
http://www.la-grange.net/karl/