Comments on: Open data? Fine. But available isn’t accessible http://www.mercedes-bunz.de/2010/06/open-data-fine-but-available-isnt-accessible/ Sat, 31 Dec 2011 14:20:45 +0100 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 hourly 1 By: LFSaw http://www.mercedes-bunz.de/2010/06/open-data-fine-but-available-isnt-accessible/comment-page-1/#comment-239049 LFSaw Sun, 13 Jun 2010 21:46:02 +0000 http://www.mercedes-bunz.de/?p=1869#comment-239049 True. However, there is IMHO more than just publishing Apps rather than in publications. A good example for app-publishing with a big fail is the distribution of weather and environmental data in central europe: In difference to the USA, where both data and visualization apps are made public, in europe it is very hard to find actual (textual) data streams for e.g. ozone values. Not important, you may think as it is a welcome and easy way to just look at the flash-y (html5-y) visualizations of ozone or Particulate Matter distributions. But what if you want to start your own investigations and analysis of the data? Note that this data is collected by governmental organizations, i.e. with our very own money. A good starting point for making such data available are the efforts of the European Environmental Agency ( http://www.eea.europa.eu/ ), which starts to make such environmental data accessible in near realtime. However, I found it rather disturbing that most data remains hidden behind flash animations and apps, such that they may only be consumed in the predefined (and well-shaped) ways, rather than are open for own interpretational approaches. True. However, there is IMHO more than just publishing Apps rather than in publications. A good example for app-publishing with a big fail is the distribution of weather and environmental data in central europe: In difference to the USA, where both data and visualization apps are made public, in europe it is very hard to find actual (textual) data streams for e.g. ozone values. Not important, you may think as it is a welcome and easy way to just look at the flash-y (html5-y) visualizations of ozone or Particulate Matter distributions. But what if you want to start your own investigations and analysis of the data? Note that this data is collected by governmental organizations, i.e. with our very own money.

A good starting point for making such data available are the efforts of the European Environmental Agency ( http://www.eea.europa.eu/ ), which starts to make such environmental data accessible in near realtime. However, I found it rather disturbing that most data remains hidden behind flash animations and apps, such that they may only be consumed in the predefined (and well-shaped) ways, rather than are open for own interpretational approaches.

]]>