Data scraping using Google Docs spreadsheets
Thanks to Paul Bradshaw I recently came across a post by Tony Hirst who has very helpfully provided an extraordinary lesson in the joys (and I do mean joys) of scraping data using Google Docs, which I strongly recommend following if you’re at all interested in these sorts of things and haven’t seen it (it [...]
SpeedData: Chris Taggart on Open Election Data
Chris Taggart of OpenlyLocal spoke briefly during his presentation about his work with several councils to provide open election data for the elections on May 6. As Chris points out it is something of a surprise that election data isn’t just available freely. But it isn’t. Well, at least until Chris got involved. I got [...]
SpeedData: Alex Burrows of Centro
Alex Burrows is the head of strategy at Centro, the public transport authority for the West Midlands. He explained that Centro deals with enormous amounts of data, but has until now perhaps not been as aware of some of the interesting things that other people might be prepared to do with their data. I spoke [...]
So how generous is Ordnance Survey OpenData?
At the beginning of this month (apologies, we’re a bit late) the Government announced that much of the mapping data held by the Ordnance Survey would be released free to the public.
Tesco launches API for developers. Can you imagine grocery mashups?
The retail giant has been developing a REST API (not really sure what the REST bit means) for developers to use in applications that can enhance grocery shopping. Developers will be able to search products, as well as get nutritional information, such as how many calories are in a serving of crisps or biscuits. (Programmable [...]
Submit apps and ideas that use public data to Directgov | Innovate
Innovate.Direct.gov.uk recently completed a relaunch of their website. It’s supposed to act as a portal of public data apps and ideas. Everyone is free to suggest new projects or submit apps that are built on government data. E-Government Bulletin Live writes: First launched in January of this year, a number of new features have now [...]
AllForGood: Doing good with public data
AllForGood is a directory of volunteer activities in the US. It’s a database that lets you search for all kinds of volunteering opportunities based on keywords and topics. The site does a few things, it allows you to; Find volunteer activities near you. Share volunteer activities with your friends. See what your friends are interested [...]
Great Use of Data Part 1: MySociety.org
This is part of our ‘Great use of Data’ series in which we explore projects and applications that use data in new and existing ways. Who are they? MySociety is a not-for-profit company based on a charity. They take public information and makes it accessible and understandable for the average citizen. What do they do? [...]
David Cameron gives examples of how you could use public data. (if it was available that is)
I was reading David Cameron’s speech at the Imperial College London yesterday titled ‘Giving power back to the people’ and he actually managed to pull out some nice examples of public data use or rather, what is possible. He even used the word ‘mashed up’, which hopefully means the word has been slightly demystified.
