{"@context":{"rdf":"http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#","rdfs":"http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#","owl":"http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#","foaf":"http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/","dc":"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/","dct":"http://purl.org/dc/terms/","sioc":"http://rdfs.org/sioc/types#","blog":"http://vocab.amy.so/blog#","as":"https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams#","mf2":"http://microformats.org/profile/","ldp":"http://www.w3.org/ns/ldp#","solid":"http://www.w3.org/ns/solid#","view":"https://terms.rhiaro.co.uk/view#","asext":"https://terms.rhiaro.co.uk/as#","dbp":"http://dbpedia.org/property/","geo":"http://www.w3.org/2003/01/geo/wgs84_pos#","doap":"http://usefulinc.com/ns/doap#","time":"http://www.w3.org/2006/time#"},"@graph":[{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/2013/02/co-organiser-open","@type":"as:Article","blog:tmpcontent":"# Co-organiser, Open Data Day Edinburgh\r\n\r\nHelped organise the Edinburgh branch of [International Open Data Day](http://opendataday.org/) unconference.","as:actor":{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/about#me"},"as:content":"
Helped organise the Edinburgh branch of International Open Data Day unconference.
","as:endTime":{"@type":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#datetime","@value":"2013-02-23T18:00:00+0000"},"as:name":"Co-organiser, Open Data Day Edinburgh","as:published":{"@type":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#datetime","@value":"2013-02-23T09:00:00+0000"},"as:startTime":{"@type":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#datetime","@value":"2013-02-23T09:00:00+0000"},"as:tag":[{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/cv"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/event"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/ilwhack"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/okfn"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/open+data+day"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/open+data"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/open+knowledge"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/organiser"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/resume"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/unconference"}]},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/2013/02/week-review-planning","@type":"as:Article","blog:bloggerid":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18505529.post-4701969289450916472","as:actor":{"@id":"http://www.blogger.com/profile/12227954801080178130"},"as:content":"4th - 10th February
\r\n
\r\nWhen helping to organise an event, it's impressive how much time sending emails, updating websites and spreadsheets, having meetings and generally coordinating things can take up. So that's a lot of what I've done this week. Not PhD, but related enough to be excusable... sort of... (Smart Data Hack and Open Data Day: Joined Up Edinburgh)
I have finally booked plane tickets to Serbia for\r\nResonate new media festival, at which I'm hoping to\r\nmake useful contacts with independent digital media producers, learn some\r\nstuff about big data visualisation at the workshops (my places at the ones\r\nI've applied to haven't been confirmed yet though), and generally learn more\r\nabout the digital art scene (and figure out ways SW technologies can benefit\r\npeople who are part of it). And also to enjoy Belgrade, as I'll have a spare\r\ncouple of days either side of the festival. Because the flights were cheaper\r\nthen! Honest! I actually lost an entire afternoon hunting for cheapest\r\nflights on websites that weren't obviously scams (Cheap-o-Airlines? Really??\r\nUltimately booking through JAT directly was the best option), then negotiating\r\ncheapest trains to London in order to catch flights, then sending CouchSurfing\r\nrequests, because why spend money on a hostel when you can meet wonderful new\r\npeople and get tourist advice for free?
\r\nI also applied for a place at the Semantic Web Summer\r\nSchool in Spain in July. It looks fantastic and\r\neducational and stuff. And I applied for funding to help cover then 900EUR\r\nentry cost (a whole week, accommodation and meals included), and\r\nSICSA are providing £500, yay!
\r\nTwo thirds of Ontologies with a\r\nView met this week, and we discussed BBC use of Linked Data. I only\r\nmanaged to skim the paper, but knew the general principles from articles I'd\r\nread about their work before... I will read it properly at some point, though\r\nI think a more technical discussion of what they did might be useful.
","as:name":"Week in review: Planning trips!","as:published":{"@type":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#datetime","@value":"2013-02-10T23:56:00.002Z"},"as:tag":[{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/doing"},{"@id":"blog:Doing"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/belgrade"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/events"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/festival"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/innovative+learning+week"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/joined+up+edinburgh"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/joinuped"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/madrid"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/open+data+day"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/phd"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/resonate"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/semantic+web+summer+school"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/serbia"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/smart+data+hack"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/spain"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/trips"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/week+in+review"}],"as:updated":{"@type":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#datetime","@value":"2013-04-01T00:07:45.549Z"}},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/2013/02/weeks-review","@type":"as:Article","blog:bloggerid":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18505529.post-5732083218834733501","as:actor":{"@id":"http://www.blogger.com/profile/12227954801080178130"},"as:content":"11th to 24th February
\r\n
\r\nI went to the Computer Mediated Social Sense-Making workshop; read about it.
I helped organise and run the Innovative Learning Week Smart Data\r\nHack (18th -\r\n22nd), and Edinburgh's version of International Open Data\r\nDay\r\n(23rd). Both were successful.
","as:name":"Week(s) in review: ILWhack and JoinUpEd","as:published":{"@type":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#datetime","@value":"2013-02-25T01:54:00.000Z"},"as:tag":[{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/doing"},{"@id":"blog:Doing"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/conference"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/conferences"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/events"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/hack"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/hackathon"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/ilwhack"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/joined+up+edinburgh"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/joinuped"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/open+data+day"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/open+data"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/organising"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/phd"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/smart+data+hack"}],"as:updated":{"@type":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#datetime","@value":"2013-04-01T00:06:50.598Z"}},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/2013/03/open-data-day","@type":"as:Article","blog:bloggerid":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18505529.post-1954966101405721767","as:actor":{"@id":"http://www.blogger.com/profile/12227954801080178130"},"as:content":"The 23rd of February was International Open Data\r\nDay. Since this fell at the end of the\r\nILWhack week, it\r\nseemed like a good opportunity to take advantage of the momentum and engage\r\nthe stirring Edinburgh Open Data scene.
\r\nMany ODD were organised around the world; most of them were hacks. In\r\nEdinburgh we went for a different approach, thanks largely to input from local\r\ncommunity activists like Freda,\r\nLeah, Andy and\r\nAlly. Some might call it 'social hacking'.\r\nOur aim was to gather together people with little knowledge of Open Data,\r\npeople with data that may or may not be open, and developers and technical\r\ntypes.
\r\nWith Open Data stuff exploding worldwide, and developers going nuts creating\r\ncool apps and services that make use of data being released, it's important,\r\nyou see, for {local, small-scale, voluntary, grassroots} groups and\r\nindividuals to get involved early on. Such parties are arguably likely to\r\nbenefit the most from empowerment by data, and if they're not part of the\r\ndiscussion early on we might well see a lot of services developed that meet\r\nneeds imagined by a not-quite-connected but well-meaning tecchie.
\r\nSo on that note, we want to spread the word about Open Data to those who might\r\nnormally be left behind. When these groups know what the possibilities are\r\n(we can show them successful projects, locally (eg. ILWhack) and worldwide),\r\nwhat is available, and what could and should be available, we empower them to\r\ntake action that will benefit them. More specifically, people can find out\r\nthat the English government has released data about such-and-such-of-interest,\r\nand politely demand that the Scottish Parliament or local councils do\r\nsimilarly. They can interface early on with developers who are keen to start\r\nmaking, and make sure their real problems get solved (or at least\r\nprioritised over potential imaginary ones). They can get involved with things\r\nlike ILWhack, and have a better idea of what it's all about.
\r\nBetween 10am and 2pm, we gathered around 35 people in the Informatics Forum\r\nand, fuelled by tea, coffee and biscuits, began the discussion.
\r\nWe started with an hour of ten minute talks, about a variety of topics:
\r\nSally Kerr told us about Open Data at the City of Edinburgh Council; the\r\nprogress they've made so far and where they hope to go in the future; NESTA's\r\nlocal government Make It Local programme helped Edinburgh Council to move\r\nforward with Open Data. She gave a nod to the ILWhack projects that made use\r\nof Council data in the week prior.
\r\nAlex Stobart of MyDex talked about big, open data, and\r\nthe challenges this presents to citizens and politicians.
\r\nIain Henderson explained the Standard Label; an\r\neasy to read specification for data holders to present to their users how the\r\nuser data will be used. Like nutritional advice, but for data.. Other ODD\r\nevents were centred around hacking with it we spoke!
\r\nBob Kerr talked about OpenStreetMap and GeoRSS. I love the obsessive\r\nhyperlocal detail in some places, like where the animals live in Edinburgh\r\nZoo. On a serious note, OSM has really empowered local governments and NGOs\r\nin developing countries.
\r\nAndy Hyde discussed asset mapping for voluntary groups; how ALISS collate\r\ndispersed health and wellbeing information into a central, open repository,\r\nripe for manual and programmatic access.
\r\nFrom Lizzie Brotherston we heard about the Post-16 Learner Journey Project;\r\nhelping the Scottish Government understand the learning landscape. They're\r\nholding a hack in April.
\r\nNext it was unconference time!
\r\nWe had a short while of whole-room discussion, before identifying three key\r\nareas:
\r\nEverybody picked a group and we broke apart for the next couple of hours.
\r\nThe final part of the day was a return to the main room, and further room-wide\r\ndiscussion of the breakout debates.
\r\nThe _s__tandardising visualisations _conversation focussed around bringing\r\npeople into conversations about data using visuals. Someone pointed out that\r\nif news readers used Open Data visualisations, the general public would be a\r\nlot more interested in Open Data. It's interesting to imagine a future where\r\ndata visualisations are embedded into the world, into the landscape. To be\r\nable to interact with data meaningfully, you've got to know what it is - to\r\nrecognise it. A standard - think periodic table - would help people to know\r\nexactly what you're talking about straight away. This goes beyond graphs and\r\ncharts, into a world of layered visualisations that allow layered public\r\ncontributions of interpretations.
\r\nThose interested in small scale voluntary organisations discussed data\r\nholding and data access issues, including strategies for persuading big\r\norganisations to open data (eg. by showing success stories, and proving a\r\ncertain return on investment). It was agreed that interfacing with developers\r\nis important to get things done that organisations really need; but\r\norganisations might not know what they need. It was discovered that there's a\r\nlot of crossover between groups represented by people who were in this\r\ndiscussion; common needs but gaps in talent.
\r\nFinally, with regards to sustainability of data projects it was agreed that\r\nstrategies are needed for keeping things going beyond short hack events; how\r\nto sustain that burst of energy for a longer term usefulness? How to keep\r\ntrack of everything that's going on, and link communities with events (see\r\nOpenTechCalendar!). Some kind of\r\ncoordination body might be useful, or working groups / task forces.
\r\nWe wrapped up, collected everyone's details for sharing (to ensure\r\nsustainability of the outcomes of the day by making sure everyone can keep in\r\ntouch!) and people began to drift away.
\r\nThere was an enormous positive energy throughout the day. Discussions were\r\nlively and passionate, and we had an excellent mix of people, exactly as hoped\r\nfor.
\r\nNB. It looks like Joined Up Edinburgh will come under the umbrella of the\r\nScotland branch of the Open Knowledge FoundatioN, so\r\nhttp://scot.okfn.org will be a good place to keep an\r\neye on now. And to keep in the loop, join the Joined Up Edinburgh mailing\r\nlist.
\r\nOther people have blogged about this too. Check out these by Leah\r\nLockhart and Dave\r\nMeikle (more links welcome).
","as:name":"Open Data Day: Joined Up Edinburgh #joinuped","as:published":{"@type":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#datetime","@value":"2013-03-15T23:13:00.002Z"},"as:tag":[{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/done"},{"@id":"blog:Done"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/events"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/joined+up+edinburgh"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/joinuped"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/open+data+day"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/open+data"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/organiser"}],"as:updated":{"@type":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#datetime","@value":"2013-05-18T16:46:26.894Z"}},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/2013/03/smart-data-hack","@type":"as:Article","blog:bloggerid":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18505529.post-8170665767287717018","as:actor":{"@id":"http://www.blogger.com/profile/12227954801080178130"},"as:content":"I spent a good deal of time during January and February helping to organise a\r\ncouple of Open Data oriented events. At least, that's the excuse I'm sticking\r\nto for not having done much of my PhD in that time.
\r\nThe Smart Data Hack, also known as ILWhack (Innovative Learning Week* hack)\r\ncame first, between the 18th and 22nd of February.
\r\nThe hack was targeted at first and second year undergraduates in Informatics\r\non the basis that third and fourth years would be busy with final projects.\r\nThis was by no means a restriction however, and we harboured hopes of enticing\r\nalong design students and data buffs from other departments to mix up the\r\nskill set a bit as well.
\r\nI knocked up a website with two primary\r\nfunctions.
\r\nWe anticipated about 50 students, and invited them to form teams of up to 5.
\r\nIn parallel with gathering sponsorship, we came up with five prize categories\r\nof equal merit:
\r\nWe hoped to encourage students to make whatever they wanted, using whatever\r\ntechnologies they wanted, with use of open (or specially provided) data being\r\nfavourably looked upon.
\r\nSkyscanner were the first main sponsor on board,\r\npledging prizes for two categories and some massive datasets that aren't\r\nusually public and access to internal APIs, as well as engineers to mentor.
\r\nWe partnered with ALISS to encourage use of their local\r\nhealth and wellbeing data API; ALISS also sponsored in part a prize category.
\r\nThe City of Edinburgh Council were on board with\r\nsome never-before-seen downloadable datasets (still\r\nonline!), a bunch of\r\npre-approved API keys and refreshingly open minds and supportive attitudes.
\r\nCompSoc heroically sponsored an entire prize category\r\nand promoted the event to its members.
\r\nOpen Innovation sponsored a prize\r\ncategory too, and the School of Informatics contributed towards prizes and catering.
\r\nGreener Leith proposed a challenge and\r\nsponsored a special Mosque Kitchen lunch for everyone after the mid-point\r\npresentations on Wednesday.
\r\nWe were able to hold some terrific practical\r\nworkshops, thanks to:
\r\nWe also recruited mentors from UG4 and PhD students, as well as industry\r\nprofessionals, who were consistently present in the hacking space all week or\r\navailable by Twitter, email and IRC.
\r\nWe marketed the event in the couple of weeks prior (though we were organising\r\nup to the very last minute) through shout outs in lectures, posters around the\r\nInformatics department, emails to many university mailing lists and word of\r\nmouth.
\r\nAs a result, we overshot our expected numbers, with well over 100 sign-ups by\r\nthe start of the week. This was good news and bad news at the time, as we had\r\nto scramble around to make sure we had enough sponsorship to feed everyone and\r\nwhatnot.
\r\nBy the end of the week, there were around 80 students still actively\r\nparticipating, across about 25 teams. Pretty good! Most of them were\r\nInformatics undergraduates as expected, but we had a handful of postgraduates\r\nand students from the ECA as well.
\r\nAnd the outcome?
\r\nSome amazing projects and really positive feedback from participants and\r\nsupporters alike.
\r\nNaturally only a couple of days passed before somebody noticed that I hadn't\r\nsanitized input fields on the website for HTML and CSS input, so they made the\r\nprojects page spin and play the Harlem Shake before I sorted that out, having\r\nbeen alerted at around midnight. /grumble. Should have seen that coming, of\r\ncourse.
\r\nIn the end we gave away £1500 in Amazon vouchers, five Nexus 7s and ten Kindle\r\nFires. Skyscanner even upped their sponsorship to three prizes because they\r\nwere so spoilt for choice.
\r\nYou can read about the projects, teams and see some demos\r\nhere.
\r\nIt was a really exciting and inspiring week for everyone involved. Many of\r\nthe students are taking their projects further (which is probably the most\r\nimportant outcome) and are in discussions with relevant parties to do so.
\r\nYou can see photos and see other peoples' write-ups about the event\r\nhere.
\r\nWill we do it again next year? From the feedback gathered, the response has\r\nbeen a resounding yes!
","as:endTime":{"@type":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime","@value":"2013-02-22T18:00:00+00:00"},"as:inReplyTo":{"@id":"http://smartdatahack.org"},"as:name":"The Smart Data Hack #ilwhack","as:published":{"@type":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#datetime","@value":"2013-03-15T20:48:00.000Z"},"as:startTime":{"@type":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime","@value":"2013-02-18T09:00:00+00:00"},"as:tag":[{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/done"},{"@id":"blog:Done"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/events"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/hack"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/ilwhack"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/innovative+learning+week"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/joined+up+edinburgh"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/joinuped"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/open+data+day"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/open+data"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/organiser"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/rsvp"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/smart+data+hack"}],"as:updated":{"@type":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#datetime","@value":"2013-05-18T16:45:40.632Z"}},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/open+data+day","@type":"as:Collection","as:totalItems":{"@type":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#nonNegativeInteger","@value":"5"}},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/open+data+day?before=https://rhiaro.co.uk/2013/03/open-data-day&limit=16","@type":"as:CollectionPage","as:items":[{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/2013/03/open-data-day"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/2013/03/smart-data-hack"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/2013/02/weeks-review"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/2013/02/co-organiser-open"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/2013/02/week-review-planning"}],"as:name":"open data day","as:partOf":{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/open+data+day"}}]}