[ckan-discuss] What open data projects could use storage/bandwidth? (Proposal for 'Open Data Labs')

Wed Jul 7 22:53:19 BST 2010

On 7 July 2010 23:54, Jonathan Gray <jonathan.gray at okfn.org> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> We (Open Data Network / Open Knowledge Foundation) currently have an
> opportunity to receive support for storage and bandwidth for open data
> / open government data related projects which need it.
>
> We have started brainstorming on a project tentatively dubbed 'Open
> Data Labs', which would be an umbrella project for various bits and
> pieces we need storage/bandwidth for. We are currently brainstorming
> for things which we could use this for -- so if you have any ideas,
> please add them to:
>
>  http://okfnpad.org/opendatalabs

Hi Johnathan,

Hopefully this is on topic! Yesterday I had my first experiment with Google
App Engine, registering http://swssarmyknife.appspot.com. My rough sketch
of a plan is to create "the website for machines". It's basically a large
set of API calls that return JSON. Super simple, super fast. It's going to
be filled with things that are useful for web applications, especially in
the mobile web.

I haven't uploaded the instance yet. Still sitting in my sandbox. Some
things that I thought I could start with have been:

time:
 - what time is it anywhere in the world (largely complete)
 usecase: what time will it be in Chile in 47h, 34mins from now?
cities:
 - lists of radio stations, etc: GPS coordinates of things in openstreetmap
economy:
 - country & regional statistics
health:
 - mainly stats

Yes- lots of these things are solved problems. However, I want to make it
easier for people to create visualisations & wider applications - basically
by removing the need to create a database. If they can get started with HTTP
calls, they reduce the time to get a working prototype.

Am I duplicating effort? Does this seem worthwhile?

Tim
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