[ckan-discuss] Setting up nl.ckan.net?

Fri Jun 18 15:21:28 BST 2010

Ton,

Great to hear about this big open data effort in Holland - we're
pleased to help with CKAN.

Do let me know if/when Martin or others would like to progress with
customising nl.ckan.net (as others have done - see
http://www.datadotgc.ca/ as an example). And please do join us at
ckan-discuss to ask further questions. All the best,

David

On 18 June 2010 07:17, Ton Zijlstra <ton.zijlstra at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi David,
> Thanks for your response and answers! I'm happy to see nl.ckan.net moving
> forward, and I think your answers to the questions mean we now, as the dutch
> open data community at large, have a piece of infrastructure we can use with
> the various parts of government we're involved with, and building a de facto
> Dutch data catalogue that way.
> Let me introduce you to Martin Borman. Martin together with Annemarie van
> Campen runs 'verseoverheid.nl' (fresh government .nl) and is involved with
> several open data related projects. Either by building widgets for local gov
> using open data, or by working more intensively with a city like Delft to
> use and promote open data more widely in their own gov services and
> interaction with citizens. Also they're doing some work with the EC on open
> data. As I said before, they also have been asked by ICTU (Dutch gov ICT
> office) to write a short proposal to start a simple Dutch data-catalogue.
> The nl.ckan.net instance can serve as building block for all of those
> activities in the infrastructure way I described above.
> Martin: David Read, as well as Rufus Pollock are part of the technical team
> of CKAN. So, I'm sure that if you have more questions you can work with them
> to sort things out. I suggest you join the CKAN discussion list as well.
> I also copied James Burke (you know him I think) and Jonathan Gray into this
> message. Jonathan is also with the Open Knowledge Foundation, and with me
> the initiator of the monthly EU wide conference calls on Open Data.
> I trust I now have established contact between Martin and all of us. Looking
> forward to seeing CKAN being deployed widely in NL. In the coming days I
> have some appointments with my own local gov, and having nl.ckan.net
> available will certainly help me to move things forward there as well.
> Thanks again.
> best,
> Ton
> -------------------------------------------
> Interdependent Thoughts
> Ton Zijlstra
>
> ton at tonzijlstra.eu
> +31-6-34489360
>
> http://zylstra.org/blog
> -------------------------------------------
>
>
> On Thu, Jun 17, 2010 at 5:57 PM, David Read <david.read at okfn.org> wrote:
>>
>> Ton,
>>
>> (Copying these technical questions to ckan-discuss list)
>>
>> Great to hear that CKAN looks to be useful in the Netherlands!
>> http://nl.ckan.net/ is now up, so feel free to play with it and add
>> data.
>>
>> Regarding your questions:
>>
>> 1. Adding the language translation file is no problem when that is ready.
>>
>> 2. It is easy for CKAN to be the database behind several front-ends.
>> The easiest way would to have a field like 'region' with values
>> 'Rotterdam' or 'Delft' etc. Each front-end can then specify the
>> particular region with an extra search term when it calls the search
>> API.
>>
>> 3. External front-ends connect to CKAN via the API - see
>> http://knowledgeforge.net/ckan/doc/ckan/api.html
>> There are also details here of various helpful modules in PHP, Drupal,
>> Perl, Python etc.
>> Or many CKAN sites simply use the bundled front-end which is easily
>> customised through its templates.
>>
>> 4. If you have an RSS feed containing meta-data, it can be imported
>> into CKAN with a script that loads it via the API. We have various
>> example scripts of metadata coming from spreadsheets, CSV, XML feeds
>> etc. written in Python to help.
>>
>> There are plenty of technical docs at
>> http://knowledgeforge.net/ckan/doc/ckan/
>> Any more technical questions, do ask!
>>
>> David Read
>> CKAN technical team
>>
>> On 17 June 2010 13:53, Ton Zijlstra <ton.zijlstra at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Hi guys,
>> > If there is a nl.ckan.net instance (as David already confirmed) the
>> > following questions emerge:
>> > 1) we'll need a Dutch translation (Edial Dekker is already working on
>> > that,
>> > so will be available soon)
>> > 2) Is it possible to have several websites use the same CKAN at
>> > nl.ckan.net
>> > instance in the background? E.g. can the city of Delft have their
>> > datasets
>> > listed in CKAN and only call upon those from their own data.delft.nl
>> > website? And the same for other groups like ICTU. (This way we'll have
>> > one
>> > data catalogue serving different parts of gov who don't see eye to
>> > eye right
>> > now)
>> > 3) Is how to connect a 'front-end' website to the CKAN instance covered
>> > in
>> > the documentation in the CKAN wiki? If not, who of you can help Martin
>> > out
>> > at this point to explain how to do that.
>> > 4) There is already a bunch of stuff around gov datasets in the IBM
>> > cloud.
>> > The RSS feed describing datasets, can that be fed into CKAN (not sure if
>> > I'm
>> > even asking the question right here, as my tech knowledge on this front
>> > is
>> > limited.)
>> > 5) With whom of you should I put Martin Borman in touch.
>> > Question 2 is important at the moment, as it will mean that some
>> > proposals
>> > to different part of gov can be limited to explaining them all is needed
>> > is
>> > a 'front-end' page, with CKAN doing the rest in the background.
>> > Looking forward to hear from you soon.
>> > I appreciate any help you can give us on these questions.
>> > best,
>> > Ton
>> > -------------------------------------------
>> > Interdependent Thoughts
>> > Ton Zijlstra
>> >
>> > ton at tonzijlstra.eu
>> > +31-6-34489360
>> >
>> > http://zylstra.org/blog
>> > -------------------------------------------
>> >
>> >
>> > On Thu, Jun 17, 2010 at 2:40 PM, David Read <david.read at okfn.org> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> James,
>> >>
>> >> No probs - I've installed your server nl.ckan.net. It just needs the
>> >> DNS to propagate before it'll show up.
>> >>
>> >> David
>> >>
>> >> On 17 June 2010 12:33, james burke <lifesized at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >> > sounds good!
>> >> > please set it up and send me and ton login details so we can
>> >> > get cracking.
>> >> > thanks
>> >> > /J
>> >> >
>> >> > On Thu, Jun 17, 2010 at 1:31 PM, Jonathan Gray
>> >> > <jonathan.gray at okfn.org>
>> >> > wrote:
>> >> >>
>> >> >> James: no sorry, I meant do any of the CKAN developers (Rufus,
>> >> >> David,
>> >> >> John, ...) have time to set this up! In first instance we can set up
>> >> >> and host this at nl.ckan.net...
>> >> >>
>> >> >> Jonathan
>> >> >>
>> >> >> On Thu, Jun 17, 2010 at 11:27 AM, james burke <lifesized at gmail.com>
>> >> >> wrote:
>> >> >> > Hey Jonathan,
>> >> >> > i guess you mean we need a spare server which runs python? Maybe
>> >> >> > some
>> >> >> > of
>> >> >> > our
>> >> >> > European friends, not necessarily in NL can lend us a hand if you
>> >> >> > are
>> >> >> > already running CKAN. Can anyone spare us a sub-domain? No biggie
>> >> >> > if
>> >> >> > at
>> >> >> > this
>> >> >> > stage we start life on a box somewhere else. It's open gov. data
>> >> >> > afterall.
>> >> >> > James
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> > On Thu, Jun 17, 2010 at 11:23 AM, Jonathan Gray
>> >> >> > <jonathan.gray at okfn.org>
>> >> >> > wrote:
>> >> >> >>
>> >> >> >> I'm not sure how fast these instances are to deploy -- but could
>> >> >> >> someone perhaps help set up nl.ckan.net?
>> >> >> >>
>> >> >> >> We're going to try to get a translation done in time for a
>> >> >> >> possible
>> >> >> >> launch in July!
>> >> >> >>
>> >> >> >> All the best,
>> >> >> >>
>> >> >> >> Jonathan
>> >> >> >>
>> >> >> >> --
>> >> >> >> Jonathan Gray
>> >> >> >>
>> >> >> >> Community Coordinator
>> >> >> >> The Open Knowledge Foundation
>> >> >> >> http://blog.okfn.org
>> >> >> >>
>> >> >> >> http://twitter.com/jwyg
>> >> >> >> http://identi.ca/jwyg
>> >> >> >>
>> >> >> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> >> >> ckan-discuss mailing list
>> >> >> >> ckan-discuss at lists.okfn.org
>> >> >> >> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/ckan-discuss
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> > --
>> >> >> > Web: www.lifesized.net  Phone:+31 (0)6 5244 6445 Twitter:
>> >> >> > @lifesized
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> >
>> >> >>
>> >> >>
>> >> >>
>> >> >> --
>> >> >> Jonathan Gray
>> >> >>
>> >> >> Community Coordinator
>> >> >> The Open Knowledge Foundation
>> >> >> http://blog.okfn.org
>> >> >>
>> >> >> http://twitter.com/jwyg
>> >> >> http://identi.ca/jwyg
>> >> >
>> >> >
>> >> >
>> >> > --
>> >> > Web: www.lifesized.net  Phone:+31 (0)6 5244 6445 Twitter: @lifesized
>> >> >
>> >> >
>> >> > _______________________________________________
>> >> > ckan-discuss mailing list
>> >> > ckan-discuss at lists.okfn.org
>> >> > http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/ckan-discuss
>> >> >
>> >> >
>> >
>> >
>
>