[datacatalogs] Proposal: migrating datacatalogs.org to a new simpler setup

[James McKinney]

The features you describe are more-or-less all on the current datacatalogs.org. It’s just that datacatalogs.org has accumulated technical debt.

It seems that Rufus wants to solve the technical debt by rewriting it as a thin git-based system that throws away all the features you mention.

I would agree that it’s better to keep the features, and to just pay the price of the debt…

James

On Jun 2, 2014, at 4:43 PM, Philip Ashlock <phil at civicagency.org> wrote:

> For most users I don't think git or Google spreadsheets would be simpler or very useful, but maybe the "simpler" was only referring to maintaining the site. I agree with James' criteria although I might rank good search/API interfaces higher than versioning. Github certainly doesn't provide interfaces for adding or editing that are very user friendly for managing CSV data and Google Spreadsheets (or any spreadsheet interface) isn't very useable either. I guess a Google spreadsheet form would provide a minimal level of useability, but that would only work for submissions, not edits. 
> 
> I think we'd be better off with a traditional CRUD app with well designed UI for submissions and edits than either of those options, but if you wanted git functionality you could provide bi-directional sync to github and treat the github copy as canonical. I'd still want a basic API though. 
> 
> For some recent precedents for doing bidirectional github sync with a CMS see:
> https://konklone.com/post/writing-in-public-syncing-with-github
> https://github.com/benbalter/wordpress-github-sync
> 
> For me the ideal would be: 
> 
> Submissions could be made without a user account but they get moderated. First via Akismet for spam filtering and then by human verification. Unmoderated submissions could still be public but with mechanisms to reduce abuse (eg on a separate URL blocked by search indexes with robots.txt and without any URLs being linked)
> Edits could be made through a similar process or directly with approved user accounts
> Everything would be accessible via full text search as well as an API with basic filtering options
> Github syncing could be an optional alternative way to make submissions/edits
> For what it's worth, it looks like http://www.opengeocode.org/opendata/ provides a pretty simple interface and currently appears more comprehensive than datacatalogs.org. There's also a list of other precedents at http://wiki.civiccommons.org/Initiatives#Comprehensive_Lists_of_Open_Government_Data_Catalogs though many have been abandoned
>  
> 
> 
> On Fri, May 9, 2014 at 1:19 PM, Rufus Pollock <rufus.pollock at okfn.org> wrote:
> On 9 May 2014 18:02, Ross Jones <ross at servercode.co.uk> wrote:
> 
> On 9 May 2014, at 15:05, Rufus Pollock <rufus.pollock at okfn.org> wrote:
>> Running Code
>> 
>> I'm able to put my money where my mouth is here :-) I have a running demo:
>> 
>> http://new.datacatalogs.org/
> 
> http://new.datacatalogs.org/catalog/caib_es has an error https://github.com/okfn/datacatalogs.org/pull/20 fixes. Needs more meta-data on the detail page.
> 
> thanks for the fix and now deployed.
> 
> Should also root out dead portals, there are one or two, should be marked as dead rather than removed I guess.
> 
> Nice to get version control in before we do that properly ... (plus i need to pull latest set from live datacatalogs.org)
> 
> Rufus 
> 
> Ross
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Rufus Pollock
> Founder and President  |  skype: rufuspollock  |  @rufuspollock
> Open Knowledge - see how data can change the world
> http://okfn.org/  |  @okfn  |  Open Knowledge on Facebook  |  Blog
> 
> The Open Knowledge Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation.  It is incorporated in England & Wales as a company limited by guarantee, with company number 05133759.  VAT Registration № GB 984404989. Registered office address: Open Knowledge Foundation, St John’s Innovation Centre, Cowley Road, Cambridge, CB4 0WS, UK.  
> 
> _______________________________________________
> data-catalogs mailing list
> data-catalogs at lists.okfn.org
> https://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/data-catalogs
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.okfn.org/mailman/options/data-catalogs
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> data-catalogs mailing list
> data-catalogs at lists.okfn.org
> https://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/data-catalogs
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.okfn.org/mailman/options/data-catalogs

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/data-catalogs/attachments/20140602/46424a3e/attachment-0003.html>