[okfn-discuss] CKAN spam

[Jonathan Gray]

On Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 9:09 PM, Alan
Jenkins<alan-jenkins at tuffmail.co.uk> wrote:
> I've added a couple of my favourite niche knowledge packages: the
> collections of internet RFCs and the International Speculative Fiction
> Database.  I have a question about CKAN  Download URLs though.

Great! Just had a look at these:

  http://ckan.net/package/read/isfdb
  http://ckan.net/package/read/rfcs

Thanks also for fixing the package with the 'access-web' tag. Glad to
see you've got the hang of the access and format tags straight away!

> For the packages I added, I didn't give the direct download URL - I gave the
> URL of the page which _described_ the download URL(s).  Otherwise a) you may
> miss out on options like different formats, older versions, or downloading
> the site code alongside the data; b) if the format is a bit obscure like an
> SQL dump, then you may not know what to do with it once you've downloaded
> it!

My own feeling is that if there is a single URL for the file (as with
CKAN) then this should go in the download URL field. If there are
multiple URLs for different files perhaps, I think you're right that
its better to make sure all options are included and to link to page
which lists URLs! I guess its also an option to document these options
in the notes section...

Having entered a few packages it would be great to hear your thoughts
about CKAN and whether you can think of any improvements or new
features you'd like to see!

-- 
Jonathan Gray

Community Coordinator
The Open Knowledge Foundation
http://www.okfn.org