[okfn-labs] Labs newsletter: 28 November, 2013

Thu Nov 28 14:18:39 UTC 2013

Another busy week at the Labs! We've had lots of discussion around the idea
of "bad data", a blog post about Mark's aid tracker, new PyBossa
developments, and a call for help with a couple of projects. Next week we
can look forward to another Open Data Maker
Night<http://okfnlabs.org/events/open-data-maker/>in London.

*## Bad Data*

Last Friday, Rufus announced Bad Data <http://okfnlabs.org/bad-data/>, a
new educational mini-project that highlights real-world examples of how
data *shouldn't* be published.

This announcement was greeted with glee and with contributions of new
examples. Open government activist Ivan Begtin
<http://about.me/IvanBegtin>chimed in with the Russian Ministry of the
Interior's list
of regional offices <http://mvd.ru/opendata/od1> and the Russian
government's tax rates for municipalities <http://nalog.ru/ru/opendata/p9/>,
and Labs member Friedrich Lindenberg
<http://okfnlabs.org/members/pudo/>suggested the German
finance ministry <http://www.bundeshaushalt-info.de/download.html>'s new
open data initiative. As Andy Lulham
<http://okfnlabs.org/members/andylolz/>said, "bad data" will be very
useful for testing the new Data
Pipes <http://datapipes.okfnlabs.org/> operators.

You can follow the whole discussion thread in the list
archive<http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/okfn-labs/2013-November/001165.html>
.

*## Blog post: Looking at aid in the Philippines*

At last week's hangout, you heard about Mark
Brough<http://okfnlabs.org/members/markbrough/>'s
new project, a browser for aid projects in the
Philippines<http://pwyf.github.io/philippines/>generated from IATI
data <http://iatiregistry.org/>.

Now you can read more about Mark's project on the
blog<http://okfnlabs.org/blog/2013/11/25/philippines.html>,
learning about where the data comes from, how the site is generated from
the data (interestingly, it uses the Python-based static site generator
Frozen-Flask <http://packages.python.org/Frozen-Flask/>), and what Mark
plans to do next.

*## New PyBossa cache system*

Labs member and citizen science expert Daniel Lombraña
González<http://okfnlabs.org/members/teleyinex/>has been "working
really hard to add a new cache system to
PyBossa<https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&ved=0CDsQFjAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2FPyBossa%2Fpybossa&ei=BUyXUuA0zfyoAcyogegG&usg=AFQjCNErY8CeTnsLM8hOLUYr5xGR5qlvzw&bvm=bv.57155469,d.aWM>",
the open source crowdsourcing platform.

As Daniel has found, the Redis <http://redis.io/> key-value store meets all
his requirements for a load-balanced, high-availability, persistent cache.
As he put it: "Redis is *amazing*. Let me repeat it: amazing."

Read the blog post<http://daniellombrana.es/blog/2013/11/26/pybossa-cache.html>to
learn more about the new Redis-based PyBossa setup and its benefits.

*## Contributions needed: iOS and Python development*

Philippe Plagnol of Product Open Data
<http://www.product-open-data.com>needs a few good developers to help
with some projects.

First, the Product Open Data Android
app<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.okfn.pod>has
been out for a while (source
code <https://github.com/okfn/product-browser-android>), and it's high time
there was a port for Apple devices. If you're interested in contributing to
the port, leave a comment at this GitHub
issue<https://github.com/okfn/product-browser-ios/issues/1>
.

Secondly, work is now underway on a brand repository which will assign a
Brand Standard Identifier Number (BSIN) to each brand worldwide, making it
possible to integrate products in the product repository. Python developers
are needed to help make this happen. If you want to help out, join in this
GitHub thread <https://github.com/okfn/brand-manager/issues/9>. (Lots of
people have already signed up!)

*## Next week: Open Data Maker Night London #7*

On the 4th of December next week, the seventh London Open Data Maker
Night<http://www.meetup.com/OpenKnowledgeFoundation/London-GB/1062882/>
is
taking place. Anyone interested in building tools or insights from data is
invited to drop in at any time after 6:30 and join the fun. (Please note
that the event will be happening on Wednesday rather than the usual
Tuesday.)

What is an Open Data Maker Night? Read more about them
here<http://okfnlabs.org/events/open-data-maker/>
.

*## Get involved*

Labs is always looking for new contributors. Read more about how you can join
the community <http://okfnlabs.org/join/>, whether you're a coder, a data
wrangler, or a communicator, and check out the Ideas
Page<http://okfnlabs.org/ideas/>to see what else is brewing.
-- 
Neil Ashton

Technical Writer and Analyst  | skype: nmashton

The Open Knowledge Foundation <http://okfn.org/>
*Empowering through Open Knowledge*
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