[okfn-za] How to get started with Open Data(was Open Data on CO2 Emissions)

Thu Apr 25 08:26:55 UTC 2013

Hi Martin,

To add to Adi's comments, a couple of very concrete suggestions:

1. If you want to start with some data exploration yourself you could
check out the School of Data http://schoolofdata.org/ and specifically
the Data Expeditions <http://schoolofdata.org/data-expeditions/> and
Courses <http://schoolofdata.org/handbook/courses/>

2. Organize a School of Data "data expedition" yourself. These can be
online or offline - you could even run one via this list. Check out
the Guide for Guides:
<http://schoolofdata.org/data-expeditions/guide-for-guides/>

This would fit very well with Adi's suggestion of looking to your own
interests. If you would like a suggestion:

- there has already been discussion here around looking into CO2 data
- it would be great to get Cape Town's, Johannesburg's or any other
cities finances into a nice clean spreadsheet ahd thence into
OpenSpending and then into AfricanSpending and a local site (as
inspiration here's the site some folks in Oakland built recently off
of OpenSpending http://openbudgetoakland.org/ - or for something more
straightforward here's what I managed to get for London (GLA) in an
hour or so of hacking http://openspending.org/gb-local-gla)

Rufus

On 25 April 2013 09:03, Adi Eyal <adi at burgercom.co.za> wrote:
> Hi Martin
>
>> Delurking to say hello, and motivated by Adi's comment.
>>
>> So, what do you have for someone with a geology and computer science background?
>
> I have three suggestions (others on the list might have others)
>
> 1. Look to your own interests. Is there something that you want to
> know about but don't have access to the data or do you have data but
> don't know how to analyse it? Either way, start the discussion in the
> forum, solicit ideas and help. You can be pretty certain that others
> would be interested, even if only to learn more about the process of
> attacking such a problem.
>
> 2. Take part in conversations on the mailing list, others may suggest
> projects or ideas. Even if they don't turn into real implementations
> just the process of talking about them and thinking through them will
> be of real benefit.
>
> 3. There may be a hackathon or two on the horizon. Take part. Despite
> the name, hackathons are as much about problem solving and
> conversations as they are about fingers on keyboards.
>
> Finally, I think we need a meet-up. Learning from other communities
> around the world, that's a crucial part of building up this group. We
> could just pick a couple of topics to talk around - nothing too formal
> but rather an opportunity to meet each other and get a sense of where
> our interests are. Any takers?
>
> Adi
>>
>> Martin Bentley
>> @astonsplat
>> - --
>> Be the absurd, surrealist humour that you want to see in the world.
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>
>
> --
> Adi Eyal
> Data Specialist
> phone: +27 78 014 2469
> skype: adieyalcas
> linkedin: http://za.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Adi/Eyal
>
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