[open-economics] CKAN user experience re Open Economics

Sun Jan 30 20:29:05 UTC 2011

Hi everyone

I've some thoughts on the CKAN user interface experience re Open 
Economic data in case of help from the perspective of a relative 
newcomer. Apologies if I have misinterpreted any aspects of the system, 
comments made in the spirit of hoping that it becomes more popular to 
add economics datasets....

Guided: Having some form of leading through the process in plain terms 
would be good if possible.

Less imposing: It would be great if it could all somehow be made a bit 
less imposing at first glance and a bit more friendly. It is already 
fairly friendly however, just in relative terms :-)

Minimise legals/ technicalities: The technical terms are a bit tricky to 
understand unless you are well immersed in this. The legal descriptions 
of what constitutes Open Data are also somewhat intimidating. Is there 
perhaps a way to simplify this for the uninitiated?

Boldness welcome: It would be good for new users to know that they 
cannot 'break' the system and contributions are highly welcome, whether 
of a huge multi table package or a single data set. In other words it is 
an evolving thing and perfection is not required.

Naming conventions: How to name things properly is fairly intimidating, 
for those not rehearsed in semantic web principles for instance. Is 
there a "right" way. Examples in situ might help.

Any comments and comebacks would be most welcome!

Thanks,
Alex

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