OECD will make its 2007 OECD Factbook available on Swivel
OECD and Swivel Invite Curious People to Explore, Discuss and Debate the OECD Factbook OECD profile page at Swivel Let the Feast Begin (Swivel Blog) -jajacobs
OECD and Swivel Invite Curious People to Explore, Discuss and Debate the OECD Factbook OECD profile page at Swivel Let the Feast Begin (Swivel Blog) -jajacobs
There is an interesting article by two of the creators of Many Eyes. IBM’s Many Eyes App After One Month by Martin Wattenberg and Fernanda B. ViĆ©gas Read/Write Web (March 05, 2007). While the initial examples they give of use of the site are, perhaps, not very social science data intensive, the implications for use of services like this (including Swivel and Data 360) may be profound. In the authors words, they wanted…
At Gapminder there is a link to a video of Hans Rosling’s TED Talk Recorded February, 2006 in Monterey, CA. Rosling is professor of international health at Sweden’s world-renowned Karolinska Institute, and founder of Gapminder, a non-profit that brings vital global data to life. The video is definitely worth watching! It is interesting technically as a demonstration of data-visualization that is way beyond what we usually see. But it is also interesting because of the content of the data and how Rosling uses data visualization to “debunk a few myths about the ‘developing’ world.
Bill Hooker has written a nice article about ensuring that the data behind published scientific literature are made openly available. Where are the data? Can I have them? What can I do with them? (17 Dec, 2006). He takes a practical approach based on the perspective of a researcher. His title says it all. …an Open Data addendum must at least answer my opening questions: it must point to the online, freely accessible location of the raw, un-hamburgered data; it should make clear that yes, you can have them; and it should state clearly what you can do with them.
Google has announced a new service, that might make it possible for the data community to collaborate to build a customized data-finder. The service is the Google Custom Search Engine (CSE). Similar in some ways to Rollyo, a service that has been around for some time, the Google CSE has several nice features: Limit results of a Google search to specific sites. Exclude sites from search results. Collaborate on the selection of the sites to search and exclude Customize the search results page Add “refinements” that make it easy for users to refine search results Eliminate Google ads if hosted by a university, government agency, or non-profit There is a story about the service on eWeek: Google Copies Rollyo’s Business Plan, Inserts AdSense (October 24, 2006 4:01 AM) by Steve Bryant.
Intute was launched on 13 July 2006 at an event held at the Wellcome Trust, London. Intute is the new face of the Resource Discovery Network (RDN), and is a free national service enabling lecturers, researchers and students to discover and access quality Internet resources. Intute exists to advance education and research by promoting the most intelligent use of the Internet. Caroline Williams, Executive Director of Intute said, “the environment in which we operate is rapidly changing.
Edmonton Journal technology columnist Steve Makris wrote about recent developments in data mining that could have potential implications for providing access to confidential social survey data (see “Hot Data,” Edmonton Journal, Business, G1, May 17, 2006.) Makris mentioned some major companies raiding each other’s data mining experts, such as Google hiring Kai-Fu Lee away from Microsoft only to see Microsoft swoop up Rakesh Agrawal from IBM. Can these companies capitalize on the massive data accumulated by private companies and governments through data mining technology?
On May 11, 2006, the following announcement was made about an upcoming forum at the American Library Association annual meeting that will address issues related to Open Data. During the past several years, Open Data has become a field of urgent interest to researchers, scholars, and librarians. With the amount of scientific data doubling every year, issues surrounding the access, use, and curation of data sets are increasing in importance. The data-rich, researcher-driven environment that is evolving poses new challenges and provides new opportunities in the sharing, review, and publication of research results.
I am writing to address an issue that is coming up at UCLA with increasing frequency. More and more data distributors (agencies, archives, individuals) require a user to “register” before downloading data from a web site. These registrations take many forms and there is a continuum in terms of levels of detail and responsibility assigned to the user. It makes it hard for me to be of service to users when each study requires every individual to perform the registration task.
The ESRC Social Science Week was celebrated from June 20-24, 2005 in the UK. As part of the event, several specialists were invited to write articles about how the Internet has changed the ways in which research is done in the social sciences. Three IASSIST members were the contributing authors on Wednesday, June 22nd, which had a focus on access to data. Alastair Allan wrote about e-government information and its challenges; Robin Rice addressed issues of access and the uses of open access publishing and digital repositories; and Melanie Wright described the many changes in delivering data using the Internet and this impact on data services.
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