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Here’s my rather tangential contribution to Open Access Week, another plea for more open events. The two events described below are concerned with open data in Denmark, but the same jigsaw puzzle of coverage is seen across borders and communities. Isn’t it time to get a grip?
#hack4dk
#hack4dk, a hackathon aimed at building applications on top of public cultural heritage data, was held on 5-6 October in Copenhagen. Sadly I was busy both days, or would have gone to the Ignite talks (videos) and final show and tell at least.
The website is still in pre-event mode, but I’ve tracked down a Google Doc with resources, links etc…there’s also a Twitter attendees list (51 members), and Searchhash showed 702 tweets during the two days. @charlotteshj, like me not a hacker, blogged some things I would hack if I could, and also Storified the event. Visiting open data boffin Ton Zijlstra has written a report in English.
I don’t hack and the whole cool ethos doesn’t appeal as much as, say, a Museum Camp, but a post on a recent Trade data hack in London succinctly captures the point of the whole thing:
The team focused on making it simpler for people to understand the data, and tried to find ways to make it fun, so people would actually want to participate. Many added clever visualisations and made working through the data into a game.
Update, 13 Nov: the winners of the hackathon have posted re what happened next, nice.
#OGP_DK
Open Government Camp Denmark looked like one of those Danish camps that are not a camp – on a Tuesday (25 September), and not very open in terms of attendance or content, with a programme decided by the organisers. Not much coverage surfaced socially on the day, but over on the DK digigov portal thingy there are post-event snapshots (actually a report), and workshop facilitators have been invited to add reports to the Government 2.0 group (there’s also an open data group). Elsewhere a brief report has popped up, inevitably coining Openhagen, and there’s a review from Social Square.
DK opening up its data!
Meanwhile, on 8 October an announcement was made about Denmark opening up its ‘digital raw material’. This seems to apply to removing red tape (see Gartner’s take), however obviously also has an open data benefit. I just get a little nervous about the Danish habit for default sharing of my personal data whether open or closed – I already find it a bit sinister that my library book borrowing is linked to my medical records osv. Maybe it’s a cultural thing – Danes get more sweaty palmed about CCTV, whereas I don’t even tend to notice it.
Ton Zijlstra is still here and hosted the first CPH Data Drinks on 17 October, with a follow up on 28 November.
One of #hack4dk’s projects is Adopt a Mound. Here’s our local burial mound.