[OSGeo-UK] Re: CKAN for open geodata

Tue Jul 1 11:42:38 EDT 2008

Congratulations Jo!

>From the point of view of the local OSGeo chapter, I'd like to start really simple and just start compiling links to where data might be available, and CKAN is an obvious place to a) point people to for data, and b) get them to upload their own. So clearly we need discussions about metadata. I haven't had chance to look at what's on CKAN already, and certainly haven't had chance to think this through in detail, and form any coherent thoughts on how we might proceed (and I haven't got any good excuses for that!). I'll come back when I've had a chance to look through the OSGeo wiki pages and generally think about this a bit more. Perhaps the next OSGeo local chapter meetup (September at the AGI conference, no details yet) would be a good place to talk about this if any of you can make it along?

Jo

-----------------------------------------------------
Joanne Cook
Senior IT Support and Development
Oxford Archaeology (North)
01524 880212
http://thehumanjourney.net

----- Original Message -----
From: jo at frot.org
To: "Jonathan Gray" <jonathan.gray at okfn.org>
Cc: "Joanne Cook" <j.cook at oxfordarch.co.uk>, "William Wilcox" <billwilcox at wilcox53.freeserve.co.uk>, "uk" <uk at lists.osgeo.org>, "Rufus Pollock" <rufus.pollock at okfn.org>, ww at styx.org
Sent: 28 June 2008 15:23:00 o'clock (GMT) Europe/London
Subject: Re: CKAN for open geodata

hey guys, i'm very happy to hear this. i just had a baby a week ago,
so i'm not online very much.

I have a piece of work which might be interesting or relevant here;
a "CKAN-inspired" geodata package metadata manager. 
It has some openlayers integration, a geodata-specific domain model,
and a partially RDF backend.

Originally i had hoped it could be completely integrated with CKAN, 
of course it drifted off into project-specific requirements, i would
*love* for the two to run in parallel, and an OpenSearch interface
addition to CKAN would make this easily possible.

You can see a demo of the latest version at
http://catalog.terradue.com/duetopia/register/ and get the src from
http://duetopia.googlecode.com/ . The catch - of course - it is
"between versions" and the edit interface (which was quite similar to
CKAN's but with multiple "panels" for an extended domain model) is not
working at the moment. :/

Thankfully now Will has been working on it, so it's getting past the
"evocative prototype" stage at which my software tends to stop. :)

I've been adding the odd bit of package metadata into the main CKAN in
the hopes of synchronising the data across the two projects in future.

Okay, back to minding the baby, i may be radio silent but please keep
me in the loop!

jo

On Thu, Jun 26, 2008 at 10:10:11PM +0100, Jonathan Gray wrote:
> Joanne Cook wrote:
> >I hadn't thought of linking in to CKAN but it makes a lot of sense. I 
> >think it's worth looking at various recent discussions about the type of 
> >metadata we would need for it to be usable, but it's a good place to start 
> >and saves reinventing the wheel. There are also other repositories of 
> >useful data (my knowledge is biased to the UK), but we could start with a 
> >collection of links to all of these options.
> >  
> 
> If anyone's interested, I'd really like to arrange a time on IRC or in 
> person to work on this! It would be great to have more geodata packages 
> listed, to curate and develop the packages we already have (improve 
> documentation, clarify licensing with distributors, etc.), and to think 
> about how CKAN could be further developed to become as useful as 
> possible to potential users in the geospatial data community!
> 
> As you suggest it would be great to review material on geospatial 
> metadata and to think about how this could be adequately accommodated in 
> CKAN, including existing work on the OSGeo wiki!
> 
>  http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Geodata_Repository
>  http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Geodata_Metadata_Requirements
> 
> Jonathan
> 
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: "Jonathan Gray" <jonathan.gray at okfn.org>
> >To: "Joanne Cook" <j.cook at oxfordarch.co.uk>
> >Cc: "William Wilcox" <billwilcox at wilcox53.freeserve.co.uk>, "uk" 
> ><uk at lists.osgeo.org>
> >Sent: 26 June 2008 16:41:19 o'clock (GMT) Europe/London
> >Subject: CKAN for open geodata
> >
> >Bill, Jo,
> >
> >Regarding your comments on a portal or datastore for geodata, the 
> >Comprehensive Knowledge Archive Network (CKAN) is a registry of open 
> >knowledge 'packages' - such as large datasets or collections of content 
> >- and includes geodata:
> >
> >   http://ckan.net/tag/read/geodata
> >   http://ckan.net/tag/read/geo
> >   http://ckan.net/tag/read/osgeo
> >
> >We've put in some effort to add geospatial datasets - and it would be 
> >great if others could think of any other packages to add!
> >
> >At the moment it has a bare minimum of metadata - but adding support for 
> >domain specific metadata is something that we've certainly spoken about 
> >before. I believe Jo Walsh raised the question of adding support for 
> >geospatial metadata [1]. Any suggestions about how it could be developed 
> >to better meet the requirements of the (open) geodata using community 
> >would be much appreciated!
> >
> >We've also spoken with the Internet Archive about mirroring large 
> >datasets, and publishing datasets in multiple formats - and they were 
> >enthusiastic.
> >
> >I put myself down to come to the meetup in May, but unfortunately wasn't 
> >able to make it in the end. I look forward to meeting people at future 
> >events though!
> >
> >Warm regards,
> >
> >Jonathan Gray
> >The Open Knowledge Foundation
> >
> >[1] http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/okfn-discuss/2007-October/000601.html
> >
> >Joanne Cook wrote:
> >
> >  
> >>5) Finally- the data- the biggest issue is that the basic mapping
> >>data just isn't there, unless you are affiliated with a university or
> >>council. However, we could provide advice on how to use openstreetmap
> >>data, and I certainly like your idea of a portal for other types of
> >>data, or at least links to where it might be found.
> >>    
> >
> >William Wilcox wrote:
> >
> > > I started to think about your comment about lack of data. It is all
> > > very well having these great programmes but without data they are of
> > > little use. What about a wiki or data store for free datasets? People
> > > can upload them for use by other members. Obviously a moderator could
> > > verify that each set of data was actually free! This would not only
> > > promote OS Geo but offer a 'beginner' a starting place to find data.
> > > It would be a 'package' - an OS programme and OS/free data with which
> > > to work with!
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >------
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> >
> >  

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