Friday 29 April 2011

Knowledge Hub Data & Apps Workshop

[Cross-posted from Communities and Collaboration Blog]

This blog post is to thank all of the participants (presenters and delegates) to the Knowledge Hub Data & Apps workshop that was held in London yesterday (27 April 2011). The workshop was used to establish the foundations for the “KHub Data and Apps Advisory Group”, who we are hoping will help us to shape the forthcoming data/apps developments for the Knowledge Hub.

As readers of my previous posts about the Knowledge Hub may be aware, the first (Beta) release will go live next month (May – exact date TBD). This represents the completion of Sprint 9 of 22, which delivers the collaboration tools and facilities (blogs, wikis, library, events, people-finder, library, web conferencing, activity streams etc.). [NB. Sprints are the functional elements delivered as part of an agile development process].

The remainder of the Sprints will be delivering key data intelligence/data management features, including:

1. Semantic Matching Engine

  • Will match aggregated conversations, communities and topics to people;
  • Will suggest connections between people
  • Will recommend content according to explicit and implicit profile data

2. Data library/catalogue

  • Can upload data/datasets in semi-structured and machine readable formats (e.g. Excel, CSV,  XML)
  • Can identify and catalogue external (e.g. open and/or linked) datasets
  • Ability to create/edit metadata for each dataset (e.g. for provenance, licensing etc.)
  • Datasets can be permissioned.
  • Datasets will be indexed by the KHub search engine

3. Mashup Engine

  • Allows users to combine or compare data (meaningful comparisons will require a common schema)
  • Data can be ‘mashed’ using KHub-sourced data and external data sources.
  • Support for data visualisations
  • Features similar to mashup.org
  • Will use open source mapping services
  • Potential to provide index of SPARQL end-points

4. App Store

  • Supports any app compliant with the OpenSocial standard
  • Mashups developed on KHub can be simply added to the App Store
  • Will include reviews and star ratings
  • Support for free and commercial (licensed) apps
  • Apps will be able to use data from both Khub (via an API) and/or external sources

Data Repository

  • Requirements to be refined, but intention is to be able to support triple-stores (RDF/SPARQL) and XQuery/XML)

All of the above is scheduled to be developed and released between June and October this year. The Data & Apps Advisory Group will be instrumental in shaping these features and capabilities, as well as providing advice on the underlying support and operational procedures, and skills/training needs.

Initial outputs from the workshop are available on the Knowledge Hub Community of Practice (Data and Apps Advisory Group Theme).

Terms of Reference for the Data & Apps Advisory Group is in the attached PDF. If anyone with the appropriate skills and knowledge wishes to be involved in this group, then please let me know (add your expression of interest into the comments section of this blog).

I will post an update to this blog once the full report from the workshop is available.

Data_and_Apps_Advisory_Group_-_TOR_V3.2.pdf Download this file

 

Tuesday 26 April 2011

Data is the new oil

Loved this abstract from a blog by 'media futurist' Gerd Leonard:

Getting too little or bad data -- or not understanding it-- will literally mean running out of gas in the middle of the desert. Therefore, the mission is to keep it all fueled up. And just like oil, there will be a myriad of issues (hopefully, not wars) that will arise with the responsible and fair practices of drilling, pumping, shipping, refining and dispensing of data.

An excellent metaphor for the crazy world of data!

Saturday 23 April 2011

Cascade data visualisation

Cascade - data visualisation of the impact of a single Tweet; shows sharing activity to construct a detailed picture of how information propagates through the social media space. Cool!

http://nytlabs.com/projects/movies/projectcascade.mov

Cascade was developed by R&D using open source tools including Processing and MongoDB.

Sunday 17 April 2011

Online Information Conference 2011 - Call For Papers

ONLINE INFORMATION CONFERENCE - CALL FOR PAPERS

Have you submitted a proposal yet? The deadline of May 6th is approaching fast.

Here's why you should submit a proposal:

  • Show case your work with 700 delegates from over 40 countries and be seen as a pioneer and leader in what you do
    If you have been part of a successful (or unsuccessful) project with innovative best practices, lessons learned, hints and tips, then we want to hear from you

  • Benefit from the extensive marketing campaign and promotional exposure/recognition you will receive from being part of one of the largest conferences serving the information industry.
    You and your organisation will be listed in the printed brochure (sent to 22,000) and on the website (emails to 24,000).

  • Join a roster of industry authorities and use this opportunity to raise your profile. Previous keynote speakers to the programme include: 

  • Dion Hinchcliffe, Co-Author of 'Web 2.0 Architectures'
  • Charlene Li, Co-Author of 'Groundswell'
  • Dame Wendy Hall, Professor of Computer Science, University of Southampton
  • Nigel Shadbolt, Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Deputy Head Research, University of   Southampton
  • Blaise Cronin, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
  • Clay Shirky, Author of 'Here Comes Everybody'
  • Jimmy Wales, Founder, Wikipedia
  • Dr David Weinberger, Co-author of 'The Cluetrain Manifesto'
  • Dr Jakob Nielsen, described as 'The king of usability'
  • Dame Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive, The British Library

  • Selected speakers receive a FREE place to the 3 day conference and co-located exhibition, worth over £900

For information on conference themes, making your submission and review criteria please click on the links  below

I look forward to receiving your proposal

Stephen Dale
Chairman
Online Information Conference 2011


  1. Making your submission  
  2. Review criteria
  3. SUBMIT YOUR PAPER HERE
Please note: Deadline for submissions is Monday 6 May