Socio-Technical Systems, University of Oxford

The University of Oxford makes a dandy test bed for Socio-Technical Systems.  These are systems which count rooftops and households rather than individuals in a population.

There are three types of institutions at Oxford: Colleges, Graduate Only Colleges, and Halls.  Each, 44 in all, have been founded over the last centuries, and the founding dates are available.  No simple RDF List can capture this, however 4 Lists can - three Types + ANY.  The problem, for RDF and SKOS, is the processing of the "first" and "rest".  The model used is the "Standard Model" of Particle Physics - unit sized hard boxes. Much better is a unit sized circle (diameter=2u). This truncates much of the unexplainable combinatorial "fine structure" in the model  which you visualize as gaps in the data.  You see fine structure shadows everywhere.  The situation can be compared to a Physician looking at a catalog of thousands of MRI's to find a broken leg when he/she simply needs to look at an MRI of your leg.


Anyway, a listing of the data is here[1].   The data base and many supporting files are here[2]. If you load your own, you'll need root privileges to load the Stored Procedures (Space and Time).

And last but not least, not to be outdone by the BBC's Olympic Medals and Dr. Brand Niemann
... A mashup of Oxford University Colleges & Halls in time:
http://www.rustprivacy.org/2012/roadmap/oxford-university-area-map.pdf

When I said I was going to count rooftops, I meant it :-)


--Gannon

[1]  http://www.rustprivacy.org/2012/roadmap/oxford_sp.txt
[2] http://www.rustprivacy.org/2012/roadmap/Oxford.zip