easy, cheap, rewarding data Re: connections

Lee, Danny,

Le 17 avr. 2010 à 15:13, Lee Feigenbaum a écrit :
> what is the utility of all of these billions of triples of (primarily) linked data that are being published on an almost daily basis? What can/are people doing with them that are impacting lives or jobs or what have you? 

I guess there is not only one answer, but some answers in communities of interests. Let's take two examples (not necessary directly connected to the semweb techs).

# Astronomy and the crowd

  some museums and observatories have participated 
  on using data produced by the crowd in astrophotography 
  using the Flickr infrastructure. It developed 
  an ecosystem around these data. 
  The full system is based on astrotags which are 
  themselves a derivative of machine tags on flickr.

  It all started with the astrometry group
  http://www.astrometry.net/
  http://www.flickr.com/groups/astrometry/

  An article explains about astrotags
  http://code.flickr.com/blog/2009/02/18/found-in-space/

  Basically a robot is watching the new picture and 
  create surveys of stars fields and tag them in return.
  http://www.nmm.ac.uk/visit/exhibitions/astronomy-photographer-of-the-year/astrotags/
  http://www.nmm.ac.uk/visit/exhibitions/astronomy-photographer-of-the-year/
  http://www.flickr.com/groups/astrophoto/discuss/

  Data as a bridge for two communities : amateurs and professional in astronomy


# SMS in Developing countries
  http://txteagle.com/

  Data might be useful for some communities 
  if they can create business values around them.
  It is always harder to promote a system when 
  you don't have a direct business case for people using it.
  Here the data are owned by people and the infrastructure 
  helps them to share this data with a return on investment.
  low cost of producing and quick/direct ROI
  In this area, there are interesting blogs to follow
  http://technology.cgap.org/
  http://www.emergingfutureslab.com/prepaid_economy/

  Data as a way to start small businesses  



Now the meta issues is how LOD answers real needs of people in any kind of communities. In front of two choices, I will most of the time choose the one which 

1. has direct benefits
2. is easier to do

why was it easier for me to recycle garbage stuff in Japan than in Canada. 

# Canada (Montréal)
we have to maintain our own garbage bins for each type of items (basically two) recyclable and non recyclable. There are green boxes you can get at a local community office, but you have to search online to know it.  The garbage truck comes once a week. There is no municipal information about it.

# Japan (Tokyo)
When I moved to my apartment a two A4 sheets was given to me explaining, each type of recyclable items in images and texts. There was also a schedule with the days of collecting for my area.
The recycling day for cans and bottles is prepared in advance by the distribution the night before at street corners of specific boxes. the blue for metal cans, the yellow for the other.
http://la-grange.net/2006/11/12-recyclage
They are collected during the day.
Each combini (7/11 store type) has a recycling bin making it easier to access.
There is a day for collecting papers too.
Each year the recycling manual is distributed in mailboxes.  


The two systems could be improved by distributing (colored) garbage bins that you could keep at home. The proximity is gem for acting and using.

I seem to drift, but my point is that linked data are used if they give values right away and if it's easy to use over another system: easy, cheap, rewarding

-- 
Karl Dubost
Montréal, QC, Canada
http://www.la-grange.net/karl/

Received on Saturday, 17 April 2010 23:09:34 UTC