Presentation made at the RLUK "Introduction to the European library" event September 2013 (http://www.rluk.ac.uk/content/rluk-introduction-european-library-24-sep-2013). Introduces linked data, hack days, and gives examples of applications built at hack days and similar events/initiatives using library data
2. http://www.flickr.com/photos/withassociates
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What does ‘open’ mean?
Not a simple binary open/closed... but rather a continuum
Amount of friction...
Things that create friction:
Explicit restrictions
Uncertainty about possible restrictions
Unusual/Unfamiliar interfaces (Z39.50 anyone?)
Lack of information on data and where it is available
Formats - Paul Walk argues we need a ’richer understanding of openness’ which encompasses
not just permissive licensing but, more broadly, the ease with which data can be used, taking
into consideration aspects such as format and access mechanisms
5. “Yes, you love XML.
Guess what? I don’t!”
MARC
“Open”
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http://shkspr.mobi/blog/index.php/2012/03/api-design-is-ui-for-developers/
Complexity of MARC. Sometimes simple is good enough
Why do I link to amazon? Why do I use the Amazon API?
Survey about use of RLUK database carried out on behalf of RLUK found majority could use
MARC 62.9% (n=62)
But if you filtered out those from RLUK contributing institutions - changed to more even
balance between RDF (format underlying ‘linked data’) and MARC. But some see RDF a
complex
All this tells us we need to support multiple formats!
The European Library - offers JSON, XML and RDF
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Stuff that you don’t/can’t or won’t capture - but someone else will.
(Books about places that are mentioned in MO archive?)
Network effect - collapse the network - one more node makes the difference
Provenance
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BBC Olympic coverage used linked data:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2012/04/sports_dynamic_semantic.html
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Google Knowledge Graph uses linked data:
http://www.google.com/insidesearch/features/search/knowledge.html
15. “Hacked”
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Image from: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/29/Wargames.jpg
Hack days - not ‘hacking’ as in WarGames etc.
The why and what of Hack days:
Build relationships - between developers and between data/service providers and
developers
Rapid prototyping - Show the way - Don’t expect finished products (usually)
Different types - some ‘invite only’; some ‘everybody welcome’
Sometimes prizes
The When - hack day to engage developers in RLUK/TEL data:
When? Early next year?
16. “Note Dump” entry to Jisc’s Summer of Student Code
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIAjaZkdwfk
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The Who? - Who might want to hack RLUK data?
Students
Researchers
Teachers
Librarians/Library developers
Developers from outside the sector
etc.
Hack day planned in conjunction with the Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF) - a non-profit
organisation founded in 2004 and dedicated to promoting open data and open content in all
their forms – including government data, publicly funded research and public domain cultural
content. - See more at: http://okfn.org/about/#sthash.8C3M4HHX.dpuf
17. http://openbiblio.net
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Earlier this month OKF ran open science/citizen science hack day
http://science.okfn.org/2013/09/19/show-tell-from-the-open-citizen-science-okcon-
hackathon/
18. http://www.version1.europeana.eu/web/api/hack4europe
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Competitions and events to encourage exploitation suggest that skills and enthusiasm exist
to innovate with open data:
Discovery developer competition
Europeana ‘Hack day’ - incredible outcomes
Might question if these would happen without ‘priming’ - manipulating the market
Europeana Hackday example - take photo of picture/art, brings back data from Europeana
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Libraryhack entry ‘Queensland Churches’
http://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/qld/default.aspx
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Tim Sherrat’s alternative interface
http://dhistory.org/archives/naa/
22. QueryPic
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Tim Sherrat - using API to Australian and NZ newspapers - articles matching phrase search
http://dhistory.org/querypic/create/
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My local council (Warwickshire) released a number of data sets and ran a competition to
encourage local developers to build applications on top of this data. One set of data with a list
of new books in the library - and a local developer (nothing to do with libraries) built this -
shows books, covers (from Amazon) and links to previews in Google books. This WON the
competition.
Not the only example. Rewired State is an organisation which “runs hackdays where
developers show government what is possible”, recently ran a ‘Youth’ event - and one of the
winners was based around integrating library services into Facebook
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Not just about pretty things for library customers though
The Getting It System Toolkit (GIST) is a customizable set of tools and workflows that will enhance
interlibrary loan and just-in-time acquisitions services; purchase request processing; and cooperative
collection development efforts.
Developed at the State University of New York College at Geneseo
Brings together disparate information sources with key data, such as: uniqueness; free online sources;
reviews and rankings; and purchasing options and prices
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http://www.thepund.it
Linked Data based web annotation system
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Book marklet to find contemporaries of authors - uses the linked data representation of the
British National Bibliography published by the British Library
http://www.meanboyfriend.com/overdue_ideas/2013/04/contemporaneous-part-one/
36. http://oneweekonetool.org
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Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), Europeana, and Flickr
Commons,
brought together a group of twelve digital humanists of diverse
disciplinary backgrounds and practical experience to build a
working piece of scholarly software