DataMarket charges up with open energy data
Hjalmar Gislason commented earlier this year that open data has been all about apps. In the future, it should be about much more than consumer-facing tools. “Think also about the less sexy cases that...
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A startup takes on “the paper problem” with crowdsourcing and machine learning
Unlocking data from paper forms is the problem that optical character recognition (OCR) software is supposed to solve. Two issues persist, however. First, the hardware and software involved are...
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Tracking the data storm around Hurricane Sandy
Just over fourteen months ago, social, mapping and mobile data told the story of Hurricane Irene. As a larger, more unusual late October storm churns its way up the East Coast, the people in its path...
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In the 2012 election, big data-driven analysis and campaigns were the big...
On Tuesday night, President Barack Obama was elected to a second term in office. In a world of technology and political punditry, the big winner is Nate Silver, the New York Times blogger at Five...
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3 big ideas for big data in the public sector
If you’re going to try to apply the lessons of “Moneyball” to New York City,’ you’ll need to get good data, earn the support of political leaders and build a team of data scientists. That’s precisely...
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Panjiva uses government data to build a global search engine for commerce
“If you go back to how we got started,” mused Josh Green, “government data really is at the heart of that story.” Green, who co-founded Panjiva with Jim Psota in 2006, was demonstrating the newest...
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U.S. House makes legislative data more open to the people in XML
It was a good week for open government data in the United States Congress. On Tuesday, the Clerk of the House made House floor summaries available in bulk XML format. Yesterday, the House of...
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On the power and perils of “preemptive government”
The last time I spoke with Stephen Goldsmith, he was the Deputy Mayor of New York City, advocating for increased use of “citizensourcing,” where government uses technology tools to tap into the...
View ArticleUntangling algorithmic illusions from reality in big data
Microsoft principal researcher Kate Crawford (@katecrawford) gave a strong talk at last week’s Strata Conference in Santa Clara, Calif. about the limits of big data. She pointed out potential biases in...
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Finding and telling data-driven stories in billions of tweets
Simon Rogers Twitter has hired its first data editor. Simon Rogers, one of the leading practitioners of data journalism in the world, will join Twitter in May. He will be moving his family from London...
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If followers can sponsor updates on Facebook, social advertising has a new...
This week, I found that one of my Facebook updates received significantly more attention that others I’ve posted. On the one hand, it was a share of an important New York Times story focusing on the...
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GitHub gains new prominence as the use of open source within governments grows
When it comes to government IT in 2013, GitHub may have surpassed Twitter and Facebook as the most interesting social network. GitHub’s profile has been rising recently, from a Wired article about...
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The City of Chicago wants you to fork its data on GitHub
GitHub has been gaining new prominence as the use of open source software in government grows. Earlier this month, I included a few thoughts from Chicago’s chief information officer, Brett Goldstein,...
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Sensoring the news
When I went to the 2013 SXSW Interactive Festival to host a conversation with NPR’s Javaun Moradi about sensors, society and the media, I thought we would be talking about the future of data...
View ArticlePredictive analytics and data sharing raise civil liberties concerns
Last winter, around the same time there was a huge row in Congress over the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), U.S. Attorney General Holder quietly signed off on expanded rules on...
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Sprinting toward the future of Jamaica
Creating the conditions for startups to form is now a policy imperative for governments around the world, as Julian Jay Robinson, minister of state in Jamaica’s Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy...
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White House Science Fair praises future scientists and makers
There are few ways to better judge a nation’s character than to look at how its children are educated. What values do their parents, teachers and mentors demonstrate? What accomplishments are...
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Linking open data to augmented intelligence and the economy
After years of steady growth, open data is now entering into public discourse, particularly in the public sector. If President Barack Obama decides to put the White House’s long-awaited new open data...
View ArticleTowards a more open world
Last September, I gave a 5 minute Ignite talk at the tenth Ignite DC. The video just became available. My talk, embedded below, focused on what I’ve been writing about here at Radar for the past three...
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