[Talk-GB] OpenKent, OSM coverage estimation

[TimSC]

Bob,

I spent 5 minutes trying to find Edinburgh council open data but I 
didn't find any. The format seems to be a moot point, if they don't 
provide permission for use of the documents - or at least they make them 
hard to find.

Once a council recognises the need for open data, I would hope the need 
to avoid PDF is self evident - but I suspect it is a false hope. If they 
can't figure that simple point out themselves, we could try to persuade 
councils to use other formats but it probably will be an uphill 
battle... From the little I have seen, councils who have a dedicated 
open data website have recognised CSV as the defacto standard. (But I 
could be wrong.)

My personal preferences for distribution are ODF, then CSV, then XML, 
then Excel, then PDF. The reason I don't rate CSV as the best is there 
is no definitive standard established. ODF is useful - even if I 
personally convert it to CSV for my own processing purposes - I can 
control the conversion. (Obviously for some things XML is the best, 
particularly live streams of data.)

What I think is lacking is information that describes why open data is 
important as a policy. This information is readily available for open 
source software, in contrast. It is difficult to address the issue of 
data generally, as "data" is such a broad term. (And yes there is 
content out there, but it fragmented.)

Regards,

Tim

On 07/06/11 12:39, Bob Kerr wrote:
> Do you think that a heatmap of the different formats released by the 
> councils, with an indication from us of preferred formats be worth 
> considering. I know that Edinburgh council uses pdf but I don't have 
> an idea of the status of other councils
>
>
> cheers
>
> Bob

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