Hi Thej, I'll be glad to help with this effort.
I think you should use JSON-LD for this. http://json-ld.org/ http://www.w3.org/TR/json-ld/ Anand On Thu, Nov 27, 2014 at 1:10 PM, Thejesh GN <[email protected]> wrote: > Initially I wrote this as an email to the group. Then I thought it could > also be a blog post > <http://thejeshgn.com/2014/11/27/opendata-json-format-for-making-open-data-discoverable/>. > So i blogged it on my website. This was driven by my own itch to find the > data and as well as the number of data queries we get on the list. > > This is targeted at Data Publishers and Developers, though the end > beneficiary is data analyst or a researcher who wants to find data. > > If you are a publisher or developer. Please do get in touch with me. I > would like to talk to you. Now go ahead and read the rest, don't forget > your ☕. > > ---- > > It’s a pain to search for Open Data on the web. > > I publish quite a bit of data. As you could see on the OpenBangalore > <http://openbangalore.org>. The data is in different formats and is at > different urls. There is no easy way to find it other than going through > the list. You can’t find it by source, copyright information, contact > information etc. > > It’s difficult for me to find my own data. Google search helps only to > certain extent. But ultimately it depends on human search capability or > going through the catalog or listings. It shouldnt be that difficult. Also > keeping the centralized catalog up to date is hard and doesn’t scale. > > There are ways this has been handled on the web. XML sitemaps > <http://www.sitemaps.org/> is one example. Where in the site map gives a > list of page (with other data) to a search engine to crawl and build an > index. Another example is API JSON <http://apisjson.org/>, where in API > creator will publish the information about his APIs in the form of api.json > and aggregators can use it aggregate. Both are similar and proven models. > Why not use the same model for open data? > > So please welcome > *opendata.json <https://github.com/thejeshgn/opendata.json> – Format for > making your open data discoverable.* > > What I am working on? > > 1. Format specification: The above one is an example for > opendata.json. I am yet to write a detailed specification. I have started > it. I will keep you updated on it. Writing example opendata.jsons allows me > to face all the challenges that end-user (publisher) will face. That helps > me in writing specification. > 2. Aggregator/Search engine: A FOSS based Aggregator/Search engine. I > will implement ping and search functionality as part of v0.1, > > *Why not RDF?* > – I wanted it to be extremely simple and developer friendly. JSON i > thought was the best format. > > *How about metadata of actual data?* > – Its much more complicated. Probably we can have a metadata in a separate > json file to simplify and decouple them. I am not working on it now. Let me > know if you are interested in it. > > *I am not a developer or publisher of data, how does it help me?* > – You can find open data much more easily. You are an indirect user of > this protocol, but end goal is to make your search easy. > > *What about time?* > – Time is represented as ISO 8601 format in our case. The full format is > YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS+ZZ:ZZ. But you can always specify only the period which > makes sense. For example only YYYY-MM for a month. or YYYY for an year. > That said you can have just MM, it has to be YYYY-MM. You get the idea? > > *What about location?* > – I know its important, Just like time, location is an important dimension > for the data on which user would want to search. But I have not thought > through it. I will keep you updated on it. If you have ideas, please share. > > *Can a shape file be discoverable through it?* > – Yes, though I would like to see more open formats in the “format” tag. > We can’t avoid shape files as yet. > > *We don’t publish static data but we have an API, so what do we do?* > – I am not sure yet. But how about, format=”api” and url is a pointer to > api.json format. That way we wont be inventing anything new but also will > be supporting open data apis. But for sure we need to think about this. > > *Is the specification commercial friendly?* > – Yes. The license for the opendata.json > <https://github.com/thejeshgn/opendata.json/blob/master/LICENSE.md> is > distributed with the same license as sitemaps.org, which is Creative > Commons ShareAlike. I know all most all commercial and non commercial sites > use sitemaps. > > *What’s the timeline?* > – Planning to complete the v0.1 speficiation document before 15 december. > Then will talk to some of the data publishers to see if they can adopt. By > the end of january/2015 I will have alpha version of the search engine out. > If you are a data publisher, let me know, I would love to discuss. > > *Will it be your individual effort?* > – As of now yes, but I would like to have collaborators. Email me. I will > also publish it on Data{Meet}. As I sense people on Data{Meet} will be > indirectly using this protocol. > > *How does it look?* > – opendata.json is a valid json. Here is an example for weather data on > openbangalore > <https://github.com/thejeshgn/opendata.json/blob/master/examples/ob-weather.json>. > > > *How can I help?* > – Help me in writing specification. Help me by implementing it if you are > a publisher. Help me in writing the intial search engine. Everything we > write will be community/commercial friendly. > > > > Thej > -- > Thejesh GN *⏚* ತೇಜೇಶ್ ಜಿ.ಎನ್ > http://thejeshgn.com > GPG ID : 0xBFFC8DD3C06DD6B0 > > -- > Datameet is a community of Data Science enthusiasts in India. Know more > about us by visiting http://datameet.org > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "datameet" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- Datameet is a community of Data Science enthusiasts in India. Know more about us by visiting http://datameet.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "datameet" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
