Re: [Wikimediaau-l] Fwd: [---] Australian Census Data Released Under CC License, But Official Site Tries To Make It Hard To Download
Although the census data is CC-BY, I suspect the reason they want you to register and login to access it from their website is so they can track what people are downloading. This is the first time it's been freely available on the web and I am guessing that they are expected to report on what's being accessed and by whom (individuals vs companies, which state, within or beyond Australia) which needs you to login. Knowing interest levels in the different data sets what might alter the priorities on the analysis they do with the census data. Toby, re your visualisations, they are very effective - far more so than the spreadsheets themselves! If you are willing to share your scripts, maybe we could put them on the WMAU website. It would be nice to have a "toolkit" section for working with Australian datasets like the census. Kerry _ From: wikimediaau-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:wikimediaau-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Toby Hudson Sent: Tuesday, 30 April 2013 1:02 AM To: Wikimedia Australia Chapter Subject: Re: [Wikimediaau-l] Fwd: [---] Australian Census Data Released Under CC License, But Official Site Tries To Make It Hard To Download I find the ABS better than most government departments. Although I haven't found stable deeplinks to census data, I'm reasonably happy with everything else. Just a reminder that every timeseries the ABS makes available (all 64293 of them) has been plotted, is available on Commons, and gets updated to incorporate additional datapoints and new datasets: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Images_using_data_from_the_Austr alian_Bureau_of_Statistics https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Statistics_of_Australia About one hundred of these are in use on en-wiki, but I think there's potential for plenty more. Also, if it's census data you want, I have written the scripts to make maps like these for any census question (in the Basic Community Profile so far) for any geographic subdivision method: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:SVG_maps_using_data_from_the_Aus tralian_Bureau_of_Statistics I'd like to improve them before doing a mass upload, but if you want anything in particular, let me know. Toby / 99of9 ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l
Re: [Wikimediaau-l] [---] Australian Census Data Released Under CC License, But Official Site Tries To Make It Hard To Download
And a huge thank you to Toby for his tireless work in bringing us these graphic resources. It would be good to have more of them used in articles – so if members know of editors on en.WP who are in a position to expand their use, please let them know. Tony On 30/04/2013, at 1:01 AM, Toby Hudson wrote: > I find the ABS better than most government departments. Although I haven't > found stable deeplinks to census data, I'm reasonably happy with everything > else. > > Just a reminder that every timeseries the ABS makes available (all 64293 of > them) has been plotted, is available on Commons, and gets updated to > incorporate additional datapoints and new datasets: > https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Images_using_data_from_the_Australian_Bureau_of_Statistics > https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Statistics_of_Australia > About one hundred of these are in use on en-wiki, but I think there's > potential for plenty more. > > Also, if it's census data you want, I have written the scripts to make maps > like these for any census question (in the Basic Community Profile so far) > for any geographic subdivision method: > https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:SVG_maps_using_data_from_the_Australian_Bureau_of_Statistics > I'd like to improve them before doing a mass upload, but if you want anything > in particular, let me know. > > Toby / 99of9 > > ___ > Wikimediaau-l mailing list > Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l ___ Tony Souter *Fixed-line phone: +612 42633401 *Mobile: 0450 717627 (+61450 717627), but usually not switched on *Skype: tonysouter *Street address: 1/29 Tarrant Ave, Kiama Downs 2533, Australia ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l
Re: [Wikimediaau-l] Fwd: [---] Australian Census Data Released Under CC License, But Official Site Tries To Make It Hard To Download
I find the ABS better than most government departments. Although I haven't found stable deeplinks to census data, I'm reasonably happy with everything else. Just a reminder that every timeseries the ABS makes available (all 64293 of them) has been plotted, is available on Commons, and gets updated to incorporate additional datapoints and new datasets: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Images_using_data_from_the_Australian_Bureau_of_Statistics https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Statistics_of_Australia About one hundred of these are in use on en-wiki, but I think there's potential for plenty more. Also, if it's census data you want, I have written the scripts to make maps like these for any census question (in the Basic Community Profile so far) for any geographic subdivision method: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:SVG_maps_using_data_from_the_Australian_Bureau_of_Statistics I'd like to improve them before doing a mass upload, but if you want anything in particular, let me know. Toby / 99of9 ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l
Re: [Wikimediaau-l] Fwd: [---] Australian Census Data Released Under CC License, But Official Site Tries To Make It Hard To Download
On 26/04/2013 1:28 PM, "Nick Dowling" wrote: > > It would be worth considering whether the ABS is actually funded to provide the IT infrastructure and staff time needed to set up and maintain arrangements to allow people to download the entire Census dataset (which I suspect would be a fairly unusual requirement). In my experience ABS staff are pretty keen to have people use their data - An anecdote: At a BarCampCanberra a few years ago (2010?) there was a session on open data and Gov 2.0. Someone from the ABS (not a spokesperson) was in the session and said that the ABS wanted to make data available, but in sets to be used for particular purposes - they didn't want purple to have access to the whole thing lest the data be misused. Steve Collins (a.k.a. @trib) and others made it clear that they disagreed, and why. That said, things may have changed in ABS, and I don't know how representative those views were in the first place. But it's a safe bet that ABS has some people pushing for wide open access and others trying to restrict access, to some degree. Chris > the problem is that they're permanently short of money for non-essential tasks and need to cover at least some of their costs for non-core business as they're not funded for it. > > Regards, > Nick > > > From: p858sn...@gmail.com > > Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2013 20:34:17 +1000 > > To: wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > Subject: [Wikimediaau-l] Fwd: [---] Australian Census Data Released Under CC License, But Official Site Tries To Make It Hard To Download > > > > > From a private list I'm on, Thought some of you guys may be interested > > > > -- Forwarded message -- > > From: MW <---@gmail.com> > > Date: Thu, Apr 25, 2013 at 8:05 PM > > Subject: [---] Australian Census Data Released Under CC License, But > > Official Site Tries To Make It Hard To Download > > To: --- <---> > > > > > > http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130421/02575922789/australian-census-data-released-under-cc-license-official-site-tries-to-make-it-hard-to-download.shtml > > > > > > by Glyn Moody > > > > > > Mon, Apr 22nd 2013 8:09pm > > > > > > The whole point about adopting Creative Commons licenses is to make it easier for people to share and use works released under them. Sometimes, though, you get the impression that certain organizations adopting these licenses would rather that didn't happen, as in the following case from Australia, reported by IT News: > > > > > > The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released the latest census data for free under a Creative Commons license but appears to be steering people towards a $250 mailed out DVD rather than making it easy to download the information directly over the internet. > > > > > > Programmer and freelance journalist Grahame Bowland who first noticed it, said the government agency is going to great lengths to discourage people from downloading the files directly by dint of a convoluted site layout and Javascript functions that obfuscate file paths. > > > > > > The post then goes on to describe in detail some of the attempts to make it difficult to download all of the census data, including a hard-to-find registration page, a complex matrix of download options, and Javascript code that does stuff like this: > > > > > > // Function: guidGenerator > > > > > > > > > // Description:returns a pseudo-random GUID > > > > > > > > > //This is appended to a url for 2 reasons > > > > > > > > > //1. to make the URL unique, so that the browser always gets it and doesn't use a cached version > > > > > > > > > //2. to make a URL look like its got a unique key, in a naive attempt to fool a not-so-wily hacker > > > > > > > > > //into thinking they can't download a datapack directly if they know the URL pattern, because they > > > > > > > > > //need a unique key. > > > > > > Notice how anyone who might want to download datapacks directly is branded a hacker. That's a worrying attitude, since it seems to equate people who want to take advantage of the CC license to explore the census without jumping through the site's hoops as shady subversives (I doubt the comment used the term "hacker" in its more positive sense). > > > > > > As the IT News story suggests, the motivation for this obfuscation seems to be to encourage people to pay AU $250 (about US $257) for the DVD version instead. To save others from having to deal with the unhelpful Web site, Bowland generously stumped up the $250 himself, and made the full census database freely available as a torrent, as is perfectly legal under the CC-BY license. This shows perfectly why it is pointless trying to make it hard for people to download content that is CC licensed: once anyone has obtained a copy, they can then make it available in a more convenient form, neatly by-passing forlorn attempts to control something that has been set free forever. > > > > ___ > > Wikimediaau-l mailing list > > Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > https:
