ONS Web Strategy
I was asked to present the ONS Web Strategy to a programme board last week, and also include some material on data mashups. I searched for good simple but visually stimulating demos, and was disappointed to find very little new material. I returned to the Yahoo Pipes demo I created two years ago, and found it still a very powerful way to convey the potential of data mashups. I think the audience found it helpful too (at least I have been asked to make it more widely available).
So, here it is running as a Flash “movie” condensed into just 5 minutes. Alternatively, you can run the pipe live (and copy it if you like).
Before that, I ran the excellent “The Machine is Us/ing Us” video from Michael Wesch. This and other fascinating videos can be found on his Digital Ethnography site. His key message about separating content from form really is the driver for everything that is happening with data on the web at the moment.
To illustrate the ONS strategy, which has Mass Collaboration at its heart, I used two case studies, the first of which involved a prop made by my 9-year-old son, Robert.
“Spike” is a Lego Mindstorms robot. What does it have to do with Mass Collaboration? The first version of Mindstorms was not a great success, but it was reverse engineered by some fans, and once Lego had decided not to sue them, they instead asked them to help design a better product. It is all the better for the involvement of its customers in its development. Lego have gone even further now, by giving away their design tool and allowing enthusiasts to design, publish and rate their own models.
The second case study was AuctionMapper, which uses the eBay API to create a totally new way of exploring eBay Auctions. Another great example of the fruits of publishing an open API and letting in customer creativity.
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