Open Data For Everybody

What if I told you something that could empower our third sector and activists to enhance their capacity? From gathering evidence for funding tenders to campaigning for crucial social issues and much more? It's called open data, yet many in social action remain unaware of it. Primarily shaped by corporate entities, open data seems tailored only for technologists, alienating the third sector. But in reality, it's a powerful tool for social change, bolstering civil society, and creating resilient communities. This book argues a simple point: if open data and the digital aspects that support it aren't accessible to all, then what is the point of it? In an age where technology should be seen as a fundamental human right, it's time to rethink outreach. Deeply rooted in grassroots social activism, this book explores a journey that led to collaborations with governments globally, based on real hands-on work, aiming to democratize open data. Through narrative storytelling, we share insights, best practices, procedures, and community-driven approaches. Regardless of your skill set or organization size, from grassroots workers to third-sector professionals and government officers, join us to reshape the perception of open data, fostering change in neighborhoods. Open Data for Everybody: Using Open Data for Social Good is a love letter to open data's transformative power. To create solutions, understanding the problem is crucial. This book seeks to return control to the real experts—those living and working within our communities.

Take control of your personal data. Learn how companies manipulate and exploit your data and what you can do to access, delete, and monetize it yourself. Both a handbook and a manifesto, Data for All is a must-read for anyone who wants to take control of their personal data. It lays out how businesses collect, use, and exploit your data, and clearly explains the legislation that will overturn the existing system. Follow John Thompson’s direct and accessible guidance and you’ll completely change your relationship with your data. In this fascinating book, you will learn how to oversee who accesses your data, how much different types of data are worth, and how to keep private details private. You’ll soon stop being a passive source of free data, and start earning a “data dividend”—hundreds or thousands of dollars paid out simply for your daily online activities. Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications.

A clear, engaging, evidence-based guide to monetizing data, for everyone from employee to board member. Most organizations view data monetization—converting data into money—too narrowly: as merely selling data sets. But data monetization is a core business activity for both commercial and noncommercial organizations, and, within organizations, it’s critical to have wide-ranging support for this pursuit. In Data Is Everybody’s Business, the authors offer a clear and engaging way for people across the entire organization to understand data monetization and make it happen. The authors identify three viable ways to convert data into money—improving work with data, wrapping products with data, and selling information offerings—and explain when to pursue each and how to succeed. Key features of the book: • Grounded in twenty-eight years of academic research, including nine years of research at the MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research (MIT CISR) • Definitions of key terms, self-reflection questions, appealing graphics, and easy-to-use frameworks • Rich with detailed case studies • Supplemented by free MIT CISR website resources (cisr.mit.edu) Ideal for organizations engaged in data literacy training, data-driven transformation, or digital transformation, Data Is Everybody’s Business is the essential guide for helping everybody in the organization—not just the data specialists—understand, get excited about, and participate in data monetization.

This book will teach you how to take advantage of the JavaScript language to process data provided on the Internet. Much attention is given to the main JavaScript backbone: prototype based objects, and functional capabilities, while common features (loops, etc.) are summarized in a few cheat-sheets. Only operational features are detailed through the coding of several applications -the second and largest part of the book-, on free-access datasets (e.g. World Bank). It includes: cartography (SVG or API's based), data-sheets access (via Ajax or Jsonp), video data and post-synchronization, and animation examples.

Are you curious about smart cities? You should be! By mid-century, two-thirds of us will live in cities. The world of tomorrow will be a world of cities. But will they be smart cities? Smart cities are complex blends of technologies, systems and services designed and orchestrated to help people lead productive, fulfilling, safe and happy lives. This remarkable book is a window into our shared future. In crisp language and sharp detail, Mike Barlow and Cornelia Lévy-Bencheton explain how smart cities are powerful forces for positive change. With keen eyes and warm hearts, they invite readers to imagine the world of tomorrow, a fascinating world of connected cities and communities. They capture and convey the depth and richness of the worldwide smart city movement. Smart Cities, Smart Future describes the impact of smart city projects on people in towns, cities and nations around the world. The book includes descriptions of ongoing smart city projects in North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Looking Ahead to an Urban World No two smart cities are alike. No one can say with certainty or precision what the term “smart city” means. There is no standard definition or common template. Today, smart cities are works in progress. They emerge from our hopes and our dreams. This book provides you with the knowledge and insight you need to participate in the smart city movement. It explains how smart cities are “systems of systems” and introduces key concepts such as interoperability, open standards, resiliency, agility, adaptability and continuous improvement. Includes Detailed Glossary of Terms and Essential Vocabulary The book includes a detailed comprehensive glossary of essential smart city terms. The glossary will become your indispensable resource as you engage more deeply with the smart city movement and become more involved in planning our common future in an urban world. Carefully Researched and Crisply Written Smart Cities, Smart Future is carefully researched and fully documented. It includes interviews with leaders and experts in multiple disciplines essential to the development of smart cities, towns, regions, states and nations. Written in the clean style of modern journalism, the book offers a strong and compelling narrative of a changing world. It reminds us that we are responsible for choosing our destiny and determining the shape of things to come. The smart city movement is gaining speed and momentum. Read this book, and enjoy the ride!

The main objectives of this book are to expose key aspects that have a relevance when dealing with open data viewed from different perspectives and to provide appealing examples of how open data is implemented worldwide. The concept of open data as we know it today is the result of many different initiatives, both of a legislative and non-legislative nature, and promoted by a wide range of actors. Numerous regulatory antecedents to foster the concept of open data and embed it in national and international policy agendas have been undertaken on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as at a supranational level. The book highlights a number of the efforts made to promote open data in Europe, Asia and the United States. In addition to new insights, practical guidance and multiple disciplinary perspectives on open data, the book also addresses the transformation of current developments towards open data, which may be referred to as the democratisation of data. This book will support open data practitioners as well as open data scholars in their endeavours to promote open data implementation and research. Bastiaan van Loenen is associate professor and director of the Knowledge Centre Open Data at the Faculty of Architecture and The Built Environment of Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, as is Glenn Vancauwenberghe, who is a post-doctoral researcher, and Joep Crompvoets is a professor at the Public Governance Institute of the KU Leuven in Belgium.