Tag Archives: open source

Registers: Accountable government lists of things

What is a Register?

Registers are lists of things published on the web and available via an API.

You maintain accountability, via Blockchain-like technologies called Merkle Trees, which allows you to track back through previous changes, and a single source of truth, meaning that people link back to the central source. A Register has a named owner, responsible for the maintenance and updating of that data. They are sometimes called “Custodians” and should be a subject expert in that field. It is possible to have multiple Custodians. There is a Register of Registers – produced by the GDS.

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How to map everything (but you definitely shouldn’t)

I’m totally new to the unconference scene and have only ever watched from the sidelines, on Twitter. My experiences of academic conferences makes me think there must be something better, and I guess this is it, so thanks to Giuseppe Sollazzo for inviting me.

By way of introduction, I’m an urban studies academic at the University of Sheffield but I spend a good bit of my time doing data analysis and mapping and sharing it with others. I’ve also collaborated on quite a few data journalism projects over the past 5 years, mainly with Simon Rogers at Google (and previously when he was at the Guardian). You can find out more from my Twitter and also on my blog. Most of what I do has some kind of geo or map component, so that’s what I hope I can bring to OD Camp 3 in Bristol.

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