Comments on: Civic Hacking, the Semantic Web, and Visualization http://razor.occams.info/blog/2009/03/02/civic-hacking-the-semantic-web-and-visualization/ Sun, 07 Mar 2010 15:59:28 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Joshua Tauberer http://razor.occams.info/blog/2009/03/02/civic-hacking-the-semantic-web-and-visualization/comment-page-1/#comment-101 Joshua Tauberer Thu, 05 Mar 2009 11:40:01 +0000 http://razor.occams.info/blog/?p=362#comment-101 It's a fair criticism, but keep in mind that part of the point of what I'm doing is to make it easier for *anyone* to cut out slices of the data. I want to see a marketplace of semantic web mash-ups with competing ideas, and from that perspective the semantic web is no different than using a compute for research. Computers don't have a penchant to flag corruption wherever it looks, it's up to the journalist at the keyboard. But, you're right to point out that as the modeler of the data I might have some undue influence. It's certainly not my goal to only point out corruption. It's just an easier sell when I try to explain it. Any legislative research could benefit from having a single, unified database of the information. The SW also goes beyond what you can do by going to a congressperson's website --- if it has an aggregate of data on all congressman it's easier to do large-scale studies than it would be if you had to collect the data by hand. It’s a fair criticism, but keep in mind that part of the point of what I’m doing is to make it easier for *anyone* to cut out slices of the data. I want to see a marketplace of semantic web mash-ups with competing ideas, and from that perspective the semantic web is no different than using a compute for research. Computers don’t have a penchant to flag corruption wherever it looks, it’s up to the journalist at the keyboard. But, you’re right to point out that as the modeler of the data I might have some undue influence.

It’s certainly not my goal to only point out corruption. It’s just an easier sell when I try to explain it. Any legislative research could benefit from having a single, unified database of the information.

The SW also goes beyond what you can do by going to a congressperson’s website — if it has an aggregate of data on all congressman it’s easier to do large-scale studies than it would be if you had to collect the data by hand.

]]> By: Prokofy Neva http://razor.occams.info/blog/2009/03/02/civic-hacking-the-semantic-web-and-visualization/comment-page-1/#comment-100 Prokofy Neva Thu, 05 Mar 2009 11:23:15 +0000 http://razor.occams.info/blog/?p=362#comment-100 It sounds to me like the coders such as yourself who "massage" and "mash" these "clouds" of data have a tremendous amount of scope for manipulating what people know in the end as *you* decide with coder discretion how to slice. So I'm not seeing the semantic web, as you indicate it here, as some unalloyed good, given that your worldview, and how it seems you'd like to see this data go (campaign contributions=skewed pork votes=discreding of representative democracy) is welded into the cloud mash. I can also use humint just to access the congressmen's website to see how he votes and look at the public records of contributors available even just Googling and eyeball it. And...politics is an art. It is not a machine. It sounds to me like the coders such as yourself who “massage” and “mash” these “clouds” of data have a tremendous amount of scope for manipulating what people know in the end as *you* decide with coder discretion how to slice.

So I’m not seeing the semantic web, as you indicate it here, as some unalloyed good, given that your worldview, and how it seems you’d like to see this data go (campaign contributions=skewed pork votes=discreding of representative democracy) is welded into the cloud mash.

I can also use humint just to access the congressmen’s website to see how he votes and look at the public records of contributors available even just Googling and eyeball it. And…politics is an art. It is not a machine.

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