Just recently, I have noticed that the United Nations has an open data portal. Is it just me or did we all miss something? According to the UN Data about page, this portal is a part of the database service and project launched by the UN Statistic Division (UNSD) in 2005, called “Statistics and Public Good”. You can find this portal at http://data.un.org/.
So what does this all mean? Well, simply put, I am now rich with ideas and have large amounts of data. This data portal contains 31 databases and 60 million records for use! I am hoping that I am not the only one, but that others are also very enthused about this and projects that are a result of this data.
What I am more interested in, is how educational institutions can start using this data. Recently, I have written an article expressing the idea that if education and open data was used together – it would not be a force to reckon with. I also expressed my concerns regarding students not gaining real world use of their projects that they are completing within post secondary school titled: “An Open Data and Education thought“.
As I am closing in on the beginning of my final semester at Fanshawe College, I will be looking for ideas and that can be used around this data for a class of mine. The class I refer to is one which we have the entire semester to go from concept into implementation. Feel free to share your ideas for projects that can be developed around this data.
