Comments on: Want to bootstrap the data web? Make batch data entry easier for civilians. http://blog.jonudell.net/2008/02/21/want-to-bootstrap-the-data-web-make-batch-data-entry-easier-for-civilians/ Strategies for Internet citizens Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:47:16 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Searching for calendar information « Jon Udell http://blog.jonudell.net/2008/02/21/want-to-bootstrap-the-data-web-make-batch-data-entry-easier-for-civilians/#comment-126968 Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:11:36 +0000 http://blog.jonudell.net/?p=333#comment-126968 [...] that could be upgraded to actual calendar data. Second, I’d like to provide a tool that partly automates the cumbersome data [...]

]]> By: Searching for calender information « Jon Udell http://blog.jonudell.net/2008/02/21/want-to-bootstrap-the-data-web-make-batch-data-entry-easier-for-civilians/#comment-126964 Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:04:42 +0000 http://blog.jonudell.net/?p=333#comment-126964 [...] that could be upgraded to actual calendar data. Second, I’d like to provide a tool that partly automates the cumbersome data [...]

]]> By: Luther http://blog.jonudell.net/2008/02/21/want-to-bootstrap-the-data-web-make-batch-data-entry-easier-for-civilians/#comment-125325 Fri, 12 Sep 2008 16:11:40 +0000 http://blog.jonudell.net/?p=333#comment-125325 Free internet casino money, online casino reviews, games

]]> By: Jon Udell http://blog.jonudell.net/2008/02/21/want-to-bootstrap-the-data-web-make-batch-data-entry-easier-for-civilians/#comment-122645 Fri, 22 Feb 2008 21:51:03 +0000 http://blog.jonudell.net/?p=333#comment-122645 “You said it was 6:30pm and used 18:30. Has the new method at api.evdb.com misinterpreted your start_time parameter?”

Oops, no, I wound up cribbing the example from a different script. The shows really are 8:30 and I’ve adjusted the above accordingly. Good eye!

]]> By: Bruce Elrick http://blog.jonudell.net/2008/02/21/want-to-bootstrap-the-data-web-make-batch-data-entry-easier-for-civilians/#comment-122642 Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:38:12 +0000 http://blog.jonudell.net/?p=333#comment-122642 The times at eventful.com are all 8:30 pm (at least in my browser’s view — I’m in MST but I don’t think that is the problem since the math works in other direction). You said it was 6:30pm and used 18:30. Has the new method at api.evdb.com misinterpreted your start_time parameter?

]]> By: slger http://blog.jonudell.net/2008/02/21/want-to-bootstrap-the-data-web-make-batch-data-entry-easier-for-civilians/#comment-122641 Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:02:44 +0000 http://blog.jonudell.net/?p=333#comment-122641 Agreat way to mitigate the pain of forms for visually impaired web users. A string of form elements filled in by simple text editing is an accessibility solution to a pervasive problem. Accessibility gurus should take note and please count me as a tester if forms are made available this way. Thanks.

]]> By: Jon Udell http://blog.jonudell.net/2008/02/21/want-to-bootstrap-the-data-web-make-batch-data-entry-easier-for-civilians/#comment-122638 Fri, 22 Feb 2008 13:04:42 +0000 http://blog.jonudell.net/?p=333#comment-122638 “iwantsandy.com does something interesting like this”

I was going to say that sounds like what Rael Dornfest’s been working on. But…it /is/ what Rael’s been working on. Knew about stikkit, hadn’t caught up with the iwantsandy name. Thanks for the reminder!

]]> By: Greg Borenstein http://blog.jonudell.net/2008/02/21/want-to-bootstrap-the-data-web-make-batch-data-entry-easier-for-civilians/#comment-122636 Fri, 22 Feb 2008 08:32:08 +0000 http://blog.jonudell.net/?p=333#comment-122636 iwantsandy.com does something interesting like this: parsing raw text communiques containing calendar and other information into a structured format. A big part of it’s success is the fact that it acts as a user interface for real people, providing feedback and metaphors that act as flexible abstractions around the structure of the data. The eponymous “sandy” is a fake personal assistant that you imagine yourself writing to. In the process you end up producing much more easily machine parseable statements. And, of course, there’s some heavy lifting going on in the actual parsing as well based on having seen a lot of real communiques.

]]> By: Jon Udell http://blog.jonudell.net/2008/02/21/want-to-bootstrap-the-data-web-make-batch-data-entry-easier-for-civilians/#comment-122634 Fri, 22 Feb 2008 01:37:33 +0000 http://blog.jonudell.net/?p=333#comment-122634 “My intended edits were achieved within 10-15 minutes.”

Exactly. I’ve had this kind of experience with del.icio.us too. Several times I’ve had to tag hundreds of items. It’d be a non-starter through the web. But in a text file it’s a breeze. Hence my point: a Wiki-like front-end to APIs is an underappreciated power tool for data entry.

]]> By: Jon Udell http://blog.jonudell.net/2008/02/21/want-to-bootstrap-the-data-web-make-batch-data-entry-easier-for-civilians/#comment-122633 Fri, 22 Feb 2008 01:35:24 +0000 http://blog.jonudell.net/?p=333#comment-122633 “Quick and easy forms with multiple output types on the other end”

Solves a different problem, but very cool!

]]> By: Jeff Daly http://blog.jonudell.net/2008/02/21/want-to-bootstrap-the-data-web-make-batch-data-entry-easier-for-civilians/#comment-122632 Thu, 21 Feb 2008 22:33:04 +0000 http://blog.jonudell.net/?p=333#comment-122632 I had a somewhat similar experience about a year ago, on del.icio.us. My list of tags had grown into low thousands, and I noticed that there were many typos, singular/plural pairs and other anomalies. I began editing the tags using the tag renaming page at the site, and quickly tired of it. All 3000+ tags were in one alpha sorted dropdown listbox!

So I dumped the source to file, examined the URLs submitted by the rename tags form and delete tags form and used Vim macros and regular expression substitutions to derive about 100 tag modification URLs.

My intended edits were achieved within 10-15 minutes. I could have done that on a per-item basis, but it probably would have taken nearly two hours – more actually, since navigating a dropdown list of 3000+ entries is not simple.

]]> By: ms http://blog.jonudell.net/2008/02/21/want-to-bootstrap-the-data-web-make-batch-data-entry-easier-for-civilians/#comment-122631 Thu, 21 Feb 2008 21:11:41 +0000 http://blog.jonudell.net/?p=333#comment-122631 Why not copy the data to one text box – like the “quick add” feature of google calendar, but for multiple items.
No hassle with URL, and with preview it is safe…

]]> By: mr. gunn http://blog.jonudell.net/2008/02/21/want-to-bootstrap-the-data-web-make-batch-data-entry-easier-for-civilians/#comment-122628 Thu, 21 Feb 2008 20:15:46 +0000 http://blog.jonudell.net/?p=333#comment-122628 Not to mention that Eventful produces output better consumable by a machine/script than a person reading the feed.

]]> By: Ian Bicking http://blog.jonudell.net/2008/02/21/want-to-bootstrap-the-data-web-make-batch-data-entry-easier-for-civilians/#comment-122626 Thu, 21 Feb 2008 19:51:24 +0000 http://blog.jonudell.net/?p=333#comment-122626 The actions involved remind me a lot of what I’ve seen of Dabble DB and its importing. You really want to take a chunk of data, in whatever arbitrary format you have, and map it to another schema (the website’s entries). Dabble seemed compelling in the way you concretely create that mapping — working with the real data, but all your manipulations are abstract (without really seeming abstract).

One could imagine a service that did that translation, separate from any particular service. You’d need some kind of service description, though I don’t think it needs to be nearly as complete as typical service descriptions, and then point the data translation service at that description plus your own data.

Of course previews and probably transactions of some sort really need to be there to create a robust user experience. That is, the ability to try things out without side effects, and to avoid consistency errors like multiple submissions. All of this is much more SOA than REST :(

]]> By: Mike Parsons http://blog.jonudell.net/2008/02/21/want-to-bootstrap-the-data-web-make-batch-data-entry-easier-for-civilians/#comment-122625 Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:57:45 +0000 http://blog.jonudell.net/?p=333#comment-122625 Sounds like a perfect candidate for this …

http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2008/02/stop-sharing-spreadsheets-start.html

Quick and easy forms with multiple output types on the other end

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