I'm still around, despite the dust and cobwebs around here. I've been doing a lot of writing, mostly on other blogs, though:
Launched dataliberation.org on the Google Public Policy Blog
Launched the Data Liberation Front's very own blog
Wrote about why I think Data Liberation is important on the Huffington Post
I also had a really nice interview with The Guardian to talk about Data Liberation and the Open Web.
And if that's not enough of my blathering for you, I'm @therealfitz on Twitter if you're into that sort of thing.
I'm hoping to find the time to write here more often, but since I'm busier than a one-legged man at an ass-kicking contest, I'm not making any promises.
I'm very excited about the Data Liberation Front. I have a highly irreverent attitude, and applaud a company that can create an entity within itself of the sort the Data Liberation Front has chartered itself to be. I just discovered you a few days ago, HQ'd out of Google's Chicago offices.
ReplyDeleteAs a statistician, I am frequently plagued by ETL nightmares. The matter of data portability is a big part of my work. That's a major reason for my use of expensive and very non-open source applications such as those written by SAS and Microsoft, as there is rarely the problem of format conversions and data type incompatibility. But, as I said, such ease of use comes at quite a price. Your efforts at increasinhg data portability for spreadsheet users as well as database, quantitative applications and much more is appreciated and of great value.
Anyway, I hope you will continue to keep the Data Liberation Front alive and well at Google. I love Google services. (I dearly wish I could be an employee.) Furthermore, GOOG is enormously profitable, offers remarkable products, yet unlike so many other similar profile global corporate entities, has not shown the need for excessive government regulation. Google exemplifies transparency in its operations. (I forgive the recent data collection irregularities; no one is perfect, and Google's track record has been quite impressive to-date).
Your readers will understand if you don't have time to update your Confessions of a Digital Packrat blog as often as before, although I am subscribing right now with hope for the future.
It is important for Google to sponsor frankly fun initiatives like the Data Liberation Front. Another example in a totally different area, but in a similar spirit, is the May 2010 information security application, the Jarlsberg Google learning application, I don't recall the exact name. As an irreverent and mischevious sort (and I suspect that the Loki spirit runs through many of us), I think it best for a company to be able to avoid self-aggrandizement. Far better for you to determine how you poke fun at yourself than others with a less benevolent agenda poke fun, or worse at you! I am a former employee of IBM, and attribute their longevitity as a going concern in no small part to their adaptability and willingness to be more accessible and eschew self-importance in recent years.
I wish you and the Data Liberation Front at Google continuing success and my best wishes. Thank you for all that you do for us.
Thanks for such a thoughtful comment!
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