The Practical Magician and Ventriloquist’s Guide (1876)

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Adam Green

The Practical Magician and Ventriloquist’s Guide, a Practical Manual of Fireside Magic and Conjuring Illusions, also Containing Complete Instructions for Acquiring & Practising the Art of Ventriloquism; 1876; Hurst & Co., New York

Ex. 1. The Suffocated Victim – This was a favorite illustration of Mr. Love, the polyphonist. A large box or close cupboard is used indiscriminately, as it may be handy. The student will rap or kick the box apparently by accident. The voice will then utter a hoarse and subdued groan, apparently from the box or closet.

Student (pointing to the box with an air of astonishment) : “What is that ?
Voice: I won’t do so any more. I am nearly dead.
Student: Who are you ? How came you there ?
Voice: I only wanted to see what was going on. Let me out, do.
Student: But I don’t know who you are.
Voice: Oh yes, you do.
Student: Who are you ?
Voice: Your old schoolfellow, Tom. You know me.
Student: Why, he’s in Canada.
Voice (sharply): No he aint, he’s here; but be quick.
Student (opening the lid): Perhaps he’s come by the underground railroad ? Hallo !
Voice (not so muffled as described in direction): Now then, give us a hand.
Student (closing the lid or door sharply): No, I won’t.
Voice (as before): Have pity (Tom, or Jack, or Mr_____, as the case may be), or I shall be choked.
Student: I don’t believe you are what you say.
Voice : Why don’t you let me out and see before I am dead ?
Student {opening and shutting the lid or door and varying the voice accordingly): Dead ! not you. When did you leave Canada?
Voice: Last week. Oh ? I am choking.
Student : Shall I let him out ? {opening the door). There’s no one here.

Open Library link

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Posted in magic, magician, non-article, texts, Texts: 19th, Texts: Non-fiction, Texts: Science, ventriloquism | Comments Off

How to Become a Magician (1882)

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Adam Green

How to Become a Magician, Containing a Grand Assortment of Magical Illusions as Performed by the Leading Magicians and Wizards of the Day; 1882; F. Tousey, New York

A grand assortment of various tricks, illusions, conjurings, deceptions and slights of hand….

The following pages are not intended to make the young reader either a cheat or a trickster; there is nothing perhaps so utterly contemptible in every-day life as trickery and deceit, and we would caution our young friends not to cultivate a love of deception, which is only allowable in such feats of amusement, because it is in fact not deception at all, when everybody expects to be puzzled, and is only left to find out the mystery the best way he can.

Open Library link

Posted in guide, magician, non-article, texts, Texts: 19th, Texts: Miscellaneous, Texts: Non-fiction, Texts: Science, victorian | Comments Off

Exploring data from CKAN

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Mark Wainwright

CKAN’s Recline data previewing tool has acquired a host of powerful new features, many of them made possible by the new version of CKAN’s DataStore.

Viewing tabular data

Table view

If structured data is uploaded or linked to CKAN as a .csv or Excel table, the DataStore loads it into a database, allowing Recline to give a powerful range of ways to view and process the data. Initially it is displayed as a table. The user can sort the data on particular columns, filter or facet by values, or hide columns entirely.

[IMG: Table view]

Graphing data

Recline can also show data on a graph, allowing you to choose the variables on the axes. If they exist in the same spreadsheet, you can also graph multiple variables on the y-axis.

[IMG: Graph view]

Depending on the data, a bar chart may be more useful:

[IMG: Bar chart]

Mapping data

If the table has columns that Recline recognises as latitude and longitude, it can also show you the data points on a map, with mapping data from OpenStreetMap. The map can be panned (dragged) and zoomed, and selecting a data point displays all the field values for that point.

[IMG: map view]

Embedded views

Every graph or map view has an ‘Embed’ button, enabling it to be included as a link in an external web page such as a blog. The embedded view will remember the variables, ranges, scale etc – so it will display just as you viewed it from CKAN.

Image data

CKAN’s previewing is not restricted to tabular data. For example, if a resource is a web page, it will preview the page. A new feature is the ability to preview image files.

[IMG: map view]

All the new functionality is included in the recent CKAN 1.7 release. It’s also live on the DataHub, so feel free to have a play. As usual, requests and suggestions for improvements can be sent to the CKAN discussion e-mail list.

Posted in Feature, News | Comments Off

OpenData MeetUp in Roma

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Maurizio Napolitano

Sabato 19 Maggio 2012, ore 17.30 Chiostro del Bramante Arco della Pace, 5 Roma, IT 00186 mappa

Ci vediamo al cafe del Chiostro del Bramante (http://chiostrodelbramante.it/) per parlare di open data ed conoscenza aperta, e per parlare di alcuni progetti attivi al momento.

Brevi presentazioni di ciò che sta succedendo (2 o 3 minuti) sono benvenute! Condividi questo evento, incontra altre persone interessate al mondo open data e scopri attività interessanti nella tua zona!

Velichka Dimitrova, Project Manager of Open Economics, presenterà i progetti su cui è attivo al momento il gruppo di lavoro per raccogliere suggerimenti e idee.

Maggiori informazioni: http://www.meetup.com/OpenKnowledgeFoundation/Roma/699862/

Posted in apps4italy, Incontri, Meetup, roma, velichka dimitrova | Comments Off

Notes from Coord Call 14/05/2012

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Naomi Lillie

Wolfpack Team Meeting notes

Team meeting 14th May around 1.30 pm UK time. (12:30 UTC)

Headlines

Strategy for ongoing calls still being considered, also management of events
Meetups on Mon (Cambridge), Wed (Edinburgh) and Thu (Manchester) this week. If you have contacts in who’d like to meet the OKFN team, please invite them!
Hackathon with DevCSI, Open Biblio, Open GLAM and Cultural Heritage 12-14th June – pass on these details for interested parties to join the party!

Participants

Kat Braybrooke
Lucy Chambers
Marcus Dapp
Velichka Dimitrova
Laura James
Sam Leon
Naomi Lillie
Laura Newman
Joris Pekel
Darwin Peltan
Rufus Pollock
Tom Rees
Mark Wainwright

Apologies

Daniel Dietrich (on his way to Geneva WSIS)

Agenda

Histories of Open Knowledge Project (SL) – confirmed
Who should attend all-hands meeting other than wolfpack? (LJ) – email LJ within next day or so if you have further ideas after this call. Who we actually invite other than core team will depend on venue & costs etc.
- PMR (& Jenny Molloy?)
- new paid team people since last all-hands (LJ can compile list)
- Joris
- Ira & David Raznick & MarkW (depending on where, may also make sense to get rest of ckan team along)
One Europe response – LN to follow up

Updates & FAO (paste your notebook link in here name):

Daniel Dietrich
Naomi Lillie FAO: all, please promote Hackathon 12-14 June; anyone with contacts in Edinburgh, please promote #OpenDataEDB Meet-up this Wednesday
Sam Leon
Joris Pekel
Laura Newman
Kat Braybrooke FAO: mega focus on getting a bunch of essential OKFestival releases out to public this week, at FutureEverything Thurs/Fri in Manchester, so am a bit manic. Sorry in advance

Events – refer to spreadsheet

Community-powered digital transformations in learning – too short notice
Personal Democracy Forum, Brussels – LC invited but needs some desk time!
Data UY – School of Data Journalism / Hacker Bus – LC to discuss with KB (perhaps one for OKFN_BR to pick up)
Ogov – training course for open government officials in Spain (line 34, RGRP) – discuss with RP
FOCAS, Aspen Institute, Colorado (line 30, RGRP) – discuss with RP
New Media Forum Plenary Chamber, Brussels (line 26, RGRP) – discuss with RP
Daniel added some events – discuss with DD
STRATA – please get your proposals in now <- FAO CKAN TEAM
Apps4Italy Award Ceremony and Event – http://www.apps4italy.org/shortlist/ – YourTopia Italia shortlisted – May 19 (http://blog.okfn.org/2012/05/10/launching-yourtopia-italia-progress-in-italy-defined-by-you/) – Also: http://www.festivaldellafelicita.it/doc/1/festival-della-felicit-2012-si-parte.htm – Giacomo Luchetta making a presentation about YourTopia – VD to discuss Romevisit with RP
Digital Agenda Assembly: http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/digital-agenda/daa/ – IB invited, if anyone has experience talk to Ira; DP advises attendance; MD to go (back2back with W3C OD workshop)
festival of happiness in Italy (VD), where we could make a presentation about Yourtopia – some top level people involved in research about mearing well-being will be there – a guy form the YourTopia team is based in the town where the event is organised so he would be able to cover that.
Domain-specific events should be agreed by Project Manager and try to pay from paid projects where possible, process for Core is still to be determined

Questions

Facebook – continue discussion on email
Process for deciding events, and allocating budget and travel (still an open question – one for later meetings)
- budget (should be project manager if it’s a specific domain and there’s a funded project, or Foundation Coord if it’s core)
- is the event worthwhile? does it have good reputation? is it a senior key note type thing or an informal community event or a technical event? (this sort of question is a good one for our collective memory rather than a project manager)
- who goes
Notebook posts – also a question for ongoing discussion
- is the process of writing them useful?
- is the process of reading other people’s useful?
- is there a better way to get uptodate on others’ news?

AOB

2nd (and final) call for OKFestival proposals to be released to public today/tomorrow – deadline early June – and those of you who are Guest Programme Planning leads have been notified in the past week – but let Kat know if have any questions about this process

Actions

Ongoing actions under control

Posted in Meeting Notes | Comments Off

OKFestival Topics of 2012 Announced, 2nd Call for Proposals Published, Experimentation Encouraged!

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Kat Braybrooke

For those looking for yet another reason to join us for OKFestival in Helsinki this September, the OKFestival Core Organising Team is proud to announce the inspiring public outcomes of our unconventional First Call for Proposals – and to request your participation for our Second Call to share your ideas in Finland.

As we’ve noted previously, because OKFestival is the first event of its kind, combining Open Knowledge Conference and Open Government Data Camp together for a week-long celebration of action and collaboration, we decided to take a risk by opening up over 2/3 of the week’s programme to you as festival participants.

So last month, we released the First Call for Proposals, crossing our fingers expectantly as we did it. A few of us on the Core Organising Team (photo) were, admittedly, a tad worried – would global communities rise to the challenge? Or would we be left alone in cyberspace without even a programme to our name? We presented the festival to audiences at FREE CITY in Tallinn, at Re:Publica in Berlin and to local stakeholders in Finland. And we waited in anticipation.

In the end, we didn’t have to worry at all. The response to our First Call for Proposals was both overwhelming and encouraging. Open knowledge and data enthusiasts around the world did take the reins – and now, a month later, we have a groundbreaking, action-focused programme planned in co-operation with citizen teams of Guest Programme Planners all over the world. For a summary of the Open Knowledge Festival planning process in 14 slides, see our first Slideshare presentation here.

As you'll see above, the First Call for Proposals allowed the Core Organising Team to determine the most important themes and salient ideas, the subjects of which are highlighted through our 13 guest-organised Topic Streams of 2012:

Open Democracy and Citizen Movements
Open Government Data
Open Cities
Open Design, Hardware & Manufacturing
Open Cultural Heritage
Open Development
Open Research and Education
Open Geodata
Open Source Software
Data Journalism and Data Visualization
Gender / Diversity in Openness
Open Business and Corporate Data
Open Knowledge and Sustainability

The breadth of these topics is quite diverse - indeed, the variance is somewhat unprecedented for an event of this kind. Going through the topics above and learning more about how their Guest Programme Planners are determining the programming on the Public Planning Wiki, it's hard not to feel a sense of excitement about what's to come.

For the Second (and last!) Call for Proposals, we encourage ideas that further enrich each of these themes with new perspectives. We want your lightning talks, lectures, panel discussions, workshops, hackathons and all things in between. Let's fill Helsinki's streets with innovative new ideas, new collaborations between civil society and government, and new projects that provoke openness in unexpected ways.

It is our hope that together, these themes will illustrate the importance of diverse understandings within open knowledge and open data communities - and we look forward to seeing even more of you get involved in this inspiring process.

The Second Call for Proposals is here. Deadline for submission is June 1st - go to okfestival.org for details. And feel free to mix and remix the Slideshare presentation above for your own uses - it's meant to be shared!

Posted in Chapters, Events, Featured, News, OKF Finland, OKFest | Comments Off

Codex Mendoza (1542)

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Adam Green

The Codex Mendoza is an Aztec codex, created about twenty years after the Spanish conquest of Mexico with the intent that it be seen by Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain. It contains a history of the Aztec rulers and their conquests, a list of the tribute paid by the conquered, and a description of daily Aztec life, in traditional Aztec pictograms with Spanish explanations and commentary. It is named after Antonio de Mendoza, then the viceroy of New Spain, who may have commissioned it. After creation in Mexico City, it was sent by ship to Spain. The fleet, however, was attacked by French privateers, and the codex, along with the rest of the booty, was taken to France. There it came into the possession of André Thévet, cosmographer to King Henry II of France. Thévet wrote his name in five places on the codex, twice with the date 1553. It was later bought by the Englishman Richard Hakluyt for 20 French francs. Some time after 1616 it was passed to Samuel Purchase, then to his son, and then to John Selden. The codex was deposited into the Bodleian Library at Oxford University in 1659, 5 years after Selden’s death, where it remained in obscurity until 1831, when it was rediscovered by Viscount Kingsborough and brought to the attention of scholars. (Wikipedia)

(All images Wikimedia Commons).

Depicts the founding of Tenochtitlan, and the conquest of Colhuacan and Tenayucan.

Depicts the rule and conquests of Chimalpopoca.

Depicts the rule and conquests of Axayacatl