NB Hackathon – NoSQL, BigData and Linked Open Data for Government
This month, I participated in the NB Hackathon, an event that aims to bring developers in Atlantic Canada (particularly NB) together for the purpose of hacking on some interestling Linked Open Data and traditional (i.e. Microsoft Excel) Government Data sets which is being made publicly available for the first time.
MusicBrainz .vs. Million Song Dataset (battle of the Open Music databases)
Image via Wikipedia
I’m looking to add a significant amount of Music data to the OpenRecommender project to power the new Music Recommendation services.
Since I couldn’t find one, I feel compelled to write a side-by-side comparison between MusicBrainz (the old trusty) and the Million Song Database by LabROSA @ Columbia U. (the new kid in town). The following is the breakdown, and though I’ll offer my thoughts at the end, I’ll encourage the reader decide which is the best data source.
Ready? BATTLE!
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Ebert takes down BCmoney!
An early Christmas present or homework for the holidays?
A yay or nay from world-renowned film critic Roger Ebert (of Siskel & Ebert fame) carries alot of clout in the media world (both old and new). Once dubbed “the most powerful pundit in America” by Forbes Magazine in 2007, the full might of this almighty power was felt by our servers as they grinded to a halt on a staggering 200 Gigs of traffic in a little over an hour on December 8th, 2010.
A screenshot of our server stats below shows the extent of the traffic spike (almost 2500 unique visitors in the first hour):
Roger Ebert's backlink kicked our server's a$%
(UPDATE: Fortunately, our generous web hosts at HostOnNet were able to boost our maximum traffic and with a few tweaks, everything was back to normal.)
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BC$ = Behavior, Content, Money
The goal of the BC$ project is to raise awareness and make changes with respect to the three pillars of information freedom - Behavior (pursuit of interests and passions), Content (sharing/exchanging ideas in various formats), Money (fairness and accessibility) - bringing to light the fact that:
1. We regularly hand over our browser histories, search histories and daily online activities to companies that want our money, or, to benefit from our use of their services with lucrative ad deals or sales of personal information.
2. We create and/or consume interesting content on their services, but we aren't adequately rewarded for our creative efforts or loyalty.
3. We pay money to be connected online (and possibly also over mobile), yet we lose both time and money by allowing companies to market to us with unsolicited advertisements, irrelevant product offers and unfairly structured service pricing plans.