GIP researchers win Linked Data User Experience Challenge 2016

On November 2nd, Stanislav Ronzhin (GIP AIO), Sam Ubels (GIMA-GIP MSc ) and Rob Lemmens presented the results of their hackathon (with great support by Bas Retsios) and won the User Experience (UX) Challenge 2016, organized by the Pilod platform (www.pilod.nl).

The team worked out the Data Journalism Challenge. Their common goal was to use Linked Data technologies to analyze drone attacks in Pakistan and Yemen. In addition to the GIP affiliates, the team consisted of researchers from VU, programmers from Kadaster, and data journalists from The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (www.thebureauinvestigates.com). Other participating teams worked on the Buying a House Challenge and on the Environmental Act Challenge. The results of the challenges were presented at a Linked Data Seminar in Amsterdam:

http://www.pilod.nl/wiki/Presentations_and_photo_impression_of_the_Linke...

The group presented two results: by using Linked Data technologies the drone data can be queried from within a journalistic article that is published on a web page. Numerical data that is mentioned in the article, e.g., the percentage of civilian casualties, is directly related to a query on the underlying data. Using an expert view, the query can even be edited by the reader and rerun. This adds an extra layer of journalistic validation and reuse.

The second result was produced with the ILWIS Space-Time-Cube which was applied to semi-automatically find outliers in the data. This allows extraordinary drone strikes to be easily detected in space and time. Extraordinary events are interesting for a data journalist, since they may be the topic of a newsworthy story or even a scoop.

The group is now looking for additional funding opportunities to continue their
work. Please contact r.l.g.lemmens@utwente.nl if you are interested.