The intent of this data release is to help children explore Denmark in a virtual environment in class. This is to help Danish children at least to better grasp Danish geography.
’Danmarks frie geodata i en Minecraftverden’ er et demonstrationsprojekt, hvor Geodatastyrelsen vil vise de mangfoldige muligheder i brugen af geodata. Derfor er serveren kun midlertidig. Der vil fortsat være mulighed for at downloade mindre bidder af Danmark på Kortforsyningen efter denne dato.
It is a demonstration project to show the possibilities of geodata. The minecraft server closes 23 of October 2014.
I won't presume that their arguments are completely air tight in regards to its educational usage. But I'd argue that exploring Denmark from a more close up view (than a map) is more appealing to school children. Google's Street View can only go so far.
There is nothing wrong with the intention, the problem is result. I hope I'm wrong, but on my experience of these kind of things is that the popularity is short lived. Soon, some new idea comes along and removes the just implemented old new way.
So using already acquired data and a system to put that data into a game world is a worse use of money than your idea of what.. taking every school child in the country of a tour of the entire country?
Still no. I do silly replies when people assume too much instead of asking first. I todays society people just making up other peoples arguments to fit their agenda.
What a useful bit of soft power. Denmark is being talked about on an influential Internet forum. People on HN usually complain about how bad governments are at makig data open. Here is an example of a government making data open and doing fun silly things with it.
The cost ofthe project is probably minimal compared to other government spending and has had a reasonable impact.
The children using this Mincraft world will grow up to do other neat things.
That is exactly the same argument that was made when Sweden made a virtual embassy in Second Life. Not convinced that it benefited anyone except the programmers.
And also, I'm not making an argument against open data.
I think the amount of taxpayer money spent on this is negligible in the scheme of things, and far cheaper than an ARCGIS license for every child in the country to explore virtual geodata with instead.
I came here to write this but am quite surprised that other people don't agree with it and downvoted you. These agencies aren't paid from our tax money to produce toys - they are there to provide a cost efficient service where possible.
I have the same worries about the entire gov.uk rework.
Neat hack yes, but this is government, not private enterprise or personal time.
In the UK we almost called for the hanging of an MP who bought a duck house on expenses and I'm sure these "neat hacks" over time have cost a lot more.
In your other comment you call this a ’hack and a PR thing’ and it is exactly that: a neat hack to draw attention to the fact that the government is now publishing this data-set as free data.
I think it’s great the government publishes this free data (given as it is was probably collected using tax money), and I also think it’s great they do a project to attract attention to this: the more people know about this data, the more people can use it, and the better the tax money has been spent.
Plus, I imagine the Danish blog post provides good starting points for anyone wishing to use this data in similar ways.
If you go down the "government should be cost efficient" route, you end up with things like [/PPI/] which, whilst making the government more cost efficient, has thoroughly damaged many vital UK services.
Edit: By PPI, I meant PPP/PFI. I conflated the two into one incorrect abbreviation. Apologies.
Indeed, I can imagine if every small bit of work had to have a full analysis of ROI etc. then the whole bureaucracy intended to prevent the wasting of money would end us costing far more than could ever be saved.
If the Ordnance Survey want to do even more cool stuff with a tiny bit of my taxpayers money then they have my blessing.
What are you talking about? PPI was a private-industry thing. PPP is regarded as a failure partly because it damaged service provision but mostly because it didn't actually save money.
PPP was not about government efficiency not has it improved efficiency. PPP was about trading a short immediate cost (infrastructure build) against a long one (rent). It was a cash flow measure to knock as much deficit on the head up front and reduce unemployment. This was purely a political measure for the government to "not look as shit".
Of course in the long term it's a shitty deal for citizens, lots of political cash back-handers were taken and we've now got long-term rents to pay and stuck with low grade contract outfits.
But that's what happens when you put capitalism and socialism in the same pot and stir it.
Because we're throwing a pile of cash away on fighting foreign wars we can't win and killing people rather than abolishing PPP and concentrating on looking after all the sick people at home.
Comments
What a waste of tax payer money.
The intent of this data release is to help children explore Denmark in a virtual environment in class. This is to help Danish children at least to better grasp Danish geography.
Isn't that what Google Earth is for as an example?
Putting it in Minecraft is a hack and a PR thing, nothing more.
Yes, it is PR. Read the FAQ
http://gst.dk/emner/frie-data/minecraft/ofte-stillede-spoerg...
Hvorfor lukker serveren den 23. oktober 2014?
’Danmarks frie geodata i en Minecraftverden’ er et demonstrationsprojekt, hvor Geodatastyrelsen vil vise de mangfoldige muligheder i brugen af geodata. Derfor er serveren kun midlertidig. Der vil fortsat være mulighed for at downloade mindre bidder af Danmark på Kortforsyningen efter denne dato.
It is a demonstration project to show the possibilities of geodata. The minecraft server closes 23 of October 2014.
I won't presume that their arguments are completely air tight in regards to its educational usage. But I'd argue that exploring Denmark from a more close up view (than a map) is more appealing to school children. Google's Street View can only go so far.
There is nothing wrong with the intention, the problem is result. I hope I'm wrong, but on my experience of these kind of things is that the popularity is short lived. Soon, some new idea comes along and removes the just implemented old new way.
How about a school trip instead?
So using already acquired data and a system to put that data into a game world is a worse use of money than your idea of what.. taking every school child in the country of a tour of the entire country?
Much better. The minecraft world cant replace the real world.
The argument to use this for education is shown already to be false because the minecraft server closes this fall.
The minecraft world cant replace the real world.
Neither can maps, should we stop making them? What a ridiculous argument.
Yes, if the maps only worked until 23 of October 2014.
Then, if the server was left running, you'd be OK with it, right?
Besides, only their server stops working, you can still download the data and run your own for as long as you'd like: http://gst.dk/emner/frie-data/minecraft/download-data/
Still no. I do silly replies when people assume too much instead of asking first. I todays society people just making up other peoples arguments to fit their agenda.
What a useful bit of soft power. Denmark is being talked about on an influential Internet forum. People on HN usually complain about how bad governments are at makig data open. Here is an example of a government making data open and doing fun silly things with it.
The cost ofthe project is probably minimal compared to other government spending and has had a reasonable impact.
The children using this Mincraft world will grow up to do other neat things.
That is exactly the same argument that was made when Sweden made a virtual embassy in Second Life. Not convinced that it benefited anyone except the programmers.
And also, I'm not making an argument against open data.
I think the amount of taxpayer money spent on this is negligible in the scheme of things, and far cheaper than an ARCGIS license for every child in the country to explore virtual geodata with instead.
As the link is down, did it cover how much taxpayers' money was spent producing it?
I came here to write this but am quite surprised that other people don't agree with it and downvoted you. These agencies aren't paid from our tax money to produce toys - they are there to provide a cost efficient service where possible.
I have the same worries about the entire gov.uk rework.
Neat hack yes, but this is government, not private enterprise or personal time.
In the UK we almost called for the hanging of an MP who bought a duck house on expenses and I'm sure these "neat hacks" over time have cost a lot more.
In your other comment you call this a ’hack and a PR thing’ and it is exactly that: a neat hack to draw attention to the fact that the government is now publishing this data-set as free data.
I think it’s great the government publishes this free data (given as it is was probably collected using tax money), and I also think it’s great they do a project to attract attention to this: the more people know about this data, the more people can use it, and the better the tax money has been spent.
Plus, I imagine the Danish blog post provides good starting points for anyone wishing to use this data in similar ways.
If you go down the "government should be cost efficient" route, you end up with things like [/PPI/] which, whilst making the government more cost efficient, has thoroughly damaged many vital UK services.
Edit: By PPI, I meant PPP/PFI. I conflated the two into one incorrect abbreviation. Apologies.
Indeed, I can imagine if every small bit of work had to have a full analysis of ROI etc. then the whole bureaucracy intended to prevent the wasting of money would end us costing far more than could ever be saved.
If the Ordnance Survey want to do even more cool stuff with a tiny bit of my taxpayers money then they have my blessing.
What are you talking about? PPI was a private-industry thing. PPP is regarded as a failure partly because it damaged service provision but mostly because it didn't actually save money.
You're right - I've conflated PPP and PFI in my brain there. Apologies.
That's total horse shit.
PPP was not about government efficiency not has it improved efficiency. PPP was about trading a short immediate cost (infrastructure build) against a long one (rent). It was a cash flow measure to knock as much deficit on the head up front and reduce unemployment. This was purely a political measure for the government to "not look as shit".
Of course in the long term it's a shitty deal for citizens, lots of political cash back-handers were taken and we've now got long-term rents to pay and stuck with low grade contract outfits.
But that's what happens when you put capitalism and socialism in the same pot and stir it.
If it's reduced governmental cash outlay in the short term, is that not more "cost efficient"?
Because we're throwing a pile of cash away on fighting foreign wars we can't win and killing people rather than abolishing PPP and concentrating on looking after all the sick people at home.
I'm pretty sure that paying an intern or two for a few weeks to produce tangible results is well down on the "unnecessary government spending" ladder.
Interns doesn't mean free labour in Europe unlike the US. If every department has one, it's got a significant cost.
A significant cost for who? How many employees does the Danish government have?
In the working age of 18-64, 27% of the population works under the Danish government.
Not free but cheap(er) than a regular worker.
I usually get down voted here, so no surprise.
Sweden made a virtual embassy in Second Life. It's closed now. Just money down the drain.
http://secondhouseofsweden.com/
Politicians have really hard time these days to put tax payer money where they should go, education, health care, law enforcement.
My point entirely!
So tax money shouldn't fund fire departments?
Who are you asking?