Culture Hack Day

Culture Hack DayI attended the Culture Hack Day at Wieden+Kennedy in Clerkenwell last weekend. It was a great venue, really good for hacking and socialising alike – and even some space for a quick kip when required!

I’ve been to quite a few hack days in the past, but I’ve usually used it as time to have a play on personal projects (like redesigning my photo website with WordPress 3 at Hack Camp), and in the past I haven’t really submitted a hack (WhichTee? hardly counts!).

One of the datasets available this time around which took my fancy was a SQL database of TV schedule information scanned from old copies of the Radio Times (1948 and 1977!), and then OCR’d – kindly supplied by the BBC via @BillT.

I knocked together a little site to browse and search the content. Unfortunately, I can’t put a working prototype online as the data is not (yet) in the public domain. So for the moment, you’ll have to put up with some screenshots (click for a bigger version):

RT Home

Site home page

RT Browse By Date

Browse the data by date

RT Search by Date

Search by Date

RT Search by Date and Time

Search by Date and Time

RT Browse By Title (by clicking a link)

Browse By Title (by clicking a link)

RT Search by Title (and radio or TV)

Search by Title (and radio or TV)

RT Episode Details

Episode Details - Bagpuss was a repeat in 1977!

Other Hacks

There were some great hacks built (you can find a list here). DanW has done a nice write-up too. Although my hack didn’t win any prizes, I was pleased to have actually produced something I was pleased with during the weekend.

I’m now looking forward to heading north in February for the Culture Grid Hack Day event there.

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