[Script Info]
Title: 
[Events]
Format: Layer, Start, End, Style, Name, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,(lift)
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,(lift 12 - Feb 24 2012 - Geneva)
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,(Rufus Pollock - Stories)
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,[Rufus Pollock] Just to say for those of you who don't know:
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the Open Knowledge Foundation is a non-profit -- not for profit
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,founded in 2004
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and which builds tools and communities
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to create, use and share open information
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and that's information that anyone can use, reuse and redistribute.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,(missed words: "and as such"? check) we've been working on Open Data for quite a long time,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,since we started in 2004.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And today, I want to start this story by going back in time 5'000 years,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to ancient Mesopotamia.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,There, between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,flourished the Sumerian civilization.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And they were confronted by a problem.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,They were confronted by the limitations of human memory
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in the recording of taxes, food and other goods.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And those ancient civil servants and businessmen hit on a novel solution:
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,What they decided to do was they would start counting things with small clay chips,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which they would bake inside of a clay -- a little clay box
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and then mark, on the outside of that box, what they were counting.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You know, was it grain, was it tax payments, whatever.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And so, born out of necessity for a state and a society,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,came one o the great information technology revolutions of all time: writing.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The Sumerians invented writing via cuneiform.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And if we fast-forward from that a few thousand years, we come to the UK census.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Again, it's always interesting that states governments are often at the forefront
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of at least driving information technology and information systems innovations.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The UK census: again, the state that it is in during the Napoleon Wars.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Desire to count the population more accurately:
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,we have the first UK census in 1801.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And in the US, they also had censuses, in fact starting in 1790.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And one of the problems encountered in the 1880 census
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,was they tabulated the census by hand.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And by the 1880 census, it was taking seven years to tabulate the census.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So often you got -- take the 1880, it wasn't until 1887 they actually had any data they could use.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And they calculated that for the next census in 1890,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,they wouldn't be finished by 1900.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,They still wouldn't have the results of the census by the time they started the next one.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,They had a crisis of information technology.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And what they went and did is they commissioned Owen (check) Hollrith
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to build the first automatic tabulator.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And for those of you who know your company history, of course,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Owen (check) Hollrith company went on to be one of the founders,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,if you like, one of the companies that came and created IBM. (2:38)
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And IBM, by the sixties, were building their -- they replaced those hand --
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,those kind of wooden tabulators with this stuff:
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,digital tabulators, the modern computer of this age
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and again, much of this -- I don't know if you guys know --
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,IBM would have gone bankrupt
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,if it hadn't been for Franklin Roosevelt passing the Social Security Act in the States,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which necessitated (check) a huge amount of new tabulation.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So, again, a lot of innovation in this space came out of government need
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and also, of course, the nuclear program,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the other great needer of computer power.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And today, today, we find ourselves again in the midst of a revolution.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's a revolution driven by two needs:
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,one that has been the same throughout the histories I've just shown,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,information complexity, which is the necessity,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and information technology, which is the opportunity.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And what we're doing in this case is a policy innovation, if you like.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We're innovating by opening up information. (3:36)