I for one enjoy finding a hugely useful resource that I never saw before. It’s a kind gentle reminder that there is a human scale infiniteness to the internet. There is always more to discover. And Share. My knowledge of everything remain humbly puny.
This is why I am urging the many people who signed up to this community, and maybe share a link, or click a like button, would consider just sharing something you discovered, big or small thanks @cjnewton and @jan for doing this recently.
If its new and useful to you, I can guarantee others would feel the same.
And I am also keenly interested not just a “cool” link but how you found it. I find this almost more interesting, but perhaps that’s me.
Now, onto the sharing.
Located now in the center of Canada, I’m far from the place I grew up, Baltimore right next to the Chesapeake Bay. When asked of my favorite food, I can launch into the joy of a tabloe covered in freshly steamed blue crabs. The key spice, is one I am pleased I can find in my local stores here in Saskatchewan, Old Bay seasoning.
I was happily surprised on a recent grocery shopping trip to the Safeway in Moose Jaw, to spot on the shelf a product with a familiar name on it- Phillips was the legendary crab house (no longer there) in Ocean City, Maryland. I found a jar of Phillips Crab Claw meat!
For fun, I shared this in my team’s Slack Channel. Always someone with a wide and deep information reach, my colleaggue @jan responded (hope it’s okay I am quoting you, Jan!)
Nutri-Score A!
https://world.openfoodfacts.org/product/0070057002104/crab-claw – somehow, the fillets of anchovies (right next to the crab claws) are an E…
https://world.openfoodfacts.org/product/0061659000056/filets-d-anchois-plats-aurora
I had to click, and sure enough look at this data filled page of food product information.
But what is this “Open Food Facts” site?-- no suprise Jan references it because he is all things open.
Open Food Facts is a non-profit project developed by thousands of volunteers from around the world. You can start contributing by adding a product from your kitchen with our app for iPhone or Android, and we have lots of exciting projects you can contribute to in many different ways.
Open Food Facts is a non-profit association of volunteers.
100.000+ contributors like you have added 3 000 000+ products from 150 countries using our Android,i Phone or Windows app or their camera to scan barcodes and upload pictures of products and their labels.
Data about food is of public interest and has to be open. The complete database is published as open data and can be reused by anyone and for any use.
So it is an open data resource you can contribute to be using an app to send them a bar code, or edit the entry page just like a wiki (I am trying to update the Crab Claw page to indicate it is available in Canada).
There’s much more to thie site as it is all built open open data, there are visualizations, and ways to use the food facts.
All uploaded photos are licened Creative Commons CC BY-SA and the data itself bears a Database Contents License (DbCL) v1.0.
Take an explore around Open Food Facts, what can you find? Mmmm look its “tasty” Marmite from Down Under and Sardines flavored with cayenne spice from France.
Keep in mind this kind of “open” and how it is created/updated by volunteers as opposed to how currently certain platforms are described as “open” yet you never can or will see the data.
Add to the community by sharing anything you come across that makes you stop and say, “wow, the open internet is full of information gems”