Project description:

liQen project will create a single environmental database which is a mirror of several datasets from different cities around the world (Madrid, Santiago and London at this stage). The main idea behind is that citizens can collect data directly from liQen in a single format, without having to get data from multiple and diverse sources.

At the same time liQen works as an ‘intelligent data aggregator’ due the use of hash codes mounted over a p2p network. This means that every datapoint has a single and unique code, so when two citizens want to push data into liQen, its system will automatically recognize and deduplicate it. The value of data deduplication is the ability to keep versions of datasets --- liQen can always provide users with the newest version of the open environmental data for each city.

There are two ways to add data in liQen. The first one is through the Web, where users push data using a terminal (command prompt) and/or a browser interface. The second method is using the mobile app, where users push data using their mobile phones to geolocated and contextual datasets. For example, if a user wants to add data from the mobile app, as a picture, liQen is smart enough to recognize location and add this data to the correspondent city (my phone knows I am pushing data from Madrid).

liQen team also wants to work directly with local authorities to promote data merges. A merge represents an instance where citizen-driven data layered on top of data from government open data portals, return to these portals by a database joint. In that way governments can improve their databases through the collaboration of their citizens.

Our prototype for #Visualizar’16 will deploy during the event applying our technology within the complex socio-technical environment in Madrid, which includes a community of civic hackers, the local government, and important possibilities to reach out to users/testers. The pilot experience and results will be exploited towards the utilization of liQen in other cities, mainly Santiago de Chile and London.