Gregory Szorc's blog

I Really Want the Course Schedule in XML

There are few things I want more than Case's course schedule in XML format. Why do I want the course schedule in XML so badly? The very presence of this information is a machine-readable format (we're not talking about convoluted HTML throught the official site) would be the impetus for new services around campus. Here are a few:

• A new course evaluation system that can easily keep tabs on professors, cross-listed courses, individual students, etc
• Classes can easily be imported into all types of calendars.
• Using the geographic positions on the Case Wiki, it would be possible for students to input their course schedule and view a map of their daily walking schedule, complete with estimated times.

I'm sure there would be more, but those are just the ones I can think of now. If you throw in the ability for students to read their DPR in XML, you get all kinds of crazy possibilities. For example, an application that creates a course schedule, but is optimized so you don't have to wake up until 11 or don't have class on Friday.

It is simply not enough for data to be on the net. It must be readable in machine form. It is amazing the innovative ideas that stem from just the presence of information. It is a shame we currently don't get to experience those (or at least that many of them) at Case.

If only all sites were like the Case Wiki (reasons: 1, 2, 3, 4).

You can ping this entry by using http://blog.case.edu/gps10/mt-tb.cgi/10578 .

Yes! I spent a good chunk of last night exporting the results of all 400 level Weatherhead classes in to a spreadsheet. Talk about tedious, completely unnecessary, and not even all that useful once I finally had it done. I can search by all the fields, so clearly the fields are defined and separated somewhere.