Deliver your integrated data research projects on Whythawk - the open research data professionals

RDA MOMSI enhancements to multi-omics metadata standards dashboard

Wed, 24 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Landscape Review includes over 220 multidisciplinary multi-omics (genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, lipidomics, etc.) standards curated by the MOMSI WG.

The objective of the enhancements is to integrate visualisation elements in terms of Unipept’s D3 visualisation library.

Our solution

We performed the following updates:

Update icicle to conform to Unipept.
Update sunburst to conform to Unipept.
Update treeview to conform to Unipept.

This required rebuilds to:

Update data aggregation builds to conform to Unipept datanode standards.
Modification of Github Actions build cycle.
Links to the various dashboard pages also modified to conform to page titles.

The objective is a low-maintenance, low-cost data explorer which supports the WG’s mandate.

La Marine Nationale Française CKAN Upgrade & Deployment

Fri, 17 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Whythawk, as leading open data and CKAN technical experts, were approached to prepare technical training and guidance to support the following objectives:

Upgrade CKAN to the latest version.
Automate dataset metadata field updates via API.
Publication authorisation and workflow, including configuration of notification by email of the modification of a data set.
Add custom dataset metadata fields to be indexed by the search engine, either as search or as a filter.
Geospatial support, including for search, for datasets where a location field in the dataset is included in a geographical area defined during the search.
Data explorer GUI functionality to access the resource files without going through Windows Explorer, limiting access to the administrators or managers of the datasets.
Installing a single-sign-on (SSO) plugin / interconnection with an Active Directory.

All of this to be delivered on site, inside their secure environment, and entirely in French.

UCL Data-As-A-Science Graduate Bootcamp

Fri, 11 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

As it becomes ever-easier to collect data about individuals a diverse range of professionals, who have never been trained for such requirements, grapple with inadequate analytic and data management skills, as well as the ethical risks arising from personal data possession and opaque algorithmic tools.

However, the fundamental skills required to lead algorithmic decision-making are not universally taught, and are often surrounded with unnecessary complexity.

The key to unlocking data reuse, and new economic and social development opportunities from these data, rely on both data producers, and data users, having technical insight necessary to manage those who work with data, and a conscious and motivated understanding of the new algorithmic tools available to us.

openLocal Commercial Location Data for England & Wales Research Integration

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Since 2016, Whythawk has made more than 4,000 Freedom of Information requests and curated over 20 million records on individual commercial locations in England and Wales.

We have supported the Greater London Authority (GLA), the Ministry for Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG), University College London (UCL) and the universities of Leeds, Northumbria, and Warwick, and research groups like Centre for Cities, Centre for London and the Consumer Data Research Centre (CDRC).

Hop Sauna - Interledger Foundation Ambassadorship 2025 for Developing a Social Marketplace Web Stack

Sat, 01 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Anyone can launch a new webshop; barriers to entry are low, but barriers to success are enormous. Frameworks - like Django or Drupal - exist. You can integrate Stripe or PayPal quite quickly. But, once you’re done, such a site offers little advantage over listing your products on Amazon or eBay, with the huge downside of being functionally invisible to the larger world. If you’re already famous, moving to your own infrastructure may have advantages, but if you’re less known, or just starting out?

RDA MOMSI multi-omics metadata standards dashboard

Fri, 31 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Landscape Review includes over 220 multidisciplinary multi-omics (genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, lipidomics, etc.) standards curated by the MOMSI WG.

The objective of the new interactive web-based dashboard is to provide open access to the Landscape Review in tracking transparency from one deliverable to another, enabling version control, submission of new standards to the WG’s collection of work, making updates to existing standards within their collection, and providing a transparent method for sharing expert-level information with non-expert stakeholders.

Assessment of impact of proposed UK business rates

Fri, 24 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

According to HMT, “Recurrent taxes on the value of property are a longstanding feature of the tax system in England. The business rates system continues to hold many advantages over other types of tax: rates are easy to collect and provide a stable source of revenue to local government. Business rates are forecast to raise £26 billion in 2024-25 and make up a quarter of Local Authority core spending power. They support critical local services, including child and adult social care.”

RDA FairTracks schema interoperability

Sat, 30 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The FAIRification of Genomic Annotations Working Group (WG) will focus on the challenges of harmonising metadata and software solutions to improve the discovery and reuse of publicly available “genomic annotation” data. Gavin Chait of Whythawk and Sveinung Gundersen of the WG wanted to begin a process of integrating their two data wrangling software projects, whyqd and Omnipy respectively.

We developed a research proposal for submission to the annual BioHackathon Europe and were selected as participants for the November 2024 event.

Privacy Policy

Sun, 24 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Whythawk believes that electronic privacy is important for the ongoing success of the Internet as a service, commercial, and entertainment medium.

We have done our best to create a simple, transparent privacy policy.

This site is statically generated and served as HTML. Fundamentally this means there is very little surface area for this site to be hacked or compromised. It does not require a database or backend server to process and render documents. Technically there is still a webserver, but it serves pre-rendered documents generated at build time.

Terms and Conditions

Sun, 24 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This whythawk.com site (“our site” or “this site”) is owned and operated by Whythawk. Please read these terms and conditions carefully before using our site. By using this site, you automatically agree to all of these terms of use. Whythawk may revise these terms from time to time. If you continue to use our site after we post changes to these terms and conditions, it will mean that you accept those changes.

Evaluating the digital readiness of secondary schools in The Gambia

Thu, 27 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Our solution

To better understand the context in The Gambia and to support the definition of The Gambia Education and Training Project Concept, MCC requested SBC4D to map and analyze the current state of secondary school digital readiness, including internet connectivity and electricity access in the country. Additionally, MCC requested an overview of potential digital resources, tools and technologies that might be feasible to introduce in secondary schools, given electricity and internet accessibility realities in The Gambia. Whythawk was contracted to provide technical statistical support to this process.

Global Health Network research study builder

Tue, 14 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The 1000 Challenge is a global initiative developed by Nursing Now Challenge and The Global Health Network to enable 1000 nurses, midwives, community health workers, and other allied health professionals in low-resource settings to lead research studies that gather evidence to address priority issues in their communities. This is a powerful opportunity for leadership and career development delivered through workplace learning whilst generating vital evidence to improve health outcomes in their communities, and by doing, creating leadership experience.

Whyqd data interoperability platform

Sat, 23 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Spreadsheets are the most common form of data storage and exchange for the public and private sector. Lack of standardisation in nomenclature, especially in highly complex organisations, often produces hard to reconcile data structures. Before these diverse, poorly-structured and scattered tabular data can be reused, they must first be transformed to conform to a standardised structural schema. Time and complexity for transformation at scale is a major obstacle to discovering whether these data are useful in the first place.

Data governance framework assessment for West Bank & Gaza

Thu, 12 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The study included a field visit to Ramallah from 15 to 19 January 2023 by the World Bank and international experts to meet with key stakeholders, including ministries, departments, agencies (MDA), and non-governmental stakeholders.

Our solution

The methodology of the Toolkit is intended to assess both “de jure” frameworks and “de facto” practices. The “de jure” information refers to data governance regulatory environments and the “de facto” information looks to measure the implementation effectiveness of data governance frameworks in use. Therefore, the survey covers not only laws and regulations on paper, but also information related to the implementation of legal and regulatory frameworks, such as the existence of relevant institutions to oversee or enforce legal rights and obligations.

Des Chiffres et des Jeunes COVID data project

Wed, 19 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

DCDJ’s mainstay is the Fellowship program, implemented together with local partner SEJEN. Ivorian youth apply to complete an 8-week data science training program at Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Statistique et d’Economie Appliquée d’Abidjan (ENSEA) in Abidjan, then are placed in government organizations, NGOs and, health organizations working on HIV/AIDS to apply their skills.

Our solution

We collaborated with SBC4D to redevelop our entire training course series into a single online course that could be delivered remotely, in either English or French.

West London Alliance post-COVID economic recovery

Wed, 25 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Whythawk was contracted to provide data and analysis using our commercial location data project to support the planning policy research team led by Urban Foresight and UCL.

Our solution

Our project was defined by two main research components: a quantitative assessment, and a qualitative review of trends, each to be integrated into a set of policy recommendations.

The quantitative assessment required definitions that may only be revealed during the qualitative analysis. Most simply: what is a quantitative definition of a successful town centre? There are also more than 500 named high streets and town centres officially defined by the GLA.

Qwyre publishing and micropayments

Tue, 29 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Qwyre is intended to enable cooperative and collaborative literary publishing and distribution of fiction online, and by conversion to downloadable standards compliant EPUBs, by facilitating Web Monetization of proportional micropayments for writers and editors.

Our solution

Qwyre is intended to be an open-source Python and Vue.js web framework, and progressive web application, permitting multiple authors and editors to collaborate on preparing a literary work for publication, publish that work, and share proportionally in web monetization micropayments.

GLA Mayor's Resilience Fund Activating High Streets Challenge

Sun, 30 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Whythawk’s commercial location data project had been used in research but we lacked a more accessible version of the application for general use. Our work in Levelling Up had positioned us to suppor local authorities applying for funding through the program, and we applied to be part of the challenge.

Our solution

Our project - then called Sqwyre - needed a complete rebuild to isolate the user-facing components from the data curation workflow. We also wanted to support the specific needs of local authorities.

MHCLG Levelling Up commercial location data aggregations

Thu, 08 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Our solution

As COVID revealed, retail doesn’t exist in isolation from the rest of the economy. If offices are closed, or fewer people commute, retail suffers. A retail-only view is not enough.

More disruptively, when companies reconsider their processes for supporting Covid-19 social distancing, they will review everything from offices to the inter-relationship of jobs, remaking the structure and process of work. Just because you’re at a desk and could work from home doesn’t mean that job will still be required when your colleagues shift to remote.

Data interoperability for future air mobility

Mon, 29 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This research was commissioned by the Connected Places Catapult, a research and development organisation working on behalf of the UK government, and Egis, which provides engineering services in the field of urban development, and produced by the Open Data Institute, an independent non-profit institute working with companies and governments to build an open, trustworthy data ecosystem, where people can make better decisions using data and manage any harmful impacts.

ODI commissioned Whythawk as data interoperability technical experts to lead research into the specific data and interoperability infrastructure, standards and policies necessary to support future air mobility.

MHCLG COVID lockdown economic impact

Sat, 19 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Our solution

There was no deeper plan other than responding to a highly volatile and dynamic pandemic, with new information emerging on infection rates and impact on healthcare infrastructure and professionals. Whythawk’s roll was to provide evidence-support for the UK government as they attempted to get ahead of the economic impact.

We worked throughout the first year of the pandemic, often overnight to ensure decision-makers had data and analysis they required first thing in the morning.

Global Health Network professional development system

Fri, 24 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Our solution

The existing Global Health Network platform is an integrated set of components and features that serve a diverse range of concerns, from site discovery to content- and user-management, to professional development and training.

It is a complex body of software often built with an eye to solving immediate problems without formal consideration of future needs. Refactoring the code to cater for a more flexible custom skills and competencies hierarchy will have an unpredictable impact. Our objective was to mitigate these impacts and support separation of software from operational concerns.

Centre for London, meanwhile use for empty shops

Tue, 11 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Centre for London is an independent think tank producing research and policy guidance for the economic and social development of London. In 2018, they motivated for repurposing of long-term vacant commercial properties for alternative use. Whythawk was contracted to develop research data and analysis drawing on our openLocal.uk commercial location data project.

Our solution

We worked with Centre for London lead researchers to develop a set of queries to support their research questions. These were the geospatial distribution of vacancy both in number of units, and in total floor area in terms of the duration of vacancy.

Ghana open data portal

Mon, 09 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The objective of the project is to revive the Ghana Open Data Initiative (GODI) that was originally started in 2010/2011 but not developed since 2015. The aim of the project is to restart GODI and bootstrap a series of activities to put in place a critical mass of actors for the initiative to develop gracefully over years.

The complete requirements for were diverse, including development of specific policy guidance which could be enacted in legislation, through to capacity building at all levels of government, and development and delivery of an open data portal.

Mauritius open data

Mon, 18 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Our solution

Whythawk ran a series of seminars and workshops for the National Computer Board in Mauritius:

Institutional support for open data
Open data for journalists
Foundations for open data
Introduction to Python and open source software development
Advanced data analysis and presentation for open data
Open data for app development

The first two seminars were pitched as a strategic overview of what it takes to run a successful open data initiative, and what others – at the government and private-sector level – are doing, both successfully and unsuccessfully.

Success

Thu, 22 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Your form was submitted

openLocal commercial location data

Wed, 01 Jun 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Our solution

As COVID revealed, retail doesn’t exist in isolation from the rest of the economy. If offices are closed, or fewer people commute, retail suffers. A retail-only view is not enough.

Since 2016, we have made more than 2,500 Freedom of Information requests and curated almost 20 million records on individual commercial locations in England and Wales.

openLocal tracks the history of all types of business units, across England and Wales, irrespective of their proximity to active high streets or town centres. We integrate a wide variety of source data imported from thousands of openly licenced datasets published as spreadsheets by local and national government.

WHO Gates Foundation pubic health data interoperability

Mon, 21 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Our solution

We had several different challenges. The most important was choosing a good case study. We had two options:

Pandemic response in East Africa where a range of emerging and established diseases were being monitored,
Extremely multi-drug resistant tuberculosis pandemic response in Eastern Europe.

We chose the TB project in Eastern Europe as being more straightforward. One disease vector, and one process. Even so we then ran into the additional challenge of many of the countries participating being either threatened, or invaded by Russia. However, conflict was also a contributor to the pandemic, as well as to the low-trust environment for data sharing.

FIDH human rights defenders secure collaboration portal

Wed, 27 May 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Our solution

The project aims at: (i) Enhancing the synergies between available existing programmes providing support to HRDs in the form of temporary relocation, (ii) Enhancing the scope of the network and providing an access point for new actors and programmes interested in joining (e.g. new cities, universities, etc) and (iii) Enhancing the communication between stakeholders by creating a digital platform allowing the safe exchange of information among the members of the initiative, to ensure “best-fit” matching of demands and resources.

Tanzania open data portal

Wed, 27 May 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Whythawk and SBC4D have unique experience in developing open data for development ecosystems in low and medium-income countries, and have been involved in open data initiatives in Africa, Latin America and South-East Asia. In this project, we teamed up with the University of Dar es Salaam, College of Information and Communication Technologies. The university is a centre for excellence in both ICT and in media development and promises to be the best civil society research and training centre for open data in Tanzania.

Perception and Crime with the Metropolitan Police, London

Fri, 01 Aug 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Our solution

The two main objectives of the open data project was to ensure that a secure portal is developed to support data management prior to public release, and that such data connects to Tableau, a visualisation suite, for MOPAC analysts to produce dashboards. The analysts also required training to manage open data release and process, as well as prepare visualisations.

The Whythawk team developed an extension to produce an OData endpoint for CKAN which was deployed to a dedicated MOPAC CKAN instance. OData offers a standardised protocol for creating and consuming data. The format is extremely popular, and software as diverse as Tableau (for analysis and visualisation), Drupal (for content management), and Microsoft’s Excel are all able to accept OData as an input. Whythawk also delivered a series of courses leading change management in analyst data processes, and training on data analysis and visualisation.

Technical assessment of open data platforms

Fri, 01 Aug 2014 00:00:00 +0000

The World Bank wished to provide a better understanding and assessment of the technical issues related to data dissemination tools that NSOs use (or could use) to distribute data to the public under an open data initiative.

Our solution

The Bank commissioned Whythawk to research and produce a report that defines a list of key criteria and evaluates relevant technology products according to those criteria.

Two key concerns related to data dissemination products were to be addressed:

Education transparency for Pakistan

Tue, 07 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Education research data data were intended to provide a solid foundation against which change in Pakistani education could be tracked, and detailed analysis of the drivers and constraints of reform identified. On behalf of HTSPE, the lead contractor on this programme, Accadian appointed Whythawk and the Open Knowledge International to build the data platform and provide guidance and support in how data are procured and managed.

Our solution

Whythawk collaborated with stakeholders in Pakistan, Alif Ailaan and SDPI, to develop and offer appropriate training sessions on management and tools for an open data portal, licensing, curation, versioning and quality control for data, and other matters.

Insight into public health research data management

Fri, 22 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000

The Forum recognises that, in order to promote open access of research data it is necessary to assess the existing capacity to do so and then plan mechanisms to support training and development.

Our solution

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, on behalf of the Public Health Research Data Forum, commissioned Whythawk, the Open Knowledge Foundation, and Frost & Sullivan to assess labour market dynamics for people who possess relevant expertise, and identify current challenges and support gaps in research data management. The project also seeks to compile an inventory of existing training and capacity building activities relevant to management and sharing of public health research data. The project is a senior consulting and market research role.

Delivering open data in Edo State, Nigeria

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

The World Bank approached Whythawk and the Open Knowledge International to develop a standard open data management platform based on CKAN in a collaborative project with local government.

Our solution

The main objective of the open data project was to ensure that a local team had sufficient training and support to both manage open data release and process, as well as for a technical team to continue developing custom applications for the site. The Whythawk team conducted site visits, capacity assessments, as well as the creation and delivery of both administrative and technical training for a local, Edo-based, team to ensure skills transfer and the eventual local management of the software.

New South Wales open data portal

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

CKAN is a sophisticated data management system that makes data accessible and usable by streamlining publishing, sharing, finding and using data. As well as harvesting, cataloguing, and advanced searching, it can store data and provides rich data APIs, visualization and exploration tools, including geospatial components, metadata search and faceting. CKAN is aimed at data publishers (national and regional governments, companies and organisations) wanting to make their data open, available and usable.

South Australia open data portal

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

We had an extremely short turn-around on upgrading and extending South Australia’s existing open data portal. Not only was the software already running, but it was already being used to support their data release process. We had to ensure we delivered the changes without interrupting their work.

Our solution

Over a three-week period, Whythawk assembled a small team of developers and designers to create a custom theme for South Australia which reflected their official design standards, as well as extend CKAN. These new features included:

Modelling the cost of pre-analytical test errors

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000

In 2008, Whythawk began a long-term relationship with BD Healthcare developing an analytical and econometric approach assessing the cost of sample rejection and recollection in hospitals around the world.

Our solution

Critical data (such as number of beds, overall budget, number of patients of different types seen each year, number of sample rejections, probable impact of sample rejection) were collected by interviewing institution staff from seven different country institutions.

The objective was to deliver a simple tool that would work with software familiar to BD staff, and that was Microsoft Excel. We developed an Excel model to manage all collected data and make predictive outputs.

HIV / AIDS charity ratings

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Our solution

Whythawk formed an experienced strategic analysis team to address these problems by developing systems and metrics to isolate and quantify unmet social demand and, thereafter, using formalised ratings, rank a representative range of CBOs operating on public money and donations in terms of accountability and effectiveness.

Establishing internationally acceptable standards/levels of incidence
Establishing regional demand relative to the international ‘zero’ curve
Aggregate regional supply
Extract a topographical analysis of supply excess/shortfall (unmet social demand by region)

Thereafter, using formalised ratings, we ranked a representative range of CBOs operating on public money and donations in terms of accountability and effectiveness, and present the CBOs’ specific future funding requirements.

Thousand-by-Thousand business challenge

Tue, 21 Feb 2006 00:00:00 +0000

The Thousand Rand Challenge was an annual competition Whythawk created that invited entrepreneurs to submit ideas for businesses that would require only R 1,000 of start-up capital. Winners received cash and four months of business support. The purpose of these and other ideas is to illustrate that clarity of thinking is worth far more than a large capital base.

The first competition was run jointly with Barrie Terreblanche of Big News in 2000 and produced five winners. The competition was run three times after that with financial support from the Department of Economic Development and Tourism.

Enablis ICT business startup challenge

Sun, 22 May 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Enablis is a new organisation established by the Canada Fund for Africa, Accenture, Hewlett Packard and Telesystem. It is a global organisation that chose South Africa as its launch base. Their support programmes included:

Enablis Advantage, a series of business workshops with experts in sales, strategy, financial management and HR to provide practical guidance to members,
E-talent, an internship programme which provides free business graduate students for 3 to 12 months to Enablis members to undertake special projects,
Genie, the Global Enablis Network and Information for Entrepreneurs, an internet portal which gives members access to business experts, training events and a knowledge library,
E-Circles, special personal development forums for members,
E-coaching, intensive assistance from business coaches to help members address critical business issues.

In 2005, though, none of these were established.

Proudly South African Homegrown Awards

Tue, 22 Feb 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Our solution

Proudly South African contracted Whythawk to help support the team setting up the initiative for the first time. Sheryl Ozinsky, former Manager of Cape Town Tourism, was the overall project manager.

Our roll involved not only public communication with companies large and small across South Africa, but developing the judging criteria, facilitating the judging process, and assisting with the general technical requirements of running such a large and complex project.

Business Beat economic development

Wed, 01 Dec 2004 00:00:00 +0000

Our solution

In 1996, while still an undergraduate student at the University of Cape Town, Gavin Chait collaborated with the Student Health and Welfare Centres Organisation (SHAWCO), to develop an entrepreneurship program at their community centres. Initially, the project started as skills development in an HIV-support service aimed at HIV+ single mothers with HIV+ babies. Over the first few years, the program developed to include volunteer students, and then integrated with the University of Cape Town’s four-year Bsuiness Science degree program.

Western Cape tourism development

Sun, 01 Jun 2003 00:00:00 +0000

Our solution

Whythawk, in partnership with our economic development project, Business Beat, assembled a team of five experienced economic development consultants. Over a six-month period, we travelled all over the Western Cape, including Mossel Bay, Oudsthoorn, Barrydale, Saldanha, Malmesbury and Elim. We reviewed everything from “buy-and-braai” township restaurants, to developing hiking routes based on old slave escape trails in the Franschoek Mountains, to fishing and cultural arts festivals.

Our focus was on supporting historically disadvantaged communities as part of undoing the legacy of Apartheid.

About Us

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

What we can do for you

We can join a project at any stage, from the point of a blank sheet of paper to when there are multiple competing challenges all intersecting at once.

All our work is openly licenced and released to you in accessible formats.

Infrastructure development

We develop new data management or analytical software systems and dashboards, or adapt existing ones, and deploy them on your own servers, or to hosted infrastructure on a range of existing services.

This project is missing

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Reasons why a project may be missing

It was never more than an abstract, notional objective, easily discarded.
Budget cuts before, after, or during, the procurement process ended any hopes of implementation.
Mission creep meant that it became impossible, too expensive, or incomprehensible.
Calls for proposals were issued at midnight with a dawn deadline with the intention of supporting a favoured contractor, who never applied.
Anyone who read the terms of reference and then the budget laughed, and then ignored it.
It was completely unimportant.
Events superceded it so rapidly that it was obsolete before it was ever started.

There are other projects with real objectives that delivered on their mandates. You can find them in our portfolio.