#shippr

We are in Berlin at the incredible Next Berlin conference, hosting the workshop Internet of Ships. This is a heads up for anyone who is in the city who'd like to hang out and talk ship.

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According to the International Maritime Organization, about 90% of all world trade is carried by sea. Inspired by the seas of data shipping generates, Shippr iwill become a general-purpose maritime datastore. We intend to fully open up the store for anyone to use, and to build applications on top through the Shippr app which will follow soon after. We will also develop a ‘Foursquare for ships’. And AIS transponders will allow to check-in ships automatically into locations like ports, locks, repair-docks, oil platforms and off-shore anchor places, and into events e.g. like bunkering, storm, sale, collision and piracy. By looking at ships as individuals with their own timelines and using the logic of checking into locations and events, we hope to build a meaningful interface for exploring the hidden world of the seas.

Our workshop is directly related to Shippr. Our key findings and / or questions are:

* Can maritime data be used as monitor to expose economic mechanisms? * What models can be used to recognise patterns, make predictions and find anomalies? * How can social media be used to connect ships, (port) authorities and the public at large?

Our maritime datastore is currently holding location data and specifications (size, type, etc...) of ships in the Port of Rotterdam. The aim of the workshop is to find methods to transform this set into information and or to relate it to external resources. Ideally we could establish a(n) (concept of an) application within this short period of time. During the workshop participants will get access to our database trough an API.