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Irish Whiskey List - Project

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Irish Whiskey List - Project

Postby TheWhiskeyBro » Wed Jul 22, 2009 9:30 pm

Hi everyone, presenting the "Irish Whisky Encyclopedia of Modern Bottlings" well soon I hope. ;)

I have been asked by the Society to produce an extensive list of all known Irish Whiskey's. Like any project it will have it's limitations, but I hope to provide a valuable resource for all members of the society to access and build upon.

Having done copious amounts :oops: of research in the last number of years, I have assembled a databank of information in excel format, however it needs to be converted into a web friendly format.

But before I reach that stage I will need the assistance and feedback of members.

Firstly, I propose to concentrate on the period post 1966 when the remaining Irish distilleries amalgamated, soon after absorbing Bushmills into the fold. This period represents in some ways the modern low point of Irish whiskey in terms of brands when by the mid 1970's only 12 brands remained in the IDL portfolio. (Jameson, Crested 10, Jameson 12, Jameson 15, Paddy, Power, Hewitts, Tullamore Dew, Dunphy's, Murphy's, Old Bushmills, Black Bush) alongside the independent suppliers of Greenspot and Redbreast.

At a later date I hope to concentrate on historic bottlings both those that are long gone and those few examples that still can be found in collections, pubs, distillery museums etc.

Back to the project, so what I would like to know from the members is what information they would like [Name, ABV, distilled, bottled, style, other info etc.

How it should be presented on the website, format, sortable or not, by brand or by distillery etc.

Another parameter, which applies to collectors in particular, relates to variants, limited editions, gift editions, bottle shapes, different labels on what can be sometimes essentially the same whiskey. Again let me know what you want included and where to draw the line.

A validation process to check information, (or it could be self validating as time goes by etc.). I have already asked two members to examine my Bushmills info which still has large gaps in relation to the single cask bottlings.

So I would welcome any feedback and guidance on the direction this should take before embarking on formatting it for web use (webmaster input and guidance also appreciated.)

For those who haven't already seen this site check IWC's fantastic site http://www.irishwhiskeychaser.webs.com/
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Re: Irish Whiskey List - Project

Postby DavidH » Wed Jul 22, 2009 10:10 pm

I have an idea in mind how this might be implemented on the website using a database backend (in a way that does not cost us any money, is low on administration and is easy to update).

There will be a once-off job to convert the Excel spreadsheet and bulk upload the data to the database but I'll take care of that. I would just like the Excel data to be as clean as possible (eg consistency of data, avoiding a mix of terms for the same thing like "PPS", "Pure Pot Still", "Pure pot still", etc.) for automated translation.

For the format of presentation, take a look at the table on my own site. The table can be sorted by clicking once on any column heading (very slow in Internet Explorer at the moment - be patient!). You can click on any row to find out more (so you can note unusual details that don't fit neatly in database fields like a change in packaging or whatever).

Obviously it won't be a one-page deal with TWB's data so it's a more complicated proposition with the sorting but it can be handled.

There is one other thing I'd like people to consider - the level of copyright, if any, to be applied. In particular, I suggest a Creative Commoon licence. Since we hope to have contributions and corrections from far and wide, I suggest a very liberal licence to reuse the data. I might also be in a position to provide a programming interface to the data for other websites to use, which is really why I'm raising this issue.
Website: Liquid Irish
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Re: Irish Whiskey List - Project

Postby IrishWhiskeyChaser » Wed Jul 22, 2009 10:18 pm

I like the lay out David ... In relation to common licence ... that is fine we just need to prevent commercial use of it.

Cheers
Sláinte Adrian
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Re: Irish Whiskey List - Project

Postby jcskinner » Wed Jul 22, 2009 10:39 pm

PM'd you, Leo.
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Re: Irish Whiskey List - Project

Postby DavidH » Wed Jul 22, 2009 11:20 pm

IrishWhiskeyChaser wrote:In relation to common licence ... that is fine we just need to prevent commercial use of it.

Well, don't rule it out so fast. I live in an open source software world and everything I use comes licensed for commercial use. I believe it's an enormous contribution to society to let the world take your work and improve it, make it available in new ways. Besides which, "commercial use" has so many grey areas. For example, if you use the data on a website that carries advertising, is that commercial use?

But I'm only opening it for discussion...
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