RunningAHEAD - Topic: Download data from public RunningAhead logs

Download data from public RunningAhead logs (Read 457 times)

mainrun

posted: 10/22/2008 at 6:38 PM
modified: 10/23/2008 at 12:50 PM

I asked Eric if it would be possible to download the following columns from any public RunningAhead log: Date, Distance, Duration, AvgHeartRate, and MaxHeartRate. Currently, it does not appear to be possible.

Here was Eric's response:

I hadn't considered the possibility of downloading from any public log. Technically you should be allowed since the log is public, but I'm a little nervous about that ability. I'm not sure how other people will reactive to it either. You should start a thread in the feature request forum and see what others think about this. One positive implication would be it will provide a source of data for anyone to analyze. That may do a whole lot of good for running.

Any comments?

s.crissman view log	posted: 10/22/2008 at 7:06 PM
	I don't have a problem with it. Like he said, it is public. It isn't anything that someone couldn't collect already, given the desire and a bit of time to put together a scraper. I think it would be interesting.

scottaculous	posted: 10/22/2008 at 7:57 PM modified: 10/22/2008 at 7:57 PM
	Call me paranoid but couldn't other logging sites just take this data and steal users, possibly inflate their numbers. Once the private message feature is added, you can privately ask certain users to send you an export of their data.
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s.crissman

view log

posted: 10/22/2008 at 8:46 PM

Call me paranoid but couldn't other logging sites just take this data and steal users, possibly inflate their numbers.

You're being paranoid. Tongue

Sites could already pull anything they want from public logs. Unless the user decides to go to the other site and start logging their runs, the other site doesn't have a user, just data. And if all they want is data, they could just make it up. Who cares.

People come here because it has a nice interface, and a good community. Making public data more easily accessible won't change any of that, and would allow for some cool mashups. Would be neat to let us get creative with the data.

Hannibal Granite view log	posted: 10/22/2008 at 10:54 PM
	I can't explain exactly why, but I'm a little squeamish about someone else downloading my log, of course I was a bit concerned about making it public in the first place so that could be part of it. Looking at it here is one thing, but being able to download it seems like a bit much. In fact, I wouldn't mind a counter on each log that showed how many times someone (other than the owner of that log) was looking at any given log.
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cameraready view log Running public maps	posted: 10/23/2008 at 12:43 PM
	Could this be a secondary option for making the log public? Would the health notes marked as private be kept out of the public downloads?
	Ross 2009 Goals • HM • PR 5K/10K • 100 Pushups

mainrun view log	posted: 10/23/2008 at 12:50 PM
	I agree - notes/comments should be kept private, and not part of the down load. I think the "secondary option" idea is a good one.

eric :)

posted: 10/24/2008 at 7:08 AM

I don't know if one should be able to download *all* of the public data because there are a lot of data in the database. Should I allow this kind of downloading, then all personal information will be stripped from it, including the user ID so that it would be quite hard to trace the data back to their owner. For the initial release, I would only allow activity data to be downloadable. All the health info will be treated as private.

cameraready view log Running public maps	posted: 10/24/2008 at 12:36 PM
	Eric, will you be adding a date range option to the download function? Sometimes I only want to download a specific time frame from my log.
	Ross 2009 Goals • HM • PR 5K/10K • 100 Pushups

s.crissman

view log

posted: 10/24/2008 at 12:49 PM

Quote from eric :) on 10/24/2008 at 7:08 AM:

Yes, I didn't think we were suggesting downloading -everyone's- data, just -anyone's- data. I was thinking along the lines of: if I were viewing someone else's log, I could go to tools->download data, just like can be done now (for your own data), but the download would only include a reduced subset of the information. Maybe even give you a prompt for the date range you are interested in.

That would be a cool first phase, because if someone put together a tool to analyze a set of runs for prediction purposes and/or training advice, it would be simple to run someone's data through it.

I guess phase ii of the feature would be to allow a user to perform a search for some criteria, and get back a set of data for all users anonymously (is anonymized a word?). For instance: give me all data for men ages 30-35 whose personal best 5k time is less than 20 minutes. That would let people make tools for analyzing what kind of training people in similar (or different!) situations are doing, and then combined with the report from phase i, would let you do things like say: Well, it looks like your training plan is similar to most people's in your target time range, with the exception that you are running 20% fewer miles at tempo pace, maybe you should try adding a tempo day to your workout.

As far as the all health info, I hope that you mean all health info is private save heart rate data, because many of us use HR as a training tool, and excluding that would reduce the usefulness of the export for that set of the population.

Still think the idea has alot of potential, and would allow for some cool things to be done. I'm thinking more along the lines of being an opportunity for science. Smile

And to reiterate, it wouldn't be giving anyone anything that couldn't be had already via screen scraping. Anyone who thinks their data is more secure currently would be fooling themselves. It just takes a marginally more motivated person to get it.

mainrun view log	posted: 10/24/2008 at 1:22 PM
	s.crissman, thanks, your post describes excellent examples of how the data can be used. I agree with the heart rate information. It would be important information.

Run To Win view log Blaine Moore	posted: 10/24/2008 at 3:36 PM
	I'd be a bit squeemish about making things downloadable...I think a private message system where you can ask somebody to email their data to you would be better. I do like the idea of being able to download a stripped-down version of your own data, not just of other people's.
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