You are planning to make something cool with the last 11 years of Boing Boing posts, right? Here's a quick update on the release from earlier in the week:

• So far, the XML file I posted last week has been downloaded 2,500 times. Woo! We're very excited to see what you all do with it.

• macartisan on Twitter noticed some validation errors in the original XML file, and others of you saw similar issues. Fortunately, ntoll at FluidDB fixed these errors while working with the data. The XML file has been updated so you won't have to worry about wonky characters while parsing it.

• ntoll also converted the file to JSON for those of you who don't want to deal with XML. That file is available for download as well, and has some extra goodies like better category organization and a list of URLs and domains mentioned in each post.

• The FluidDB for Boing Boing has finished parsing. You will now be able to access all 64,000 posts through their API. ntoll is also adding the URL and domain information from the JSON file to the API. He'll be doing a write up with some examples and explanations on how to use the API soon.

If you've got some time this weekend, and want to play around with a huge collection of text, URLs and other interesting information, we'd love to see what you come up with. You can send me your projects directly at dean@boingboing.net or on Twitter.

Eleven years of Boing Boing posts available in [XML], [JSON] and via [FluidDB]

On Tuesday I released the last eleven years of Boing Boing posts all in one file to celebrate Boing Boing's recent anniversary. Large datasets are fun, and we wanted to see how the great minds of our readers would twist all this information into something more awesome.

We were not disappointed. This morning I found out that ntoll over at FluidDB collected all the information in the XML file into their centralized database system. ntoll's post on the FluidDB Boing Boing repository explains a little bit about the structure of their system and how to access it as an API for use in other web applications, programs or plugins.

The system is pretty easy to access using their various wrappers (in Python, for example). You can find the documentation for FluidDB here as well if you're interested in developing an application on top of this database system.

Clearly, this is a very interesting project with a lot of far-reaching implications for developers and interested people looking to play around with the Boing Boing archives. I'm looking forward to seeing what new applications of our data come out of this.

If you're working on something neat with this data, you can let me know directly either at dean@boingboing.net or via Twitter.

[How we made an API for BoingBoing in an evening] Thanks Tom!

Having very recently celebrated Boing Boing's eleventh bloggaversary, we're releasing an update of our previous archival release of Boing Boing posts.

This time, we're releasing a 120.3MB XML file (38.3MB zip) of 63,999 posts for your parsing pleasure. The whole file is released under a Creative Commons license that allows you to noncommerically remix and distribute it in whole or in part -- go crazy!

The first time we released a dump like this, Andy "Waxy" Baio made this breakdown of our blogging activity. More recently, I've been toying with this data behind the scenes and finding some interesting things. We want to see what you can do with it!

Happy (belated) Bloggaversary to us, and thanks to all of you for sticking with us for so many years.

[Download the zipped XML file here]

It's no secret that I love Wikipedia, which I consider one of the grandest and most radical social experiments of our time, and the very best example of what the free culture movement offers for the world's future. I even love Wikipedia critics. There's nothing I love more than to improve an article after some whiny-baby complains about its quality with a copypasta example. For instance, novelist Jonathan Lethem was bagging on "the infinite regress of Wikepedia [sic] tinkering-unto-mediocrity" the other day. Too bad The Atlantic has no way for readers to fix that typo in the way I updated the article on Blake Edwards' cult classic The Party, which was the object of Lethem's scorn. He seems to miss the point that an encyclopedia article, even one about a screwball comedy, is supposed to be dry, factual, and not especially screwball. Just the facts, ma'am. I also love that his snapshot of the page is no longer that relevant.

In the past I have discussed Wikibumps (like the spike of a million readers who checked out the Salvia article in the week after the Miley Cyrus bong video) and the Click to Jesus game, where you see how few links it takes to get from a random Wikipedia article to the Jesus article. Here are a couple of other good reasons to love Wikipedia and its sister projects which you may not have seen:

• Best of Wikipedia Tumblr page
• Raul's Laws, possibly the best and wonkiest explanation of how Wikipedia works

• Commons Picture of the Year contest winners
• 2006
• 2007
• 2008
• 2009

I hope you'll swing by, learn some things, maybe improve something (they even have a secure server option). There is still plenty to do, and it will never be completed. At the very least, just marvel at the possibilities for the future of free culture embodied in the project. What are some of your favorite things about it? Please share in the comments.