Data Formats
Although opening data is important the format of this data is key to make it useful.
I usually hear people saying things like “they have opened some cool data, they rock!”. But when you look into that data what you see is a bunch of unrelated datasets, even partial data with some internal references to who-knows-what. So, it is a nightmare making that data useful. As a consequence these kinds of data are less used than expected. We need to reduce the consumption effort as much as possible.
What do you think about this?
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Comments
It's about time we reach an
It's about time we reach an agreement on releasing some datasets, so every public body do it with the same structure and format. By doing so, we will be able to check the real use of public data.
The new fashionable phrase
The new fashionable phrase seems to be "machine-readable" data. Easy convertable formats do matter. Single data sets get aligned with others in unexpected ways. It doesn't make much sense to develop complicated highly specified public data formats when the purpose of the re-use is unknown. Simplicity matters. Multiple "universal" formats enable the re-use community to deliver their solutions.
Having the same structure for
Having the same structure for data does make things a lot easier but it is more important to have it first. Without access or sharing data we cannot do anything at all. Standards take time. So let's first get it all and in parallel work on the standards. In the mean time we can use big data tools to sort out all the unstructured data.
It's indeed important having
It's indeed important having the data first. Having it with a well-accepted format and a common structure is the inmediate following step, though. Doing this almost in parallel is the best scenario I can think about to reduce the effort from the Openers and from the Consumers.
Doing it in two different steps will have an impact hard to overcome specially for the Public Administrations with no easy way to face new projects. And of course dealing with backwards compatibility ensures unpleasent times and unwanted side costs for Openers and Consumers.