[okfn-discuss] ANN: http://data.okfn.org/ - Frictionless Data

Wed Apr 24 12:19:05 UTC 2013

Hi All (and apologies for any cross posting),

Today sees the alpha launch of a new initiative http://data.okfn.org/ based
in Labs <http://okfnlabs.org/>. Its immediate goal is to make it as *simple
as possible* to get the *data you want* into the *tool of your choice*.
More details in the full blog post:

http://blog.okfn.org/2013/04/24/frictionless-data-making-it-radically-easier-to-get-stuff-done-with-data/

Please share with folks you think would be interested and it would be great
to get people's thoughts and feedback on what's there so far.

The initiative combines efforts in 3 complementary areas and follows up the
small data post from Monday (these are key ingredients of a more
"frictionless" data ecosystem, and especially a small data one):

- "Standards <http://data.okfn.org/standards>": A few select standards
focused on tabular data (specifically Data Package and Simple Data Format).
Standards give us a common structure which is essential to tooling and
integration.

- Tooling and plugins <http://data.okfn.org/tools>: integrate into existing
tooling and workflows. This work is at the earliest stage and the area
where greatest help is
needed<https://github.com/okfn/data.okfn.org/issues?labels=Tools&state=open>

- Data <http://data.okfn.org/data> - key datasets prepared, curated,
quality-checked and packaged ready to download or access (this also
introduces the pattern we've developing for a while of storing the datasets
on github <http://github.com/datasets>)

This work is at an *early *stage and there's much to be done - from adding
datasets <http://data.okfn.org/about/contribute> to developing
tools<https://github.com/okfn/data.okfn.org/issues?labels=Tools&page=1&state=open>,
to doing outreach. If you're interested please dive in - and I also suggest
signing up to the labs mailing list at http://okfnlabs.org/contact/.

Regards,

Rufus
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