[okfn-labs] ANN: http://data.okfn.org/ - Frictionless Data - Making it as simple as possible to get the data you want into the tool of your choice

[Rufus Pollock]

Hi All,

Today sees the alpha launch of a new Labs initiative: http://data.okfn.org/
 (source code <https://github.com/okfn/data.okfn.org>). Its 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/

In many ways this is simply a distillation of work ongoing here for some
time - many of the components have been discussed here and more widely for
a while (some parts of this go back years to the original plans for CKAN!),
and the project already reflects contributions from many people.

It brings together 3 different complementary areas:

- "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 is all at a really *early *stage and there's much to be done - there's
load 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.

It would also be great to get people's thoughts and feedback on what's
there so far.

All the best,

Rufus

PS: if anyone is looking for source code for the data.okfn.org its at
http://github.com/okfn/data.okfn.org
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