[okfn-labs] Data Package standard

Fri Oct 16 13:04:52 UTC 2015

On 16 October 2015 at 13:46, Ingmar Schlecht <ingmar.schlecht at unibas.ch>
wrote:

> Thanks, Rufus. Very interesting.
>
> One more question in this direction: How do you see the relation between
> the datapackage standard and the "CSV on the Web" W3C standard to evolve in
> the future? You're involved in the latter as well, right?
> http://www.w3.org/2013/csvw/wiki/Main_Page
>

So several points:

- Data Package is obviously more generic - it is not just for Tabular Data.
So you can create Data Packages for lots of other kinds of data too.
- Tabular Data Package and the w3c spec have significant similarities
because, originally, the W3C spec was heavily based on Tabular Data
Package. However, there has been quite a bit of divergence. Some of this is
summarized in this issue: https://github.com/w3c/csvw/issues/702
- Also, strictly, Tabular Data Package is a spec for publishing tabular
data which says: a) publish CSV b) describe the general metadata and data
metadata using datapackage.json. The W3C spec is about describing CSV that
is on the web. However, de facto this is not a large difference.

Generally, I would like to (have) seen convergence here but that hasn't
entirely happened - and at this point likely won't happen as the W3C spec
is going into lock-down and I think JTS / Tabular Data Package should
retain their zen-like simplicity if at all possible (making it super easy
for publishers and consumers to use Tabular Data Packages is absolutely
key).

I would especially be interested in the meta data file "datapackage.json"
> vs. the "*.csv-metadata.json" file from
> http://www.w3.org/TR/2015/WD-tabular-metadata-20150416/. Both look
> similar but are still not quite the same. Are there any plans for
> convergence regarding those?
>

See the github issue linked above. Basically, there is unlikely to be full
convergence at this point for reasons mentioned above. The similarities are
because the W3C spec was originally directly based on the Tabular Data
Package setup and I was an author. Over time quite a bit of change has
occurred, a lot of it related to transformation to RDF (which I,
personally, think is better served by support outside of the metadata spec)
and compatibility with other W3C specs (e.g. the core data type definitions
following XSD).

That said if you use Tabular Data Package and JSON Table Schema now it
should be relatively simple to convert to W3C format in future.

Regards,

Rufus

>
> Regards
> Ingmar
>
>
>
> On 16.10.2015 13:51, Rufus Pollock wrote:
>
> On 16 October 2015 at 09:19, Ingmar Schlecht <ingmar.schlecht at unibas.ch>
> wrote:
>
>> Hi folks,
>>
>> just a question regarding the Data Package standard.
>>
>> We're currently in the process of setting up an open data data platform
>> for electricity market data and are considering to use the Data Package
>> standard ( <http://data.okfn.org/doc/data-package>
>> http://data.okfn.org/doc/data-package).
>>
>> Now, my question is: Is there any relevant tool support already for the
>> Data Package standard except for the tools provided by OKFN itself? Do you
>> have any measurement how well accepted the standard generally is?
>>
>
> A bunch of people have provided support and are using Data Packages other
> than Open Knowledge. Some examples of this are on the tools page:
>
> http://data.okfn.org/tools/
>
> Many of these tools have been provided by others. Specific groups
> including rOpenSci who are taking on the R library, the ruby gem from
> Gerald Bauer, csvlint from the ODI, a static Data Package based data
> catalog <http://okfnlabs.org/blog/2014/08/19/datacentral.html> etc. We
> have also seen several local and national government agencies using the
> tools and the standard including statistics offices and open data portal
> providers. We also see increasing uptake - much of which we tend only
> discover after the fact. As a concrete example here is a recent "out of the
> blue" notice that someone was using Data Packages for specific use case
> in gov <https://github.com/datasets/registry/issues/108>.
>
> If you'd like to know more, feel free to email me directly.
>
> Regards,
>
> Rufus
>
>
>>
>> Best
>> Ingmar
>>
>> --
>> Ingmar Schlecht
>>
>> Wissenschaftlicher Assistent / Doktorand
>> Forschungsstelle Nachhaltige Energie- und Wasserversorgung (FoNEW)
>> Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät (WW|Z)
>> Universität Basel
>>
>> Tel  +41 (0)61 267 33 45
>> http://fonew.unibas.ch/
>>
>> Peter Merian-Weg 6
>> CH-4002 Basel
>>
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>
>
>
> --
>
> * Rufus Pollock Founder and President | skype: rufuspollock |
> @rufuspollock <https://twitter.com/rufuspollock> Open Knowledge
> <http://okfn.org/> - see how openness can change the world **
> <http://okfn.org/>http://okfn.org/ <http://okfn.org/> | @okfn
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>
>
> --
> Ingmar Schlecht
>
> Wissenschaftlicher Assistent / Doktorand
> Forschungsstelle Nachhaltige Energie- und Wasserversorgung (FoNEW)
> Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät (WW|Z)
> Universität Basel
>
> Tel  +41 (0)61 267 33 45http://fonew.unibas.ch/
>
> Peter Merian-Weg 6
> CH-4002 Basel
>
>
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-- 

*Rufus PollockFounder and President | skype: rufuspollock | @rufuspollock
<https://twitter.com/rufuspollock>Open Knowledge <http://okfn.org/> - see
how openness can change the world**http://okfn.org/ <http://okfn.org/> |
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