Publishing your data isn’t enough—consumers have to be able to find and use it.
The Open Knowledge Foundation has officially recognized this through its Frictionless Data initiative. They propose:
- simple formats (e.g. CSV, JSON)
- simple tooling—i.e. the ability to get data in and out of standard software packages, such as Excel, R and Hadoop.
- bootstrapping the system with essential data (e.g. countries, postal codes)
It’s early days, but the direction is encouraging.
