Data data everywhere…

The PSD blog reports on the release of the World Bank’s data API this week. This comes amid a wave of activity in data openness- the OECD have recently updated their new OCED eXplorer data webtool and the US Government’s data.gov service is widely anticipated for launch in the coming weeks.

These developments are important for a host of reasons, but for me the big one comes down to accessibility. The opening up the the API creates significant opportunities for innovative and highly accessible data presentation, interaction and mash-ups. Where more people have access to this data in a usable and manageable from, this unleashes previously untapped potential for transparency and accountability, even where data was already technically public domain. 

It is the open API that allows third parties to develop applications and presentations of this data in a host of creative and useful ways. From the developer’s blog:

The World Bank has been collecting massive amounts of data, for the past 50+ years, and now possesses one of the richest repositories of information about economic development in the world. World Bank Open API is an initiative of the World Bank that opens the wealth of the World Bank’s global economic data to the outside world, in a standard, easily accessible way. Open API allows third parties to develop mash-ups and applications with the World Bank data and easily create different kinds of interesting visualizations and insightful reports.

The crucial element will be active uptake by users and developers to put this API to good use. Without the third party innovation, an API is nothing more that a doorway to data. The possible uses of the API however are vast, from rich visualisation, specialised or comprehensive databases for research drawing on multiple sources, through to mapping and Google Earth intergration. These new kinds of innovative data applications are still just emerging, but where they are done right they can be incredibly important, bringing to life otherwise dry numbers for a wide (and often non-specialist) audience. The Everyblock project mapping crime and neighbourhood information in Chicago takes a combination of public data and combines it with user generated content to create a rich and accessible public reference. A great example of how visual data being done well is the excellent (and highly accessible) Gapminder project:

I’ll be updating on this when some of interesting applications start to emerge, but in the meantime please comment if you know of any existing examples, espcially in the developing world.