Erstellt am: 3. 11. 2009 - 10:28 Uhr
Today's Webtip: open data sets
I still get a thrill when I stumble upon a whole new world on the web.
Especially when it's something I was looking for, but didn't really know the right terms to actually find it. So when I was passed a link to some interesting bits of information that included raw data on some things I was interested in tracking, it was like unpacking a lovely little gift on a rainy day.
But when that link led me to some other links which then gave me the keyword I had needed to really dig in to google to get even more of what I had been looking for, well, it was like the time I got the Millenium Falcon playset a year after I had given up all hope of ever playing with one.
The term I discovered was Open Data Set. If you have ever played with the idea of playing with some numbers, but didn't quite know where to get access to the raw data, that term should help get you on your way. Maybe you've had some nifty infographics idea in your head, about the sales of music over the last couple of decades for example, but you really didn't know where to go to get the numbers. Or perhaps you thought it would be cool to actually graph some of the info that's all locked up in Wikipedia.
Or maybe you are just a real curious type.
Whatever the case may be, if it involves lots of raw numbers and info, you might want to head over to the ReadWriteWeb to check out an article on open data sets, and linked information on the web. It's a great starting point for all sorts of searches, and it's also a perfect example of why comments can be such a treasure trove of information.