There is an promising enterprise called Datamarket which is offering access to all kinds of statistics. They have already data from Statistics Iceland, Eurostat, World Bank and UN to name a few.
They have an interesting RESTful type of API to access the data. You can get the data in xml, json or csv.
In DataMarket you can design RSS flows, which is a very handy way to be uppdated on "latest information" and "highlights". See the flows in "LATEST INFORMATION FROM ...." to the right a bit below in this blog! When I write this the latest update is only 58 minutes old.
ReplyDeleteThat is nice indeed. I think Datamarket is doing many interesting things and using available technology quite well. When we have our seminar in Iceland we'll invite them.
ReplyDeleteGood idea. I notice you provide a link to their API. I have a feeling we have to learn more when to use API and when to use bulk download to access data. Do you have any idea/experiences about that?
ReplyDeleteI think that REST web services and APIs like the one provided by Datamarket and other, OECD offers one, are good for those who want to get small amount of data every time. You can build small application around it. For instance app that looks up imports of the goods your company sells or mobile phone app that displays how many have a Swedes have birthday today. They free you from the trouble of saving the data on your end. They are not for statisticians and scientists. They are for utilities that look up small amount of data.
ReplyDeleteCitizen-centric access to statistics, isn´t it? That is important for our project. How can we stimulate development and access to the useful ones? There are some 300000 apps for Iphone and a bit less for Android. How many are related to statistics?
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