csvconf 2014 - Data usability: the tabular data package - notes

csv,conf 2014 - July 15, 2014

10:35 session Data usability: the tabular data package and friends by Nick Stenning @nickstenning

Data publishers at #csvconf: my message to you today is “put it in a box.” Publish your data as data packages: http://dataprotocols.org/

— Nick Stenning (@nickstenning) July 15, 2014

Slides at https://github.com/nickstenning/put-it-in-a-box

• analogy with international shipping: things in containers vs. people carrying them individually
• things not in containers are very expensive to move
• which means you do a lot of work carrying the things, rather than using the things
• containers are: 1. simple, 2. opaque, 3. diverse within constraints ("moderated diversity")

Introducing The Data Package, datapackage.json

See info at http://dataprotocols.org/data-packages/#specification

My question: What about BagIt?

Answer from Rufus Pollock (@rufuspollock): Other formats were examined, there is a white paper.

UPDATE 2014-08-01: Review of Existing Packaging Work via @rufuspollock