Quandl (alpha)
From the homepage:
Quandl is a collaboratively curated portal to over 2 million financial and economic time-series datasets from over 250 sources. Our long-term mission is to make all numerical data on the internet easy to find and easy to use.
Interesting enough but the detail from the “about” page are even more so:
Our Vision
The internet offers a rich collection of high quality numerical data on thousands of subjects. But the potential of this data is not being reached at all because the data is very difficult to actually find. Furthermore, it is also difficult to extract, validate, format, merge, and share.
We have a solution: We’re building an intelligent search engine for numerical data. We’ve developed technology that lets people quickly and easily add data to Quandl’s index. Once this happens, the data instantly becomes easy to find and easy to use because it gains 8 essential attributes:
| Findability |
Quandl is essentially a search engine for numerical data. Every search result on Quandl is an actual data set that you can use right now. Once data from anywhere on the internet becomes known to Quandl, it becomes findable by search and (soon) by browse. |
| Structure |
Quandl is a universal translator for data formats. It accepts numerical data no matter what format it happens to be published in and then delivers it in any format you request it. When you find a dataset on Quandl, you’ll be able to export anywhere you want, in any format you want. |
| Validity |
Every dataset on Quandl has a simple link back to the same data on the publisher’s web site which gives you 100% certainty on validity. |
| Fusibility |
Any data set on Quandl is totally compatible with any and all other data on Quandl. You can merge multiple datasets on Quandl quickly and easily (coming soon). |
| Permanence |
Once a dataset is on Quandl, it stays there forever. It is always up-to-date and available at a permanent, unchanging URL. |
| Connectivity |
Every dataset on Quandl is accessible by a simple API. Whether or not the original publisher offered an API no longer matters because Quandl always does. Quandl is the universal API for numerical data on the internet. |
| Recency |
Every single dataset on Quandl is guaranteed to be the most recent version of that data, retrieved afresh directly from the original publisher. |
| Utility |
Data on Quandl is organized and presented for maximum utility: Actual data is examinable immediately; the data is graphed (properly); description, attribution, units, and export tools are clear and concise. |
I have my doubts about the “fusibility” claims. You can check the US Leading Indicators data list and note that “level” and “units” use different units of measurement. Other semantic issues lurk just beneath the surface.
Still, the name of the engine does not begin with “B” or “G” and illustrates there is enormous potential for curated data collections.
Come to think of it, topic maps are curated data collections.
Are you in need of a data curator?
I first saw this in a tweet by Gregory Piatetsky.