The location of the weather data sets for the Download 10,000 Days of Free Weather… post.
I was somewhat disappointed by the small number of data sets and equally overwhelmed when I saw the number of applications at this site.
One that stood out was an EDI to XML translation service, featuring “manual” translations. Yikes!
But the principle was what interested me.
That is the offering of an interface that “translates” data that users can then consume via some other application.
There are any number of government data sets, in a variety of formats, with diverse semantics, that could be useful, if they were only available with a common format and reconciled semantics. (True I would prefer to capture their true diversity but also need to have a product users will buy.)
To make that repeatable for a large number of data sets, the creation the tool that offers the common format and reconciled semantics, I am thinking that a topic map would be quite appropriate.
Of course, need to find data sets that are of commercial interest (unlike campaign contribution datasets, businesses already know which members of government they own and which they don’t).
Thoughts? Suggestions?