From the webpage:
Most ecological datasets do not adhere to any agreed-upon standards in format, data structure or method of access. As a result acquiring and utilizing available datasets can be a time consuming and error prone process. The EcoData Retriever automates the tasks of finding, downloading, and cleaning up ecological data files, and then stores them in a local database. The automation of this process reduces the time for a user to get most large datasets up and running by hours, and in some cases days. Small datasets can be downloaded and installed in seconds and large datasets in minutes. The program also cleans up known issues with the datasets and automatically restructures them into standard formats before inserting the data into your choice of database management systems (Microsoft Access, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite, on Windows, Mac and Linux).
When faced with:
…datasets [that] do not adhere to any agreed-upon standards in format, data structure or method of access
you can:
- Complain to fellow cube dwellers
- Complain about data producers
- Complain to the data producers
- Create a solution to clean up and reformat the data as open source
Your choice?
I first saw this in a tweet by Dan McGlinn