Let the Feast Begin

Today is a special day for data. We are thrilled to announce that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) will make its 2007 OECD Factbook available on Swivel's site. Now, inquisitive people can easily obtain the most accurate and current set of economic, social and environmental indicators worldwide and discuss them openly with a community of interested peers. We believe that this is an important first step and will help pave the way for others to follow.

The world of data used to be a very different place. After grad school and before the web become as ubiquitous as cell phones are today, I went to work as a policy analyst in DC. I found out the hard way that data does not come easily to those who seek it.

I spent hours and hours at the Library of Congress and calling giant corporations to request their most recent annual report. At the same time I started experimenting with this thing called “the Internet,” setting up listservs in the hopes that others with data around the globe might want to share it with me.

Years later, when working for large international agencies, I was awed by the amount of data being generated, analyzed, and reported. All those hours making photocopies and diligently reading annexes were over.

I naively thought all that great information would be mine for the taking. I thought people would be clamoring to help me add it to the web in new and interesting ways. I soon realized that though the famine was over, the feast had not yet been prepared.

As anyone who has been in similar situations can attest, the “problem” with data isn’t just that data is hard to find, but also to organize, standardize and compare. However, before these technical issues can be addressed, the underlying thought and behavior of those that own the data must change. What we need are visionaries to illuminate for the rest that data can and should be shared, and that doing so will only bring greater credibility to those that developed it.

We need an organization that knows data, cultivates authority, and can stand up and say that they believe data should be in the hands of those that need it most -- the global citizen. OECD is doing just that. We're confident many others will follow.

Please stop by the OECD profile page and say hello.

Comments

[vozome]

it's a great day for data!