The future of open data

EXPERTS

September 13, 2011

The World Bank Open Data Initiative launched 18 months ago. It's been a hit - every day, 15,000 visitors from across the world enjoy free access to over 1,200 carefully curated indicators via the web, our apps and APIs.

So, what's next for data.worldbank.org? We want to build on our success: an improved site design; new data; financial and operational information; maps and spatial data; new tools, apps and visualizations; community helpdesks and social features are just some of the many things we're thinking about.  But we want to hear about what you think....

Tariq Khokhar, the World Bank's open data evangelist, hosted a discussion about the future of open data at the World Bank.  Read the transcript below.



Read what others are saying
Do you have any open data what are the living costs/month for example in Africa? It would be stunning to visually compare the costs between Africa <-> Europe.
Perttu Ahvenainen
Finland
I want to know more information around the world: crisis, development program, and education
PHEARA
Cambodia
any information and recent data on nutrition policies and nutrition in emergency
Osama
Saudi Arabia
I would like to see charts on Income differentials across nations
Namita Kapo
India
I think it's time to evolve from open data to open analysis - spend a bit to help users truly draw benefits from the data being made public these days.
Peter Goldstein
United States
How can donors and NGOs best coordinate the sharing of data in a standard format, so that it's more useable by third parties?
Mike Klein
United States
I'd like to be able to retrieve many different indicators in 5 year increments going back about 50 years for all countries, preferably in a GeoJSON format or a PostGIS format.
Darcy Dyll
United States
can i have the annual data of residential investment and non-residential investment from the philippines
miles irvin joseph shuck
Philippines
I would like to see more data analysis
NICOLE HUANG
China
I want to see local/microlevel data also made available in the databank and that it can be simulated side by side with macrodata that is presented in the data visualizer.
Vincent
Philippines
Considering the global scope of World Bank's vision and the different perspectives/practices of open data around the world, do you see an importance for formulating global-wide standards for "open data for development" to maximize gained benefits of your initiatives?
Ibrahim Elbadawi
United Arab Emirates
Open data is one thing. But who tells the potential users that such open data are out there. The other question could be the integrity of open data. Who ensures that such data are current, dependable and in usable form.
NATHANIEL BANTAYAN
Philippines
i wanna konw the process of worldbank's investment
shi xianqin
China
what is the uganda's credit score, plus how can we ugandan upgrade our economical freedom from not depending from the world bank
ADAM DDUNGU
United States
Cual es el % de empresas privadas en la venta de luz al gobierno.
Antonio G´Uscanga
Mexico
Have experts write information on what the data means, why it only goes to a certain year. an easy way to compare multiple countries on multiple categories, why one data set is better then another (ie, two CO2 measurements from different sources are diifferent- why does WB prefer one)
Jessica Levine
United States
We need data standards to tie micro to macro data. Then it becomes REALLY useful for local planning, forecasting and preparedness! As a result, your data feeds expand exponentially due to the valued added incentive.
John Grills
United States
Please add data at the urban scale.
Francisca Rojas
United States
I feel that open date is an amicable approach towards providing those interesting with the information they require to seek. On the other hand, there are some documents (whether publicly disclosed or not) which are not appropriate for disclosure.
Matthew Jonathan Rhoads
United States
* Very little data is available on health research in Africa and by African, actively source and include this.
* Include data sets for transparency and further analysis
* Link data to reports/studies published
* Continuously engage governments in advocating for open data
Yvonne Machira
Kenya
More up to date data for certain data points so equal comparisons can be made. There is no point in comparing one country value pre recession (2006/07)to anothers during recession (2008/09) (especially growth percentages).
glenn.barklie@ft.com
United Kingdom
i whishe to see more data about Africa
Borel NTSAFACK
Cameroon
How can we in developing countries have access to detailed idea of how to develop an open data system?
Badar Musa Ikuwuta
Nigeria
I'm dying to know how the World Bank goes about getting its data on Internet penetration!
Jillian C. York
United States
I would like to see more data relating to Africa
Berchie Asiedu
Ghana
Why not to publish open data of World Bank as Linked data and increase the value of data?
Zilhaz Jalal Chowdhury
United Kingdom
Major institutions normally on the cutting edge seem to be laggging in putting out good data on cities. Various indices are cropping up, but there is a need for a credible organization like WorldBank to step up. I am particularly interested in environment and sustainability indicators.
Ben R. Jordan
United States
The greatest improvement I can think of is to be able to save searches so that you could go back to a search if you need to add a country or variable or year. At present, as far as I can see, you have to start all over again if you want to make an addition to your data.
Robert Sutcliffe
Spain
We want to deliver Global Governance and Risk Management metrics to each of the World Bank members for free and assist in development of Good Governance models in emerging economies using Cloud Computing.
Bhavesh Bhagat
United States
You use XML and JSON representations across all three API's. Why provide additional representations such as Atom for the Projects API and RDF for the World Bank Finances API? I would be interested to know which representation gets the most use.
TonyB
New Zealand
Do you have an intention to develop any tools to compare different countries data on different topics? It would improve useability of the data.
Baljid
Mongolia
Publish 5 star linked data
Kerstin Forsberg
Sweden
How would The World Bank, entrench the culture of openness of data in their respective member countries.
Ubong Udoh
Nigeria
Although we have converted a number of datasets from the World Bank to linked data formats, we still find it a challenge both to find what data is available and to understand it when it is - how can we make data more searchable and usable?
James Hendler
United States
Have you investigated the data that World Bank offered to Nations since its start? Does the data depict the offer to poors? What percentage?
Ema
Ethiopia
Does the World Bank collaborate with governments building open data catalogues? If so, how so? If not, does the World Bank see itself as a leader for promoting open data more widely?
Tim McNamara
New Zealand
What methods of data analysis do you employ when analyzing the data, what tools do you.
Is it possible to share the tools with other organizations
Francis Mwangi
Kenya
Detailed data on Pakistan in almost each possible aspect
Muhammad Asif Munir
Pakistan
Would like to see information about companies -- e.g. which companies are suppliers to World Bank, which are recipients of funding (if any), etc.
Chris Taggart
United Kingdom
Are you aware that the World Bank no longer has monopoly on knowledge? How are directing your efforts towards activating local knowledge residing in communities which in most cases is relevant to policy making?
Charles Dhewa
Zimbabwe
I have 3 questions:
1 How can WB support government to open up their data. Is the WB able to impose transparency on them if you as Bank are supporting infrastructural development for example.
Hapee de Groot
Netherlands
2 There is pressure for standards but also urge of international governments to develop new standards. We are following the IATI standard, EU is talking about a new standard and even OGD from Obama could come up with a new one. This will not be helpful, what can the WB do about that.
Hapee de Groot
Netherlands
3 There is a need for visualization. Some suppliers would like to become the central entrance for presenting the Open Data in a presentable way, like your own Maps.worldbank.org. How can we prevent this process from being monopolized and making more use of open source software in this space.
Hapee de Groot
Netherlands
I would like to see explanations attached with missing values
Mehul Gupta
India
I would like to see some micro level data on emerging economies
Geeta Garg
India