#  Data sets and data interfaces at datamob.org 

 





May 13, 2008

 

 

I recently came across [Datamob.org](http://datamob.org), a site featuring public datasets and interfaces that have been built to help the public explore them.

From datamob's about page:

> Our listings emphasize the connection between data posted by governments and public institutions and the interfaces people are building to explore that data.It's for anyone who's ever looked at a site like MAPLight.org and wondered, "Where did they get their data?" And for anyone who ever looked at THOMAS and thought, "There's got to be a better way to organize this!"

I continue to wonder how the types of interfaces featured on datamob will affect the dissemination of information in society. The dream of a lot of these interface builders is to disintermediate information provision -- ie, to make it possible for citizens to do their own research, produce their own insights, publish their findings on blogs and via data-laden widgets. (We welcomed Fernanda and Martin from [Many Eyes](http://www.many-eyes.com), two prominent participants in this movement, earlier this year at our applied stats workshop.) At the same time, the new interfaces make it cheaper for professional analysts -- academics, journalists, consultants -- to access the data and, as they have always done, package it for public consumption. It makes me wonder to what extent the source of our data-backed insights will really change, ie, how much more common will "I was playing around with data on this website and found out that . . . " become relative to "I heard about this study where they found that . . ."?

My hunch is that, just as blogging and internet news has democratized political commentary, the new data resources will make it possible for a new group of relatively uncertified people to become intermediaries for data analysis. (I think [FiveThirtyEight](http://www.FiveThirtyEight.com) is a good example in political polling, although since the site's editor is anonymous I can't be sure.) People will overwhelmingly continue to get data insights as packaged by intermediaries rather than through new interfaces to raw data, but the intermediaries (who *will* use these new services) will be quicker to use data in making their points, will become much larger in number, and will on average become less credentialed.

Posted by [Andy Eggers](http://www.iq.harvard.edu/blog/sss/archives/author/andy-eggers/) at May 13, 2008 9:48 AM



 

 

 



 

 

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