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Article

Title: Just Give Me the Data

Author: Udell, Jon Article Type: Product Analysis
Source: InfoWorld, v28 n46 p42(1) Publication Date: Nov 13, 2006
  ISSN: 0199-6649
URL of Publication: http://www.infoworld.com

Most users think of the Web as a rich collection of useful information. However, if users want to transform or recombine that data, their choices are much more limited. Most webdata presentations are designed for passive viewing rather than active analysis. While it can be effective to scrape data off webpages, this is not the ideal approach. There is no reason that data on the Web should not be made available for reuse by either automatic services or human analysts. For example, Power Search and Metadata Explorer at InfoWorld.com offer every HTML view together with an alternate XML/RSS view. This required little effort by designers, and it makes the information 'mash-up ready.' Just having access to data does not mean there will also be meaningful interpretation. Edward Tufte has been investigating this area for years and has identified several methods to enhance data interpretation via presentation that are still too rarely applied in the real world. Rather than presenting their data in a way that invites user analysis, websites typically require users to make their own specific queries when many of these queries should be a routine part of the site. Data providers never know just how users will reuse their information. And if they do not make the effort to make it available in a useful way, users never will.

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