Normalizing and hosting open data?
Hi everyone!
I know that open data should be open and free for everyone, but I've seen that this data is often in very different formats csv, json, xlsx, jpg and so on.
Would there be a business case for normalizing and hosting open data?
Honestly I'd already be happy if data is available either as csv, json or xlsx. If you can make a web scraping service which is accessible to each and everyone, and output stuff in one of those formats, that'd make data more accessible!
But do you have any idea if it would be okay to charge some small amount of money for this service? As open data itself should be free.
Yes I do think so. The source data will be still there, but you're adding value in normalising the data. Everyone with access to some programming skill can do that, however, it's a tedious task, and if I can visually scrape a Web page that'd be incredibly helpful.
You know there are whole businesses built on top of Web scraping practices, right?