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How we are improving the quality and interoperability of Frictionless Data

- February 25, 2021 in Frictionless Data

As we announced in January, the Open Knowledge Foundation has been awarded funds from the Open Data Institute to improve the quality and interoperability of Frictionless Data. We are halfway through the process of reviewing our documentation and adding new features to Frictionless Data, and wanted to give a status update showing how this work is improving the overall Frictionless experience. We have already done four feedback sessions and have been  delighted to meet 16  users from very diverse backgrounds and different levels of expertise using Frictionless Data, some of whom we knew and some not. In spite of the variety of users, it was very interesting to see a widespread consensus on the way the documentation can be improved (have a look here).  We are very grateful to all the Frictionless Data users who took part in our sessions – they helped us see all of our guides with fresh eyes. It was very important for us to do this review together with the Frictionless Data community because they are (together with those to come) the one who will benefit from it, so are the best placed to flag issues and propose changes. Every comment is being carefully reviewed at the moment and the new documentation will soon be released. What are the next steps?
  • We are going to have 8 to 12 more users giving us feedback in the coming month. 
  • We are also adding a FAQ section based on the questions we got from our users in the past.
If you have any feedback and/or improvement suggestions, please let us know on our Discord channel or on Twitter. More about Frictionless Data Frictionless Data is a set of specifications for data and metadata interoperability, accompanied by a collection of software libraries that implement these specifications, and a range of best practices for data management. The project is funded by the Sloan Foundation.

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Partnering with ODI to improve Frictionless Data

- January 12, 2021 in Frictionless Data, funding, News, Open Data

In the framework of  the Open Data Institute’s fund to develop open source tools for data institutions, the Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF) has been awarded funds to improve the quality and interoperability of Frictionless Data. In light of our effort to make data open and accessible, we are thrilled to announce we will be partnering with the Open Data Institute (ODI) to improve our existing documentation and add new features on Frictionless Data to create a better user experience for all.  To achieve this, we will be working with a cohort of users from our active and engaged community to create better documentation that fits their needs. Our main goal is to make it easier for current and future users to understand and make use of the Frictionless Data tools and data libraries to their fullest potential. We know how frustrating it can be to try and use existing code (or learn new code) that has incomplete documentation and we don’t want that to be a barrier for our users anymore. This is why we are very grateful to the ODI for granting us the opportunity to improve upon our existing documentation. 

So, what will be changing?

  • We will have a new project overview section, to help our users understand how to use Frictionless Data for their specific needs.
  • We will improve the existing documentation, to make sure even brand new users can quickly understand everything.
  • We will have Tutorials, to showcase real users experience and have user-friendly examples.
  • We will add a FAQ session.

And when will all of that be ready?

Very soon! By the beginning of April everything will be online, so stay tuned (and frictionless)!

Call for user feedback

Feedback from our community is crucial to us, and part of this grant will be used to fund an evaluation of the existing documentation by our users in the format of user feedback sessions. Are you using our Frictionless Data tools or our Python data library? Then we want to hear from you! We are currently looking for novice and intermediate users to help us review our documentation, in order to make it more useful for you and all our future users. For every user session you take part into, you will be given £50 for your time and feedback. Are you interested? Then fill in this form.

More about Frictionless Data

Frictionless Data is a set of specifications for data and metadata interoperability, accompanied by a collection of software libraries that implement these specifications, and a range of best practices for data management. The project is funded by the Sloan Foundation.

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