Open Educational Resources (OER)
What is Open Data?
Open Knowledge Foundation This link opens in a new window states that “open data are the building blocks of open knowledge. Open knowledge is what open data becomes when it’s useful, usable and used.” This means data that is available and accessible to all at minimal or not cost; the data must be licensed in in such a way to permit reuse including mixing with other data sets; access must be universal - this includes allowing for any resulting commercial use.
The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition This link opens in a new window (SPARC) defines open data as “research data that is freely available on the internet permitting any user to download, copy, analyze, re-process, pass to software or use for any other purpose without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself.”
Open data is becoming increasingly important to cutting-edge research in multiple fields. The federal government has recognized this need and passed the Open Data Act in 2019 This link opens in a new window. Download the full text of the law This link opens in a new window.
Learn more about the Open Data movement
- Open Data Institute This link opens in a new windowFounded in 2012 by Tim Berners-Lee, the ODI is involved in a number of open data projects around the world.
- Resources.data.gov This link opens in a new windowOnline repository of policies, tools, case studies and other materials related to U.S. government data.
- Open Data Handbook This link opens in a new windowGuides, case studies and resources on open data.
Free Datasets
- World Bank Open Data This link opens in a new windowFree and open access to global development data
- U.S. Government's Open Data Site This link opens in a new windowFind data, tools, and resources to conduct research, develop web and mobile applications, design data visualizations, and more.
- Caselaw Access Project Dataset and API This link opens in a new windowA data project from Harvard Law encompassing 360 years of United States case law.
- National Bureau of Economic Research Public Use Data Archive This link opens in a new windowAn eclectic mix of public use economic, demographic, and enterprise data from the non-partisan, non-profit, private research organization, NBER.
- Esri Open Access National Datasets This link opens in a new window"Sharing critical Nation Geospatial Data Assets from the official sources."
- Open Datasets from V7 Labs This link opens in a new windowOpen Access AI data repository for 500+ data sets.
Data Visualization Tools
- Tableau This link opens in a new windowFree trial and free one year license for students and educators.
- Google Data Studio This link opens in a new windowFree visualization tool from Google with interactive dashboards and reporting tools.
- Frictionless Data This link opens in a new windowAn open-source toolkit for working with data.
- Voyant Tools This link opens in a new windowText analysis tool that provides a data-driven visual analysis of digital texts and webpages.