Building eCommerce Applications

Chapter 3. Analyzing Open Data for Fun (and Profit?), Part 1

Abe Music

With the ability to enhance the the way that we do business, transform the way we govern ourselves, and increase the visibility that we have on important aspects of life that often go overlooked, such as the environment and poverty levels, it’s no wonder that open data has stirred up so much buzz. While software might be the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the term “open source,” hopefully it’s not the last. Sure, the software is a phenomenon in and of itself, but in the end, software is always the enabler for something else in the real world. It’s the open source movement’s underlying philosophy that promotes transparency, community, and pragmatic methodology that’s the real phenomenon, having produced diverse projects that range from open hardware to open cola to open government.

The remainder of this article and its continuation Chapter 4 explores the process of building a simple Java- and JavaScript-based infrastructure based on the Google Chart Tools to ingest and visualize an interesting data set recently opened up by the World Bank. This is an incredibly rich set of data and includes everything from the number of tractors in Afghanistan to China’s urban population to various economic and financial indicators. In addition to being an interesting set of data for demo purposes, there are definitely possibilities for ways that you could mine this data set and sell the analysis as a report or perhaps ...