Development Initiatives and Publish What You Fund launch new project to make data easier to compare and use - World | ReliefWeb

"Development Initiatives and Publish What You Fund today launched a new joint project aimed at improving the way that data can be shared and used. The Joined-Up Data Standards project, supported by Omidyar Network, seeks to change the way in which the standards that govern development data are designed and how they can be aligned to bring data together from multiple data standards. The aim is to achieve greater interoperability of data to improve decision-making and accountability. Increasing amounts of data about development resources and outcomes are becoming available but are difficult to compare with one another because they are published in different formats. The project will work collaboratively with data standards bodies to bridge these differences with a view to making it possible for users to compare and draw on data from multiple sources. In the first phase of the project, case studies will be developed to highlight problems of standards incompatibility, and competing standards will be mapped in collaboration with the global institutions maintaining them. The project will also support collaboration between open publishing standards in fields such as development cooperation, humanitarian relief, public contracting and natural resource governance to ensure that the data generated through these systems is fully interoperable ..."