Frictionless Data
Standards and tools to make a world of frictionless data
by Labs

There’s too much friction working with data - friction getting data, friction processing data, friction sharing data.

This friction stops people doing stuff: stops them creating, sharing, collaborating, and using data - especially amongst more distributed communities. It kills the cycles of find, improve, share that would make for a dynamic, productive and attractive (open) data ecosystem.

We need to make an ecosystem that, like open-source for software, is useful and attractive to those without any principled interest, the vast majority who simply want the best tool for the job, the easiest route to their goal.

We think that by getting a few key pieces in place we can reduce friction enough to revolutionize how the (open) data ecosystem operates with massively improved data quality, utilization and sharing.

We’re creating:

  • Standards: A small set of lightweight ‘data package’ standards and patterns providing a base structure on which tooling and integration can build.
  • Tooling and Integration: Making it easy to use and publish data packages from your existing apps and workflows whether that’s Excel, R, or Hadoop!
  • Outreach and Community: Engaging and evangelizing around the concepts, standards and tooling and building a community of users and contributors.

Frictionless Data

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