How Should We Share Data on the Web? - W3C conversations that I’m sure some users in this channel want to pay attention to, as well as perhaps contribute to.
I considered posting this in Open Data Index, but felt this was the better fit. If I was wrong, I apologize, happy to delete/repost properly.
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I posted a response there as follows:
“Just how should we share data on the web?”
Crude answer: follow the Frictionless Data approach http://frictionlessdata.io/
Specifically: use (Tabular) Data Packages and its extensions, use simple formats and focus on making your data good quality and easy to consume in standard tools (e.g. Excel, Postgres etc).
At a more general level you I also like the Frictionless Data principles (I should as I wrote them 
…)
1 Focused
When discussing how we should do something have a sharp focus on one part of the data chain, one specific feature – e.g. packaging – and/or a few specific types of data (e.g. tabular).
Comment: data is often too broad a category for answers other than at the most general level (“provide metdata”, have good quality data). You need to get specific to get useful answers.
2 Web Oriented
Build build for the web using formats that are web “native” such as JSON, work naturally with HTTP such as plain text CSVs (which stream).
Comment: you could obviously mention RDF as it is definitely built for the web. But I think it struggles with the simplicity and existing tooling principles below.
3 Distributed
Be distributed rather than centralized: design for a distributed ecosystem with no centralized, single point of failure or dependence.
4 Open
Anyone should be able to freely and openly use and reuse what is built. The community should be open to everyone.
5 Existing Tooling
Integrate with existing tools both by building integrations and designing for direct use – for example CSV is great because everyone has a tool that can access CSV.
6 Simplicity
Keep it simple and make things easy to learn and use. Add the minimum and do the least required. Concretely this means using simple formats, keeping metadata lightweight, and data specs simple.
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