Introducing Askdata platform
Today, we’re excited to launch the Askdata platform, a way to improve data workflows by connecting Askdata to any source of data, open data, web apps, and event 3rd party data.
Why a platform?
Sharing data represents a cultural shift, from data siloes to collaboration.
We realized the tool of choice really has a massive effect on data collaboration. Traditional data tools put many walls up around the data, as teams around organizations though it has these special data no one can touch.
We also realized that these walls create a devastating impact on blocking the exponential value that can be unlocked.
- Accesing internal data is (still) difficult (in 2020!)
- Blending internal data with external data is expensive
- Data collaboration is an activity reserved for data teams
Example: Just using John Hopkins University about COVID-19 data requires loading the dataset on a server, setting up an infrastructure, build a dashboard. Time, money and agility wasted for all the organizations in the world.
Askdata promotes the opposite feeling: just being a tap away for relevant data that should be freed of barriers:
- Data formats and technologies
- Skills required to access data
- Time and effort required to consume data
- Data providers fragmentation
That’s why we’ve turned our Askdata software into a platform. The first of its kind to address and remove all the barriers listed above.
How it works
The first release of the Askdata platform has three core capabilities:
- An Open Source format to virtualize data assets on different technology
- An Open Registry of data assets
- The Possibility for the community of recombining endlessly data assets (internal and external)
Our open integration patterns allow third-party tools to consume Askdata data in a reliable way. Askdata isn’t tied to any specific technology. This means it’s possible to access the current state of data from software running on entirely different cloud applications, clients, apps, or even on the web like Askdata itself — setting the stage for an entirely new class of data service and value unlocking recombining internal and external data without friction.
The Open Registry is very similar to what you have for projects like GitHub (Source code), Pypi (Python libraries), Huggingface (NLP models) but for data assets, we call “datasets”.
The possibility of reusing data assets without friction enables the creation of a data community that can freely contribute in adding new data assets leveraging on the existing ones.
If you share our ideals of breaking the wall that locks the values of data, join the program. We need you to build new data connectors, expose datasets on the registry, or simply start using the platform: the platform is and will always be free for usage if datasets are public. That’s the sense of community that we feel. Let’s accelerate the future finally breaking the walls between data and humans.
How can I contribute?
You can immediately join the early adopter program: filling out this form.
Open Source components and registry are immediately available on request — code will be published over the next weeks after a few safety code-review.
Askdata everyone being more open, collaborative, and consistent with the data and help us bridge the gap between data and people.
Simone Di Somma, CEO of Askdata
June 26th, 2020
About Askdata
Askdata searches across all your data to answers your business questions and to explore data insights, at unprecedented speed and scale.
Askdata is a Y Combinator-backed company based in San Francisco with a strong R&D team based in Rome, Italy. More at https://about.askdata.com
Originally published at https://medium.com on June 26, 2020.
