Open data format

An “open” data format is one where the standard describing the data is in the public domain, or is licenced so that it is freely usable by anyone without any barriers.

An open data format is important because it allows anyone to build the tools required to work with that data. There is no need to pay expensive licensing for propietary software.

This workshop’s solar PV dataset is in the comma-seperated value (CSV) format, which is described by the RFC 4180 standard. CSV is a popular format for storing and especially exchanging tabular data between systems. Many programs that prefer using closed, propietary data formats (like Microsoft Excel) can still import and export CSV data.

Activity

Discuss some of the limitations of propietary file formats. Examples of proprietary file formats include JPEG, PDF, and DOCX.