Open Data Early Pilots
For an introduction to this project, please consult ICANN Open Data Initiative.
ICANN's Open Data Initiative has produced a number of early pilots as an exercise in making data available via an API and via online, interactive tools. This allows researchers to access data in convenient formats and allows a general audience to interpret and visualize data. The early pilots are based on the same data sets, implemented via different tools and approaches.
The early pilots will be available for a limited time with the goal of generating discussion and providing feedback on the future course of the Open Data Initiative. Community members are encouraged to test the various pilots, join the email list mentioned below, and provide informal feedback and/or engage in discussions.
The email list is: odi-pilot@icann.org.
To join the list, visit https://mm.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/odi-pilot
Description of the Early Pilots
The early pilots are based on the Registry Monthly Reports of Activity and Transactions. These are reports currently publically available, after a three-month delay.
All of the early pilot implementations were initialized with the monthly reports through February 2017 in a one-time action, that is, as the pilots are available for trial the data won't change or be updated.
The goal of the ICANN organization in making the pilots available for trial by the ICANN community is to begin to explore, in concrete terms, what open data can mean to ICANN managed data sets. Discussion and feedback regarding the experiences with the pilots is desired to help shape the path forward.
CKAN: https://odi-ckan-earlypilot.icann.org/
OpenDataSoft: https://icann.opendatasoft.com/
Enigma: https://icann.enigma.com/
Socrata: https://icann.data.socrata.com/
Note: for the Enigma tool, creation of an account is required. This login is needed for the functioning of the API.
Limitation of the Early Pilots
Because the early pilots involve a small collection of commercial vendors and are based on a select set of ICANN's many data sets, it is important to keep in mind that these pilots may not be an adequate measure of one vendor's tools against the other vendors. The Registry Monthly Reports, while often the subject of research interests, are possibly not representative of the data sets managed by ICANN. In the course of the development of the pilots, individual participants expressed a desire to show more functionality. Community members are welcome to further examine the tools beyond the early pilot, as well as suggest other tools.
The focus should be on exploring the concept, what can be done with open data access and not as much on which early pilot implementation is the best at doing the job. The latter is interesting but there are many other factors that need to be considered which are beyond the early pilot's design (such as moving data into the vendor tools on a regular basis).