Data driven journalism just got easier with this online resource, which encourages journalists and researchers to discover - and collaborate on - new datasets.

ScraperWiki is a new open-source platform (created with help from web development fund 4iP) which is designed to help write and schedule screen scrapers and store the data they generate. It aims to unlock the data that exists online, by making it easier to find.

Designed for programmers looking for fuss-free screen scrapes, it also is an invaluable tool for researchers, journalists, activists and the general public - basically anyone looking to discover and re-use interesting, useful data.

Currently only in beta mode, the site is still experiencing problems running on Internet Explorer and old versions of Mozilla Firefox. However, the comprehensive range of online video tutorials are full of handy screen scrape hints, whilst the browseable scraped data sets include anything from a map of UK offshore oil wells, to a list of documents held by Australian Federal Police.

For more information on data driven journalism, follow Twitter hashtag #ddj

Find out more: Paul Bradshaw’s article on ScraperWiki and journalism

Published: July 8, 2010