the empty quarter

If you are evaluating reporting or analytics tools, or just like to mess about with them, it’s always good to get your hands on some “real world” data sets. It sure beats using the Steel Wheels, Classic Models, eFashion etc. sample databases typically shipped with the products.

For a truly comprehensive list of free data sets, check out this page on Quora. Below are some of my favourites:

• Data.gov (US Federal Government data)
• the Data Hub
• Get the Data
• Quality Web Data

The following sites are also worth following on a more ongoing basis:

• Datablog on the Guardian
• /r/opendata on Reddit