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Following previous posts in which we introduced Yakwala and D-Data Santé, today we’re taking a look at the third Dataconnexions project that chose to partner with EXALEAD and use the EXALEAD CloudView platform: OpenDataWare.

• Please tell us a little about yourself and your team.

My name is Jean-Marc Lazard, and I’m the founder of OpenDataSoft, which offers a turnkey solution for quickly creating open data portals and intelligent data access services. Our platform is designed to allow our clients, companies, or communities to dive right into the big data and cloud computing era. This is possible due to our experience with the issues of processing and exploiting data on a large scale, specifically on the web.

• Tell us about your project.

Our project is called OpenDataWare. OpenDataWare will be the social data platform that will allow organizations, journalists, individuals — basically anyone — to easily create their own space where they can display and share data.

• Where did you get the idea for OpenDataWare?

The idea for OpenDataWare was the result of three observations:
1/ Today, everything exists in the form of data; it never even occurs to us anymore whether or not some piece of content or information is available in digital form: that’s our definition of big data
2/ The Internet has given us the technical means to easily connect content and people, and has given rise to new practices, like social networks and cloud storage
3/ There is no social platform in the cloud that is dedicated to data, that allows you to create and use data in a participative way within a special-interest community; the only options are using online storage services or sharing services for files (like spreadsheets).
But OpenDataWare goes beyond these limitations and lets people create and manage their own spaces for publishing and sharing data.

• How do you plan to deliver this new service to the public and other users?

Users will be able to create their own spaces on OpenDataWare and load their own data into them, whether the data comes from files on their computers, a database, or a software product.
OpenDataWare will offer different online services:
- data enrichment (adding geographic coordinates taken from a list of addresses, adding links to Wikipedia from proper nouns, etc.)
- expanding on data (renaming column headers, adding comments, suggesting translations, etc.)
- making data access more intuitive (search engine for data, map navigation, etc.)
- and, last but not least, sharing data publicly or within closed communities (data that can be downloaded in reusable formats like CSV, XML or JSON; ability to access data dynamically via APIs, etc.).
So our online service would be attractive for:
- small groups of people who need a quick and easy way to share data online without requiring any specific technical skills (homeowners’ associations, nonprofits, professional organizations, small communities, SMEs, etc.) – or the largest of organizations that want to break free from the application silos to which their data is confined, and finally be able to get added value in return for their investments in their backend systems.
OpenDataWare is firmly founded on cloud principles, both technologically and economically speaking.

• Why Dataconnexions?

From an open data point of view, Dataconnexions was able to gather a significant number of players from very different worlds: startups, major companies in services and industry, researchers, government, education… This is an indicator of the importance of data sharing in creating new economic models: it’s no longer possible for anyone, whether a company or a public entity, not to have access to all of the data necessary for them to offer new services.
Sharing our vision and our solutions with the Dataconnexions community seemed like the obvious choice.

• Have you already integrated the EXALEAD CloudView platform into your OpenDataSoft solution?

What have been the main advantages?
Because I have five years of experience creating and running Labs projects at EXALEAD, I had a very good idea of what EXALEAD CloudView could do for us in a big data context. Along with other big data technologies (specifically MongoDB and Hadoop), the OpenDataSoft platform exploits the rapid indexing abilities and robustness of EXALEAD CloudView when it comes to large volumes of data. The typical example would be a data stream (several million pieces of data per day) acquired through a network of linked objects, that needs to be assembled in near real time in map interfaces, with a response time that is consistent with what the public expects from the web, and at an acceptable cost.

• At what stage are you in your project?

OpenDataWare is in production and is being used by a limited number of alpha testers. Within a few weeks, we are expecting to send out invitations so more users can join, and then we plan to open the platform to the public in the second quarter of 2012.
We are, of course, open to proposals from any organization that might want to work with us on the development of OpenDataWare during this phase. (contact@opendatasoft.com)

• What’s it like working with Exalead teams?

We are, I think, the first team to use the latest version of EXALEAD CloudView, V6, in production. So we are in very close contact with the EXALEAD development teams, who are interested in our feedback. Plus, that means we are among the first to benefit from improvements to the product.

This article is part of our series on the Dataconnexions candidates who chose Exalead to partner with them on their projects.

Today the spotlight is on Benjamin Rivalland, project manager and developer, who is one of the two founders of the D-Data Santé project, the citizens’ public health guide.

Alex Lepriol                                                                                       Benjamin Rivalland

• Please tell us a little about yourself and your team.
The members of the team we put together for the D-Data Santé project have a wide range of skills and were recruited through the Décision Publique consulting company and its partners. Because of the make-up of our team, we’re well equipped to carry out software development, establish relationships with sources of public health and social data, create a visual identity, and devise a sustainable business model built around the re-use of public data.

• Tell us about your project.
D-Data santé is positioning itself as the Guide that aggregates and geolocates all public health services in order to inform the general public of services that are available and aid in decision-making. On a single site, D-Data Santé offers previously unpublished health sector information that will help people make healthcare decisions based on current official data:

• A healthcare GPS feature in the form of interactive mapped directories to help people locate healthcare services, professionals, or organizations. Soon they will also be able to search for healthcare options by specific medical problem.
• A customizable “health quality” dashboard displaying demographic and environmental indicators and public health alerts (flu epidemic, presence of allergens, etc.).
For the first time, the public will have a platform where they can exchange information about their preferred providers and their opinions about healthcare services (the reception received, waiting time, follow-up, etc.). In addition, they will have access to verified information related to topics they specify.
• Contextualized comparison of healthcare services by city, administrative department, or region.
• Secure personal space where users can manage and store their “healthcare favorites.”

The D-Data Santé project also has the following objectives:

• To support the public at a time when individuals are increasingly involved in decisions regarding their own health or illnesses. Approximately 10% of French citizens consult a health-related site several times a week.
• To help the next generation of doctors and communities deal with the changing medical demography, and to address the unequal distribution of healthcare professionals in the country.
• To contribute to improved healthcare and cost control throughout the healthcare process by offering a service that clarifies the specific areas of expertise of different healthcare professionals and helps users distinguish among the different levels of medical services.

• Where did you get the idea for D-Data Santé?
In the course of our work as consultants to healthcare professionals and communities, we saw that healthcare services in France lacked visibility. To make the best use of our diagnostics, we had already created a mapping feature for all healthcare professionals in the country using information drawn from a variety of data sources (yellow pages, ameli.fr, etc.). But the data had to be regularly corrected to reflect changes. That’s when we got the idea to create a service for the public that provided up-to-date and comprehensive information on healthcare throughout the country.

• How do you plan to deliver this new service to the public and other users?
We’ll have a dedicated website complemented by mobile applications. Communities will have a module designed specifically for their use, which they can integrate into their existing websites. Institutional users will be able to add their own data sets in order to cross-reference them with the public data used by our platform.

• Why Dataconnexions?
Our team saw Dataconnexions as a real opportunity. By this I mean that there is a strong trend towards re-using public data. We wanted to embrace this trend and be part of it. Dataconnexions is a good way to meet those who produce and use open data and open access data, which we need in order to proceed with our project.

• Why did you choose Exalead ?
A project like ours needs a reliable and powerful search engine. We plan to aggregate a great deal of data from a variety of sources. Since our very first exchanges with Eric Cervantes during Dataconnexions, we saw the potential for bringing more credibility to our project and taking it as far as we had hoped we could.

• What’s it like working with Exalead teams?
Exalead is providing step-by-step support as we work with CloudView.  I also attended a training session during which expert consultants gave us guidance with regard to data indexing.

• So what’s next?
Next we’re going to focus on further developing our network of institutions that produce and re-use public health and social data in order to ensure a continuous flow of reliable and current data. And we still have one remaining development phase to complete before we can make our module available to local communities.

Want to know more about this project? Watch the video introduction to D-Data Santé and keep track of the project’s progress on these social networks:

Twitter: @ddatasante (http://twitter.com/#!/ddatasante)

Facebook: /ddatasante (http://www.facebook.com/ddatasante)