Data set: An Open Source Tool for Data Exploration and Publishing

Data set is an open source project developed by Simon Villasen, the founder of DataSet. The aim of this project is to assist news organizations in publishing the data behind their stories. By making the numbers available to the audience, the stories become more impactful and trustworthy. The inspiration for data set came when Villasen worked for The Guardian and realized the potential of publishing data alongside stories. The initial version of data set provided a web application where data could be browsed and explored through a web interface and a JSON API. Villasen then added a plugin system, similar to WordPress, allowing users to add functionalities like mapping or different types of data transformations. Currently, there are about 130 data set plugins available. Moreover, Villasen recognized that there was a gap in working with medium-sized data sets that are too large for Excel but not large enough to require advanced coding skills. To address this, data set started evolving to cater to this middle-sized data by providing tools for analysis, visualization, and sharing within newsrooms. Villasen is also developing a hosted version of data set called data set cloud, making it more accessible for newsrooms to use without having to install the software locally.