Sarah, I agree; I think it would be the exception rather than the rule that one would access these public data sources given the range of needs of R users, who are generally analyzing their own data. Plus, IMO, it just is not very difficult to reformat the data to a suitable format, if need be, to import into R.
Tom On Fri, Jan 13, 2012 at 4:58 PM, Sarah Goslee <sarah.gos...@gmail.com>wrote: > R is Open Source. You're welcome to write tools, and submit your > package to CRAN. I think some part of this has been done, based > on questions to the list asking about those parts. > > Personally, I've been using S-Plus and then R for 18 years, and never > required data from any of them. Which doesn't make it not important, > but suggests that public databases aren't the be-all and end-all for > R use. > > Sarah > > On Fri, Jan 13, 2012 at 4:14 PM, Benjamin Weber <m...@bwe.im> wrote: > > Dear R Users - > > > > R is a wonderful software package. CRAN provides a variety of tools to > > work on your data. But R is not apt to utilize all the public > > databases in an efficient manner. > > I observed the most tedious part with R is searching and downloading > > the data from public databases and putting it into the right format. I > > could not find a package on CRAN which offers exactly this fundamental > > capability. > > Imagine R is the unified interface to access (and analyze) all public > > data in the easiest way possible. That would create a real impact, > > would put R a big leap forward and would enable us to see the world > > with different eyes. > > > > There is a lack of a direct connection to the API of these databases, > > to name a few: > > > > - Eurostat > > - OECD > > - IMF > > - Worldbank > > - UN > > - FAO > > - data.gov > > - ... > > > > The ease of access to the data is the key of information processing with > R. > > > > How can we handle the flow of information noise? R has to give an > > answer to that with an extensive API to public databases. > > > > I would love your comments and ideas as a contribution in a vital > discussion. > > > > Benjamin > > > > -- > Sarah Goslee > http://www.functionaldiversity.org > > ______________________________________________ > R-help@r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide > http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > -- Thomas E Adams National Weather Service Ohio River Forecast Center 1901 South State Route 134 Wilmington, OH 45177 EMAIL: thomas.ad...@noaa.gov VOICE: 937-383-0528 FAX: 937-383-0033 [[alternative HTML version deleted]] ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
