The genesis of our name, data.world

[jrineakter]

In 2016, we were out to found not just a company, but a philosophy, an architecture, and an ethos of responsible commerce. The name "data.world" was born from this vision, a nod to the early internet protocols like TELNET, Gopher, FTP, and others but with a crucial difference: we aimed to establish a new standard for open data collaboration. Why was data so siloed in a networked world, preventing us from being able to work together both within and across companies? Our mission was ambitious - to create the digital equivalent of a "GitHub for data", a global platform where the world could come together to work on data collectively.

This name encapsulated our three-pronged strategy: build a platform for worldwide use, bring that technology to enterprises, and create a marketplace for data. By choosing "data.world", we were declaring our intent to break down data silos, democratize access to information, and foster a community where data professionals and enthusiasts could collaborate freely. Our goal was, and remains, to build the most meaningful, collaborative, and abundant data resource in the world – a true global hub where data becomes a shared asset powering innovation, insights, and decision-making across the globe.

Right now we are most focused on doing this for enterprises, as our website screams out. Enterprises really need our help, especially in this age of AI. The most shocking statistic of 2024 came australia whatsapp number data from Gartner’s Data & Analytics Summit: they reported that only 4% of data leaders are ready for AI from a data perspective. 96% are not! Gartner also reported that knowledge graphs would be the key solve for AI in the enterprise; our knowledge graph is the foundation of our suite of products, patents, and everything we do. It’s a key reason why we win in our industry and unlock so much value for our customers.

We stayed in stealth-mode for more than a year and we knew we had a lot of functionality to build. In fact, data.world was the most complex technical build of our careers. We wanted to make sure that when we launched, there would be enough functionality for the very broad, global community we were trying to attract.

Some of us brought a deep belief in the lessons from the open source software movement that argues that users should have control over the software they use and the ability to modify it to suit their needs. This earlier initiative led to the free software of Linux, as well as the culture of collaboration. The open-source GitHub became an inspiration for open, free, and collaborative datasets. Our open data community now has 2.8 million members, and projects we’ve helped on include our work with Johns Hopkins University on COVID tracking in 2019, and data-driven initiatives tackling challenges such as climate change, smart policing, and open government.