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.goslee@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 <mail@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
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