Open Data Editor

Open Data Editor is a project of the Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN), a not-for-profit organization incorporated in England & Wales.

The Open Knowledge Foundation created the Open Data Editor (ODE). Initial development began around 2021–2023, with a beta release that aimed to help users detect errors in tabular datasets. However, early versions were overly complex and challenging for intended users to adopt. After recognising that the design process relied too heavily on technical assumptions and too little on the lived realities of journalists, researchers and public-sector workers, OKFN rebuilt ODE collaboratively with real communities. This redesign focused on clarity, simplicity, local-first privacy, and genuinely accessible language. Through extensive pilot projects across multiple countries, the tool evolved into a lightweight, stable and intuitive desktop application used by audiences working with large and messy datasets.

While the tool itself is stable, it is at a pivotal moment. Funding will help with integrations and expand its utility across the data ecosystem, as well as the development of integrations with standards-based infrastructures (e.g., Frictionless Data, open-data portals, metadata pipelines) and the expansion of multilingual training assets and in-app learning tools to improve user adoption in low-resource contexts. Support will also allow us to generalise ODE’s design principles—simplicity, lightweight deployment, offline capability—to new complementary tools addressing other stages of the data lifecycle. Finally, additional resources could accelerate the formalisation of open governance, contributor pathways and inclusive community processes, which are now developed as the limited resources we have access to permit, but are fundamental for ensuring long-term sustainability and a stewarship reflecting our values.