Work
The World Bank - Open Data Platform
Overview
Led a 4-month engagement (February 2019 - May 2019) as Site Architect, integrating cloud-based solutions with Drupal to enable open data publishing. The project leveraged the DKAN distribution to make World Bank data accessible as open-source feeds and through a searchable web interface.
The Challenge
The World Bank generates massive amounts of development data - economic indicators, poverty statistics, health metrics, education data, and more across 189 member countries. This data needs to be:
- Publicly accessible - Open data commitment requires transparency
- Machine-readable - Researchers and developers need API access
- Searchable - Users need to find specific datasets quickly
- Integrated with cloud infrastructure - Scalable and reliable
The goal was to create a platform that served both human users browsing for data and machines consuming data programmatically.
Blacksky's Approach
Cloud Integration (AWS & Azure)
- Architected integration between both cloud platforms and Drupal
- Hybrid approach leveraging best of both platforms
- Scalability designed for World Bank data volumes
DKAN Implementation DKAN is a community-driven, open-source data management platform built on Drupal, designed specifically for publishing open data catalogs.
- Dataset management - upload, describe, and organize datasets
- DCAT-compliant metadata for discoverability
- In-browser data previews and visualization
- Automatic API endpoint generation for each dataset
- Harvest capabilities to pull data from external sources
Open Data Feeds Configured World Bank data for open-source distribution:
| Feed Type | Purpose | Format | |-----------|---------|--------| | JSON APIs | Programmatic access for developers | JSON | | GeoJSON | Geographic data for mapping | GeoJSON | | WMS | Web Map Service for GIS integration | WMS | | CSV Downloads | Bulk data for researchers | CSV |
The same underlying data serves researchers downloading CSV, developers building apps with JSON API, GIS analysts creating maps with WMS, and journalists visualizing trends with GeoJSON.
Searchable Web Interface
- Faceted search filtering by topic, country, date range, format
- Full-text search by keyword
- Rich dataset pages with metadata and previews
- Related dataset discovery
- Usage guides and API documentation
Key Accomplishments
- Multi-cloud integration - AWS and Azure working together
- 4 feed formats - JSON, GeoJSON, WMS, CSV serving diverse audiences
- DKAN open data platform - Full catalog implementation
- Faceted search interface - Powerful dataset discovery
- DCAT-compliant metadata - Standards-based discoverability
- Automatic API generation - Endpoints for every dataset
Technologies
| Component | Technology | |-----------|------------| | CMS | Drupal 7 | | Distribution | DKAN (Open Data Platform) | | Cloud | AWS, Azure | | Data Formats | JSON, GeoJSON, WMS, CSV | | Hosting | Acquia Cloud |
Why This Project Matters
This project demonstrates Blacksky's ability to:
- Work with international institutions - World Bank-level requirements and scale
- Implement specialized distributions - DKAN for open data publishing
- Integrate multiple clouds - AWS and Azure working together
- Serve diverse audiences - Same data, multiple formats for different users
- Enable open data - Making information accessible and machine-readable
- Handle geographic data - GeoJSON and WMS for mapping applications
Client: The World Bank Industry: International Finance / Development Role: Site Architect Timeline: February 2019 - May 2019 (4 months) Status: Completed