In the late 1990s the team making UK census data available to UK academics and researchers designed CASWEB which gives access to census aggregate data from 1971 to 2001. Casweb is nearly 20 years old and survives – it is still used by many thousands doing research using census aggregate data, returning tables which users can select by searching their preferred geography then topic.
Image: The Casweb data engine thailand rcs data returning data in ‘steampunk’ style
InFuse – the next stage innovation to Casweb gives access to 2001 and 2011 census aggregate statistics also used by thousands each year and offers the user the chance to select their data through the route of geography or topic.
Casweb is now a platform at risk, with the potential that it will eventually not be compatible with browsers in use; its programming language predates modern standards. Now that people can fit a ’90s supercomputer on their mobile ‘phone, the capacity for data access offers a different, more prosaic but more communal route.
Image: Legacy Casweb code – “Please install Netscape 3.0”
The data are now all open but that doesn’t mean they are discoverable or straightforward to get. retrieve the data built into the table-based web pages of Casweb and freeing the data from the prescribed routes into the data that both Casweb and Infuse offer, turning instead to routes to improve discoverability and usability – cost effectively, and aligned with the latest standards for frictionless data.