The Open Code Open Data Manifesto

The year is 2017. Big companies hold the power in their hands, by restricting access to information, to data, to knowledge. Companies partially blind us, by denying access to data, or making it harder and harder for us to get our hands on it. Because of that, we end up having our decision-making processes impaired, since we can't see the whole picture. Still, we have to make decisions with what we have, which may or may not be enough.

During the last decade, information and data gathering are some of the hottest words you will hear when it comes to what drives technology forward. Companies such as Google and Facebook built empires based on data and data only. Buzzwords like BigData, Data Analysis, Data Science were coined over 2 decades ago, but only now, are starting to actually make sense for a broader audience. Data is power, and we are fucking Robin Hood. Instead of stealing from the rich, we are only making copies of it.

I shouldn't come as a surprise to you that the internet as we know is a huge repository of data. Most of this data is public, (usually) structured and covering the most diverse topics. Arguably the hardest part is to automate the access to the data you need, but we have you covered.

Our humble goal with this web-book is to help you understand the fundamentals of data-capturing on the web, present you with real scenarios and (hopefully) functional code that illustrates how to access the data you want, in an automated fashion. Despite all the noise there is on the web, it is not uncommon to find quality data laying around, sometimes unseen, hidden in plain sight. We **truly ** hope we can empower you through knowledge, giving you the foundation you need to build your own web scrapers. We encourage you to share whatever data you have, that you think be useful to others. Remember, sharing is caring.

Thanks for sticking with us, and we hope to make this journey as fun as possible to you and us both. No open-data manifesto should finish without mentioning Aaron Swartz's inspiring Guerilla Open Access Manifesto. Even though his scope of sharing was different, since he was dealing with private (where as we are talking about public data) data being shared with others, we can still apply and pay homage so his ideals, words and thoughts. Quoting his closing words:

"With enough of us, around the world, we'll not just send a strong message opposing the privatization of knowledge — we'll make it a thing of the past. Will you join us?"