I originally recorded a podcast with Infochimps’ Flip Kromer way back in December 2009, when most of today’s data markets were just starting out. We spoke again last week, as part of my current series of Data Market Chats, and it’s interesting to begin exploring some of the ways in which Infochimps and its peers have evolved.

Describing Infochimps variously as a “SourceForge for data” or an “Amazon for data,” Flip argues that the site’s real value lies in bringing data from different sources together in one place. This, he suggests, is part of allowing customers to “bridge the gap from data to insight.”

Despite his impatience with some of the complexities of the Semantic Web ideal, Flip willingly embraces the lightweight semantics emanating from projects such as the search engine-backed schema.org. He also recognises the value of good metadata in making data easy to use, and in introducing a degree of comparability between data sets from different sources.

Towards the end of the conversation, Flip provides his perspective on some of the other players in this space. Microsoft’s Azure Data Market, for example, is Saks Fifth Avenue to Infochimps’ Amazon; one has ‘the best’ socks, whilst the other has all the socks.

Data Market Chat: Flip Kromer discusses Infochimps [ 1:01:26 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Following up on a blog post that I wrote at the start of 2012, this is the fourth in a series of podcasts with key stakeholders in the emerging category of Data Markets.

Like most of my podcasts, this one is audio-only. I am conducting a short survey this week (only one question is mandatory) to gauge interest in alternative forms of podcast, and would be grateful if you could take a moment to record your view. I shall summarise the findings on Friday.

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