The importance of file extensions in open data has
been underscored by the Nairobi-based Local Development Research Institute
(LDRI), reports NaijaAgroNet.
This importance was brought to the fore by the
co-founding director at LDRI, Mr. Stephen Nyumba in his recent presentation in
Nairobi-Kenya, during a workshop for the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture
Development Programme (CAADP) Journalists Network held at the Hilton Hotel,
recently.
According to TechTerms Computer
Dictionary, a file extension or ‘simply
extension’ is the ending of a file that helps identify the type of file in
operating systems such as Microsoft Windows. In Microsoft Windows, the file
extension is a period that is often followed by three characters, but may also
be one, two, or four characters long. For example, the filename
"myfile.txt" has an extension of ".txt", which is a file
extension associated with text files.
Nyumba in his paper entitled “Open Data for
Agriculture: An Overview, the Concept and Application” stressed the imperative
of file extensions in exploration of the open data contents.
The LDRI director also highlighted some kinds of
file formats open data content come with, such as the Comma Separated Values
(CSV), the XLS file which is a spreadsheet extension file created by Microsoft
Excel, and assumed the most widely-used spreadsheet programme and comes in
either XLS or XLSX.
NaijaAgroNet also gathered that XLSX file formats, are
the extensions of Microsoft Excel versions created in 2007 and later.
Nyumba, equally said that open data comes as a Portable Document Format
(PDF) file, while DOC an abbreviation of
'document') is a filename extension for Word Processing documents, most
commonly Microsoft Word Binary File Format and have since been extended to even
Word Perfect file format. Even as the DOCX file extension is a Microsoft Word
Open XML Format Document file.
In addition, he highlighted that the Extensible Markup Language (XML)
file formats do exist, while the JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is a
lightweight data-interchange format.
Nyumba emphasized that datasets and Application Programming Interface (API) also
come in XML which stands for Extensible Markup Language, pointing out that some
of the extension file formats could sound like jargons, but it is crucial to
know a little of some of these formats, mostly for media practitioners who
stand in-between the data content and the populace who ought to understand the
gist in the story, no matter how complicated the data may be or look.
He further said that
LDRI focuses on supporting African Union (AU) member states in their
efforts to end hunger, poverty and reduce inequality through data, even as
with good datasets, good stories
could emerge.
Remmy Nweke/ED. Ops
... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology
Pix: Steve Nyumba
