Publishing open data isn’t wildly difficult. It’s not an all-or-nothing proposition. That is, data isn’t either open or not-open. Instead, we speak of it being more or less open.

In this chapter, we’ll look at the ways that data can be made more open. We’ll look at the mechanics of how to find your open data (yes, your government or agency is already publishing data openly, you just don’t know it), how to select the right data repository software to use, how to select the license for your data, how to deal with data trapped in PDFs, how to publish spreadsheets usefully, and more.