World Bank opens access to WDI

The World Bank has opened access to a flagship dataset that was mostly closed. Until recently, only a fraction of the thousand-plus data series that comprise the World Development Indicators (WDI) were available to non-paying customers in advanced economies. As of April 10, 2010, the World Bank has opened access to the complete dataset.

Iraqi Virtual Science Library needs a marketing director

The Iraqi Virtual Science Library boasts an impressive list of partners and resources. American universities created IVSL in response to Iraq’s forcible isolation from the world of research and scholarship under Saddam.

Scholars here are thirsty for new knowledge. They know they need access to journals and current datasets to practice modern science. The trouble is, they don’t know what resources they have available.

Both the faculty and the students here, independently, have asked me to use my credit card to help them pay for World Bank datasets. [For clarity: their money, using my credit card as a payment system.] They know what journals and data they are looking for, and they want to get into the game.