Designed by researchers at the University of Chicago, the Plenario platform gathers all available open data for a specific area. Then it presents the data in an easy-to-use format.

Plenario, a data platform currently in its alpha stage, intends to solve that problem for urban researchers. "With one query, users can access, combine, download and visualize disparate sets of data all in the same place [...] Plenario utilizes Amazon Web Services, a cloud-computing platform, as its scalable back-end infrastructure, which means that storage and computing power for more data sets is not a concern."

University of Chicago's Urban Center for Computation and Design (UrbanCCD) created and launched Plenario late last year. Users specify the neighborhoods or areas they wish to study by drawing a polygon on a map. The platform then delivers a summary of all the datasets available for that area, with links to the sets themselves. (via Planetizen)

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Plenario currently has data from the portals of Chicago; New York; Los Angeles; San Francisco; Boston; Austin, Texas; Washington, D.C.; Illinois; and New York state, among others. Since its design accommodates data from any open portal, international data can also be imported.  Glasgow’s University of Strathclyde, for instance, has installed Plenario to integrate data from multiple UK cities. ... Currently, users’ only option for choosing a geographical domain for a query is to manually draw it with a polygon tool. By adding search features that account for these areas, as the team has prototyped with San Francisco’s Sustainable Systems Framework, Plenario becomes especially useful for users who do research or compile reports within specific jurisdictions.  The platform will also soon allow users to add plugins to Plenario’s core API, allowing for users to deliver customized versions of Plenario for their own or more specified use.1

• 1. http://www.govtech.com/data/University-of-Chicagos-Plenario-Changes-How-We-Use-Open-Data.html