15 free data sets that can be used to create better IoT technologies

The future of all technological solutions is tied to data. It reduces the number of prototypes necessary to achieve a final product by providing valuable insight into such things as who the target audience is, what their specific needs are, and how a particular solution will satisfy these wants. 

One technological sector that stands to benefit the most from data is the Internet of Things. Still in the early stages of development, this growing industry will produce a bounty of new gadgets, devices, and solutions based not only the data sets used during the early development stages, but the information it collects whilst in use. 

This is the one thing that most excites industry leaders — the chance to create technologies that improve the more they’re used. Information gathered by sensors, user behavior, and more, will be used to fine tune the technology’s behavior and better meet the user’s (anticipated) needs.

If you have an idea for an IoT solution, or are otherwise contemplating a career move to this exciting new sector, then you’d be best served to review the data set resources below, all of which are collected by way of Internet protocols and numerous apps / devices. All of these links are a good place to start your project—they’ll allow you to ask the right questions and incorporate the appropriate tools to develop an IoT technology that’ll truly make a difference in the target user’s daily life. 

1. Amazon Web Services public datasets 
2. Data.gov 
3. DBPedia 
4. European Union Open Data Portal 
5. Facebook Graph 
6. Freebase 
7. Gapminder 
8. Google Trends 
9. Healthdata.gov 
10. Likebutton 
11. National Climatic Data Center 
12. NHS Health and Social Care Information Center 
13. The CIA World Factbook 
14. Topsy 
15. US Census Bureau 

Additionally, there is a fantastic resource on GitHub, which was created by user caesar0301. Entitled “awesome public datasets” it’s just that — a robust, categorical listing of public data resources collected from blogs, answers, and user responses. Sectors range from agriculture to computer networks, energy to government, machine learning to physics, search engines to transportation, and more — much more as a matter of fact.

If the list of 20 above isn’t exactly what you’re looking for, check out the github collection here.