Data warehousing for Open Data sharing and decision support in agriculture: a case study of the VDSA Knowledge Bank and its development process

Acceptance of Open Data by the governments, foundations, science councils and other sponsors of research across the world have prompted the trend towards Open Data. Many researchers and organizations have embraced the Open Data policy. Most often the datasets are released through Dataverse. However, just making datasets available is not enough. We need inbuilt user-friendly data extraction and transformation techniques, and analytical features that can facilitate analyses of research data and generate new knowledge and insights from such data. The Village Dynamics in South Asia (VDSA) Knowledge Bank, ( http://vdsakb.icrisat.ac.in/ ), is a unique data warehouse with user-friendly data retrieval and online analytical processing features for household level panel data on India and Bangladesh. It is the first of its kind in the world for managing household survey data. It exemplifies how digital innovation tools (Microsoft SQL and Business Intelligence tools) can be used in processing diverse, complex long-term databases and promoting the cause of Open Data and facilitates decision support needs. This paper has documented the development process, technical features and impacts of the VDSA Knowledge Bank. It provides an in-depth understanding about how to plan, partner with information technology firms, design and implement a data warehouse project. Thus, the main contribution of this paper is featuring how developments in information technology can be innovatively used to promote Open Data and enhance impacts. Hopefully, this study will stimulate interests among researchers and donors in building data warehouse for management and dissemination of Open Data.