How to Publish a Factual Table
With Factual, it's easy to collect and present content that will keep your readers coming back for more. By using open data sets and building a community of contributors, you can create enormous databases of useful information – and keep them up to date – at almost no cost.
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You Will Need
- A computer with internet access
- A web site or a blog
Steps
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Step 1
Understand open data projects
Understand how an "open data" project works: Users from across the web contribute information that then can be mixed, mashed, and shared in any imaginable way.
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Step 2
Create an account
Go to factual.com and create an account to get free access to existing "open data" tables.
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Step 3
Embed and share it
Say you wanted to add a restaurants table to your site. Once you've found a table that you want to embed, click "Embed." Enter the dimensions you want the table to be and choose the color scheme, and Factual will automatically generate the "iframe" HTML code required to embed it into your web site. You can preview the table before embedding it. When you're satisfied, copy the snippet of code and paste it on your site. You can also share tables with people directly -- just click "Email" to send them the link.
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Depending on the publishing system you're using, you may need to check that you're in a mode that supports actual HTML editing.
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Step 4
Search and sort
Now that the table's embedded on your site, people can scroll through the data, search it, and sort it. Say someone wants to make a dinner reservation for a big group. They can click on the "Large Group" column and filter by "yes" to see which restaurants are a good match. Or, find the speediest restaurants by sorting by "Quickness." A click on a fact in a cell reveals the story behind that fact -- including which users contributed knowledge and their citations. Note the cell indicators that suggest disagreement. Remember that you control what shows up on your site and what data can be edited.
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If you don’t want to display the data using a Factual table, Factual also offers an API that makes it easy for you to build creative applications on top of the data.
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Step 5
Add to it
Encourage people to add data to the embedded table by promoting it on your site. They can easily edit a cell or add a new row. Ask them also to embed it on their own web sites, creating a growing community of contributors. The more places the table appears, the more data gets added, and the more comprehensive and accurate the table becomes.
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Any addition or change to the table on one site automatically updates the data everywhere else the table is embedded.
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Step 6
Monitor progress
Sit back and watch while your table gains momentum. With Factual, there are no limits.
