Episode 9: From hidden data to insight: the power of vibecoding

Episode 9: From hidden data to insight: the power of vibecoding

From Digital Digging by Henk van Ess

January 17, 2026 · 13 min

About this episode

This episode discusses the challenges of accessing public data and introduces vibecoding as a solution to unlock semi-open datasets.

Imagine walking past a fancy restaurant. The menu is posted in a glass case outside. Truffle pasta. Wagyu beef. You can see everything, read every description—but you can’t eat any of it. You’re just looking through glass. That’s what most public data feels like online. You find a website with exactly what you need. A map of power outages. A table of housing prices. It’s right there on the screen. But there’s no download button. No export. You can look, but you can’t take it home. A 2022 study in Scientific Data found that over 60% of government datasets are “semi-open”—technically public, but locked behind technical barriers that only coders can break through. The data sits in an unlocked room, but the doorknob is a puzzle only an engineer can solve. Until now. Read also the story below Get full access to Digital Digging with Henk van Ess at www.digitaldigging.org/subscribe

People in this episode

Host: Henk van Ess

Topics covered

  • data accessibility
  • vibecoding
  • public data
  • government datasets
  • data insights

Keywords

  • public data
  • data insights
  • vibecoding
  • government datasets
  • data accessibility

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Scientific Data

More episodes of Digital Digging

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Digital Digging podcast page.