I stumbled across the Tax Almanac the other day. It's a free US resource that is built upon the MediaWiki platform and sponsored by Intuit. I cannot comment upon its accuracy for US tax professionals but I can say that it has plenty of active users and the home page has been viewed nearly 2.1 million times. That's not shabby for a resource of this kind. Layout is easy to understand and navigation is simple. In true crowdsourcing fashion, anyone can edit the contents provided they register to the site.
I find it interesting that the US is paving the way towards providing free and open access to quality information that has utility for professionals. The other day, the SEC announced IDEA, the next generation of information delivery services for investors that makes use of XBRL and which will replace the clunky EDGAR service. IDEA will also be free but more important, XBRL will allow developers to create new services that consume XBRL data.
Once IDEA goes live, it will create a competitive information market that will draw natural comparisons with Companies House, which still charges for access to basic information.
Any software vendors out there looking at this post: You've grumbled that users were not telling you they want XBRL. You should now be able to discern how XBRL might prove useful in your efforts to provide customers with useful applications. If not then check out XBRL for Dummies. (I am one of the pro bono contributing editors.)
Related articles by Zemanta
- The SEC's big IDEA
- SEC launches IDEA: new system makes data accessible to all
- Microsoft uses new XBRL data tags in SEC filing
Related stories
- No related stories
Link to original post