The Arabidopsis Information Portal (AIP) is a next-generation platform for data access, analytics, and tools for scientific discovery. AIP aims to be a model for the development of future open data portals.

Arabidopsis thaliana has been recognized as a model organism for plant research for many decades and was the first plant species to have a fully sequenced genome. Beyond just open access to curated datasets, AIP is a data federation through which the scientific community can share their datasets. AIP provides access to these disparate datasets via common interfaces. Furthermore, AIP is an application ecosystem, with sophisticated tools for data analysis, visualization, and discovery, as well as a platform for developing new tools and workflows that are enabled by this open data federation.

In this conversation we will share our experiences building AIP, and elaborate upon the challenges, successes, and discuss what the future holds for open data portals.