On October 28, the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-1 in Game 5 to win the first World Series in the franchise's history. MySafeInfo's list of World Series champions already has them, at the top of a list that goes back to the Boston Americans in 1903.

That list is one of hundreds of datasets on MySafeInfo, the reference-data site I've run since 2013, and like most of the catalog, it's maintained by a curation process that verifies it against published sources. Project guides show what you can build with free data, the biggest datasets have their own home as collections, and a set of free tools handles the small data chores that come up between projects. Since November 13, there's also a contributor program for anyone who builds something with MySafeInfo.

Curated and verified datasets

I used to keep lists like the World Series champions current by hand. A few times a year, usually after a team won a championship, I would update the relevant sports list. That would remind me of another list that needed attention, then another. With hundreds of lists, even knowing which list was due for review became part of the work, and a list that's out of date hands the research back to whoever downloads it.

I wanted to see how much of that maintenance I could make repeatable, so I built a curation process to do the research. It uses AI to verify each list against published sources, finding what's missing or out of date. It also schedules each list's next review, so a list that grows every fall is reviewed when the new record should be there. Routine updates publish on their own, and anything the process can't resolve comes to me. New datasets come out of the same research, and I keep refining the process as it runs.

The results are visible on the dataset pages. Most show when the list was last verified and link to the sources behind it.

Download as CSV, JSON, or XML, or call the API

The full catalog covers subjects from animals and wildlife to transportation, and every dataset comes as CSV, JSON, or XML. You can search it as you type, see what was recently added or recently updated, or go straight to the free datasets. Recent additions include Fields Medal winners, Space Shuttle missions, Artemis Accords signatories, U.S. surnames, and battles in world history.

For free data, the API needs no key or account. This request for U.S. states returns all 50 states, plus D.C. and the five inhabited territories, as JSON, and the API documentation covers sorting, paging, random rows, and the other options.

Project guides: things to build with free data

Each project guide takes free data and builds something with it, and the data behind every guide is free to download. A few to start with:

• Draw a periodic table. One request, with no API key, returns all 118 elements, and the page turns them into an interactive table. Copy the code or download it as a single HTML file that calls the live API.
• Remember Titanic's passengers and crew. One mark for each of the 2,208 people aboard when the ship sank, and a searchable roll of everyone recorded on the voyage, each name linked to its Encyclopedia Titanica biography.
• Chart World Series champions. Every champion from 1903 through the Brewers, with a pivot chart that keeps team names and franchises straight.
• Set the Bible in world history. Biblical events beside Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, with ancient records that name the same people and places, among them the Tel Dan Stele and the Cyrus Cylinder.
• Map the battles that shaped history. Battles mapped across thousands of years, plus a closer look at the turning points, with every estimate of how many fought.
• See all the project guides, including a Constitution timeline for the classroom, Nobel Prize data in Python, and Bible cross-references.

Collections for the big datasets

Some data is too big for a list. The collections hold millions of rows, grouped by subject, and each one has a free sample in CSV, JSON, or XML. Some highlights:

• U.S. ZIP codes. Residential ZIP codes with city, county, coordinates, and Census population.
• ICD-10-CM diagnosis codes. Diagnosis codes with descriptions, billable status, and the full hierarchy.
• Vehicle recalls. Safety recalls with the defect, the remedy, and the makes, models, and years affected.
• U.S. baby names. Names by year, with counts and popularity ranks.
• People. Made-up people with matching addresses, jobs, and families, for demos and tests.
• See all the collections, from public schools and hospitals to stock tickers, an English dictionary, and a sample store with orders.

Each sample shows you what's in a collection, so you can build against its columns before you decide whether you need the whole thing. The full collections come with a Data Pass.

Free data tools that run in your browser

Every one of the tools is free, with no account, no Data Pass, and no ads. They run in your browser, so the text and files you give them are processed on your own device. Five to try first:

• Test data generator. Mock data whose names, places, jobs, and products agree with each other, with linked tables, optional messy data for testing imports, and downloads as CSV, Excel, JSON, JSON Lines, XML, or SQL. Save the seed and you can make the same data again.
• Password generator. A random password or a memorable passphrase, made on your device.
• JSON formatter. Format, validate, or minify JSON without changing its numbers.
• CSV to JSON converter. Convert in either direction while keeping identifiers and leading zeros intact.
• JWT decoder. Explains a token in plain English and shows why it might be refused, without the token leaving your browser.

The rest of the tools include a SAML decoder, a certificate decoder, Base64 and URL encoding, a CSV inspector, a SQL generator, a text diff, a hidden-character finder, a date calculator, a timestamp converter, and tools for sorting lists and removing duplicates.

What's free and what isn't

A lot of MySafeInfo is free, with no account and no key:

• Every tool, including the test data generator
• A selection of complete datasets, including the data behind every project guide, U.S. States, U.S. Presidents, and the shorter lists
• A sample of every other dataset, and a free sample of every collection
• A daily allowance of downloads and API requests

The Data Pass is the one paid option: a single payment for a year, with no automatic renewal. It adds:

• Every record in every dataset, plus any added while your pass is active
• Every collection in full
• Much larger tables from the test data generator
• ZIP downloads of whole categories and collections
• A much higher daily limit for downloads and API requests

Free or paid, you can use the data in anything you build, including client work and products you sell, and you can share the files with your own team, your students, or a client you're working for. What you can't do is resell, publish, or redistribute the datasets, or offer them as a data service. A few sources, like the dictionary, ask for credit when you publish work that uses them.

Share what you build: the contributor program

If you build something with MySafeInfo's tools or data and share it publicly, you can submit it to the contributor program, even if you only used the free tools and datasets. If your project is approved, you get a discount on a year-long Data Pass, and if you already have a pass, the reward extends it. When you submit, you can also ask to be considered for the Made with MySafeInfo gallery, which is a separate decision from the discount. So far it holds only MySafeInfo's own worked projects.

The requirements are short, and there's a worked example of a qualifying project. Your project must be your own work (AI help is fine) and open to anyone without a login or paywall, and it should explain how you used MySafeInfo, with a one-line disclosure about the discount. A bare link or a social post doesn't count on its own, and if you link to MySafeInfo, the link should be marked sponsored or nofollow. Beyond that, there's no word count and no minimum audience, and you don't have to say nice things about the site.