CKAN is the open source software that powers many open data catalogues around the world. Deployed in 20 countries, both by governments (such as the UK and Dutch government) and communities, to provide access to data, CKAN is now five years old and still continuously developing with the aid of a wide open source community.

Version 1.5 has now been released and provides several major upgrades. From the OKF blog:

• Major user experience upgrades around dataset publication and access plus a new theme
• Integrated structured and blob data storage, with associated with data previewing and visualization
• Extended catalog API providing ability to access every piece of the CKAN system
• Documentation overhaul and extension including a new administrator and development manual at http://docs.ckan.org/
• Easier installation and deployment, specifically via new debian / ubuntu packages of CKAN — CKAN installation and deployment can now be less than 5 minutes

  For more about this release, see: http://ckan.org/2011/11/09/ckan-1-5-release/.