DataLad beyond Git, connecting to the rest of the world

DataLad has been built on Git and git-annex as foundational pillars. However, the vast majority of data infrastructures are not Git-aware. Git-annex can work with a much broader array of services, but the need to “keep the Git repo somewhere” imposes undesirable technical and procedural complexity on users. In this talk I illustrate existing means to take Git-based DataLad datasets to places that Git cannot reach on its own. Moreover, I introduce ongoing work that aims to enable DataLad users to consume non-DataLad resources as native DataLad datasets, and non-DataLad users to consume DataLad resources without DataLad, git-annex, or even Git.