What Data Description Inc Is and What Its Website Offers Now

Data Description Inc is the company behind Data Desk, a statistical software package, and the creator and continuing sponsor of DASL (The Data And Story Library). As of the announcement on its website, the company has initiated dissolution after 40 years, and all sales, trial downloads, and upgrades have ceased. The site now functions mainly as a farewell notice, a DASL access point, and a contact form.

What the company announced

The homepage carries a notice titled "A Final Thank You from Data Desk." It states that Data Description made the decision to begin dissolution after considering the business landscape, financial circumstances, and the evolving needs of its stakeholders. The practical consequences for visitors are:

• No new purchases of Data Desk
• No trial downloads
• No upgrades

If you arrived at datadescription.com looking to buy or download the software, that is no longer possible through the site.

What still works: DASL

The site makes clear that Data Description remains "the Proud Creator and Continuing Sponsor of DASL," and that it will continue to host the DASL archive going forward.

DASL stands for The Data And Story Library. According to the site, it is:

• An archive of real data from a wide variety of topics, in a searchable format
• A teaching and learning aid for statistics at any level
• Searchable by statistics display or method, by text matches, or by title
• Home to hundreds of free datasets

For instructors, the stated purpose is finding real-world examples to illustrate statistics methods. The site quotes Chief Scientist Paul F. Velleman on the value of a good example turning a dry lesson into a vivid one.

The R and Python connection

The announcement also notes that Data Desk users could use the software's interface as a graphical front end to R, or communicate displays and analyses to people who do not have Data Desk. The site frames this as a gentle way for students and teachers to learn to write R or Python code. Since sales and downloads have stopped, this is now background on what the product offered rather than something you can obtain from the site.

Contacting the company

The page includes a contact form with fields for name, email, subject, and message, and states that replies will be given in a timely manner. The form is protected by reCAPTCHA and subject to Google's Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

Quick summary

If your goal is statistical datasets for teaching or learning, DASL remains the reason to visit. If your goal is acquiring Data Desk itself, the site no longer offers a path to do so.