CKAN/Python and open data portals
I found out about CKAN by accident (which is Python based). It turns out that there is an attempt to normalize open data offered by govts and others. Here is the official showcase (which includes poor links to govt open data portals in CA, US, UK, SG, NL, AU, DK, RO, FR). It appears that DataPortals.org tracks all the open data portals much better.