Wow, this is pretty cool -- one of the most direct approaches to open-data that I've seen so far (and the research world is of course in dire need of this kind of open data/connect-the-dots enabling effort)!

I think it would be pretty cool to have trending datasets on the front page (I'm sure you could do a small cron that would find the most-downloaded per-week/per-day/etc)

Also, while not a dire necessity, I think a cooler name would help this project fly farther -- You should be able to make a play on "data torrents", maybe something like datastorm/samplerain/datawave/dataswell/Acadata?

Any way, trivial stuff aside, nice implementation -- bookmarked for when I get the urge to do a data-analysis project!