This dissertation is focused on the design of the Open Data Repository's Data Publisher (ODR), a web-based central repository for scientific data, primarily focused on mineralogical properties, but also applicable to other data types, including for instance, morphological, textural and contextual images, chemical, biochemical, isotopic, and sequencing information. Using simple web-based tools, the goal of ODR is to lower the cost and training barrier so that any researcher can easily publish their data, ensure that it is archived for posterity, and comply with the mandates for data sharing. There are only a few databases in the mineralogical community, including RRUFF (http://rruff.info) for professionals, and mindat.org (http://www.mindat.org) for amateurs. These databases contain certain specific mineral information, but none, however, provide the ability to include, in the same platform, any of the many datatypes that characterize the properties of minerals. The ODR framework provides the flexibility required to include unforeseen data without the need for additional software programming. Once ODR is completed, the RRUFF database will be migrated into ODR and populated with additional data using other analytical techniques, such as Mössbauer data from Dr. Richard Morris and NVIR data from Dr. Ralf Milliken. The current ODR pilot studies are also described here, including 1) a database of the XRD analysis performed by the CheMin instrument on the Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity, 2) the NASA-AMES Astrobiology Habitable Environments Database (AHED), which aims to provide a central, high quality, long-term data repository for relevant astrobiology information, 3) the University of Arizona Mineral Museum (UAMM), with over 21,000 records of minerals and fossils from the museum collection, and 4) the Mineral Evolution Database (MED), that uses the ages of mineral species and their localities to correlate the diversification of mineral species through time with Earth's physical, chemical and biological processes. A good database design requires understanding the fundamentals of its content, so part of this thesis is also focused on developing my skills in mineral analysis and characterization, through the study of the crystal-chemistry of diverse minerals using X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and microprobe analysis, as principal techniques.