Key Paper - Toward Implementation of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems Data Sharing Principles.

[Tracey P. Lauriault]

All;

This is a key paper on data sharing principles.  It was written primarily for the international exchange of Earth Observation System's data (aka satellite and radar imagery).  These principles however can be applied to a variety of contexts.  I have seen many principles floating around the open data community, most, unfortunately, are a random wish list that are not always grounded in broader data exchange communities and practices. 

I think we need to take the sciences into consideration when developing data sharing principles and open data strategies, since, in most cases, they have the most experience in data sharing, particularly since data sharing in the sciences has been practiced for a couple of hundred years, of course recently accelerated due to the computer and the Internet.

Toward Implementation of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems Data Sharing Principles, by Paul F. Uhlir, Robert S. Chen, Joanne Irene Gabrynowicz & Katleen Janssen
http://www.spacelaw.olemiss.edu/JSL/articles/35JSL201.pdf

Volume 35, number 1 of the Journal of Space Law and Volume 9 of the CODATA
Data Science Journal are simultaneously publishing “Toward Implementation of the
Global Earth Observation System of Systems Data Sharing Principles.” The paper is
a collaborative, interdisciplinary product of a number of authors who participated in
the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Task DA-06-01 on furthering the practical
application of the agreed GEOSS data sharing principles. To assure wide distribution
and use of the paper, the paper has been published using a Creative Commons license
that allows reuse and redissemination of all or part of the paper, as long as proper
attribution is given.

Another key document that can be a reference for open data endeavours and initiatives is the GeoConnections data dissemination guide to best practices.  The geomatics sector has also been on the forefront of data sharing.  This sharing was spearheaded primarily by transnational environmental management and monitoring endeavours.  Again, these practices can be applied to open data initiatives.

Version 2 of The Dissemination of Government Geographic Data in Canada - Guide to Best Practices
http://www.geoconnections.org/publications/Best_practices_guide/Guide_to_Best_Practices_Summer_2008_Final_EN.pdf

The GeoConnections program (“GeoConnections”) is a national federally-funded program designed to link location-based information using the power of the Internet. To develop, support and deliver the Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure, GeoConnections relies strongly on a broad network of partners who are developing the capabilities to disseminate geographic data on-line and to access such data from these partners. An integrated data licensing framework for geographic data is one of the cornerstones for building these capabilities.

 

In the Winter of 2005, GeoConnections released version 1 of The Dissemination of Government Geographic Data in Canada : Guide to Best Practices (“Guide to Best Practices”). The culmination of months of effort and consultation led by the Data Licensing Guide Working Group (the “DLGWG”), established under the auspices of the GeoConnections Policy Advisory Node,[1] Version 1 of the Guide to Best Practices set out an integrated framework for what was then recommended as constituting the three types of geographic data dissemination and licensing models most commonly used in Canada, to be used for the purposes of licensing government geographic data.

 

Continuous dialogue with government data licensing practitioners, users and industry highlighted the prevalency of new distribution models for the dissemination of geographic data, made possible through the rapid development and technological advances in the field of  web-based services, distributed computing and other user applications. The benefits of these new technological advances on the dissemination of government geographic data, coupled with changes in government data dissemination policy mandated an examination of the currency, relevancy and comprehensiveness of the integrated framework for the licensing of government geographic data as outlined in the first version of the Guide to Best Practices.

Cheers
Tracey
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Tracey P. Lauriault
613-234-2805
https://gcrc.carleton.ca/confluence/display/GCRCWEB/Lauriault