Metadata and portal interoperability is the new open data black!

[Tracey P. Lauriault]

It is great to see that the Open Data gathering in Warsaw has metadata and interoperabilityon its wish list http://blog.okfn.org/2011/10/23/open-data-wishlist-for-the-next-year/.

 

This conversation began in Ottawa Last week at Gtec. I convened a small meeting with Edmonton and Ottawa, a science data researcher, the founders of the data liberation initiative (DLI) (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/dli-idd/dli-idd-eng.htm), the creators of ODESI (http://search2.odesi.ca/), and members of the IASSIST Executive (IASSISTdata.org) to discuss scaling, interoperability and metadata.  This was well received and we have agreed to introduce local data library experts to members of the G4 in Vancouver, Edmonton, Ottawa and Toronto.  Librarians & archivists manage thousands of datasets, curate them, deposit them in repositories, describe them with common metadata and create portals that harvest the metadata from other portals in order to expand cross institutional searching.  Librarians and geomaticians have been doing this for decades and doing it well.  The recommendation is for open data initiatives to team up with these experts and collaborate on developing common standards.

 

Current open data catalogs in cities in Canada will soon face a scaling issue as the number of datasets contained within them grow, and without common metadata amd adherance to interoperability standards, it will not be possible to seach across them or to create a federated cataloguing system where metadata can be harvested.

 

ODESI has done that, and there is 15 years experience in getting 10s of thousands of data sets searched across Ontario University Data Libraries.  The UK Data Archive is another great example (www.data-archive.ac.uk/).  In addition, the Open Geospatial Consortium (http://www.opengeospatial.org/) has been instrumental at developing test beds and interoperability specifications for geospatial data and there is tremendous merit in working with them. 

 

ODESI, DLI, UK Data Archive and OGC are excellent examples upon which open data initiatives can build upon instead of reinventing wheels.  Some great cross polination can happen and there are some tremendous learning opportunities to be had on all sides.

 

I look forward to seeing those discussions move ahead in Canada and Internationally.

 

One point I would add is capacity building, and the DLI as well as the Community Data Consortium (www.communitydata-donneescommunautaires.ca/Home) have that in place for universities and for community based organizations while the UK Data Archive has great resources on their websidte and it would be great to see some open data apps developers collaborate with subject matter specialists in other fields that are less tech savvy but increadibly innovative in their capacity to deliver services and do community based research.  Social Planning Councils who are great community based researchers have also been working on this capacity building piece and there is merit in working with them.  Finally, there is Community Data Canada which has convened  a number of roundtables with various levels of government and departments at the Federal government with community groups(http://www.cdc-dcc.info/).  This group is also involved at bridging community groups and government institutions in terms of data access and use.

 

To the 10 principles (http://sunlightfoundation.com/policy/documents/ten-open-data-principles/) I would add:

• Metadata
• Interoperability
• Organizational Cultural Change
• Capacity Building

Cheers

Tracey

 

 

[David Eaves]

Hi everyone,

Here is my blog post which sums my opening keynote from the Open Government Data Camp in Warsaw:

http://eaves.ca/2011/10/21/the-state-of-open-data-2011/

Thought this might be of interest.

Cheers,
dave

On 11-10-25 3:02 PM, Tracey P. Lauriault wrote:

It is great to see that the Open Data gathering in Warsaw has metadata and interoperabilityon its wish list http://blog.okfn.org/2011/10/23/open-data-wishlist-for-the-next-year/.

 

This conversation began in Ottawa Last week at Gtec. I convened a small meeting with Edmonton and Ottawa, a science data researcher, the founders of the data liberation initiative (DLI) (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/dli-idd/dli-idd-eng.htm), the creators of ODESI (http://search2.odesi.ca/), and members of the IASSIST Executive (IASSISTdata.org) to discuss scaling, interoperability and metadata.  This was well received and we have agreed to introduce local data library experts to members of the G4 in Vancouver, Edmonton, Ottawa and Toronto.  Librarians & archivists manage thousands of datasets, curate them, deposit them in repositories, describe them with common metadata and create portals that harvest the metadata from other portals in order to expand cross institutional searching.  Librarians and geomaticians have been doing this for decades and doing it well.  The recommendation is for open data initiatives to team up with these experts and collaborate on developing common standards.

 

Current open data catalogs in cities in Canada will soon face a scaling issue as the number of datasets contained within them grow, and without common metadata amd adherance to interoperability standards, it will not be possible to seach across them or to create a federated cataloguing system where metadata can be harvested.

 

ODESI has done that, and there is 15 years experience in getting 10s of thousands of data sets searched across Ontario University Data Libraries.  The UK Data Archive is another great example (www.data-archive.ac.uk/).  In addition, the Open Geospatial Consortium (http://www.opengeospatial.org/) has been instrumental at developing test beds and interoperability specifications for geospatial data and there is tremendous merit in working with them. 

 

ODESI, DLI, UK Data Archive and OGC are excellent examples upon which open data initiatives can build upon instead of reinventing wheels.  Some great cross polination can happen and there are some tremendous learning opportunities to be had on all sides.

 

I look forward to seeing those discussions move ahead in Canada and Internationally.

 

One point I would add is capacity building, and the DLI as well as the Community Data Consortium (www.communitydata-donneescommunautaires.ca/Home) have that in place for universities and for community based organizations while the UK Data Archive has great resources on their websidte and it would be great to see some open data apps developers collaborate with subject matter specialists in other fields that are less tech savvy but increadibly innovative in their capacity to deliver services and do community based research.  Social Planning Councils who are great community based researchers have also been working on this capacity building piece and there is merit in working with them.  Finally, there is Community Data Canada which has convened  a number of roundtables with various levels of government and departments at the Federal government with community groups(http://www.cdc-dcc.info/).  This group is also involved at bridging community groups and government institutions in terms of data access and use.

 

To the 10 principles (http://sunlightfoundation.com/policy/documents/ten-open-data-principles/) I would add:

• Metadata
• Interoperability
• Organizational Cultural Change
• Capacity Building

Cheers

Tracey

 

 

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[Tracey P. Lauriault]

fyi

G4 = Edmonton Vancouver Ottawa and Toronto cities working together on open data in Canada, sharing best practices etc.  It was G4 +1 as Montreal was added.

On Tue, Oct 25, 2011 at 6:02 PM, Tracey P. Lauriault <[hidden email]> wrote:

It is great to see that the Open Data gathering in Warsaw has metadata and interoperabilityon its wish list http://blog.okfn.org/2011/10/23/open-data-wishlist-for-the-next-year/.

 

This conversation began in Ottawa Last week at Gtec. I convened a small meeting with Edmonton and Ottawa, a science data researcher, the founders of the data liberation initiative (DLI) (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/dli-idd/dli-idd-eng.htm), the creators of ODESI (http://search2.odesi.ca/), and members of the IASSIST Executive (IASSISTdata.org) to discuss scaling, interoperability and metadata.  This was well received and we have agreed to introduce local data library experts to members of the G4 in Vancouver, Edmonton, Ottawa and Toronto.  Librarians & archivists manage thousands of datasets, curate them, deposit them in repositories, describe them with common metadata and create portals that harvest the metadata from other portals in order to expand cross institutional searching.  Librarians and geomaticians have been doing this for decades and doing it well.  The recommendation is for open data initiatives to team up with these experts and collaborate on developing common standards.

 

Current open data catalogs in cities in Canada will soon face a scaling issue as the number of datasets contained within them grow, and without common metadata amd adherance to interoperability standards, it will not be possible to seach across them or to create a federated cataloguing system where metadata can be harvested.

 

ODESI has done that, and there is 15 years experience in getting 10s of thousands of data sets searched across Ontario University Data Libraries.  The UK Data Archive is another great example (www.data-archive.ac.uk/).  In addition, the Open Geospatial Consortium (http://www.opengeospatial.org/) has been instrumental at developing test beds and interoperability specifications for geospatial data and there is tremendous merit in working with them. 

 

ODESI, DLI, UK Data Archive and OGC are excellent examples upon which open data initiatives can build upon instead of reinventing wheels.  Some great cross polination can happen and there are some tremendous learning opportunities to be had on all sides.

 

I look forward to seeing those discussions move ahead in Canada and Internationally.

 

One point I would add is capacity building, and the DLI as well as the Community Data Consortium (www.communitydata-donneescommunautaires.ca/Home) have that in place for universities and for community based organizations while the UK Data Archive has great resources on their websidte and it would be great to see some open data apps developers collaborate with subject matter specialists in other fields that are less tech savvy but increadibly innovative in their capacity to deliver services and do community based research.  Social Planning Councils who are great community based researchers have also been working on this capacity building piece and there is merit in working with them.  Finally, there is Community Data Canada which has convened  a number of roundtables with various levels of government and departments at the Federal government with community groups(http://www.cdc-dcc.info/).  This group is also involved at bridging community groups and government institutions in terms of data access and use.

 

To the 10 principles (http://sunlightfoundation.com/policy/documents/ten-open-data-principles/) I would add:

• Metadata
• Interoperability
• Organizational Cultural Change
• Capacity Building

Cheers

Tracey