Open Scientific Data

Richard Akerman

Geospatial Advancement Canada

March 3, 2014

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Open

The Information Provider grants you a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, non-exclusive licence to use the Information, including for commercial purposes, subject to the terms below.

You are free to:• Copy, modify, publish, translate, adapt, distribute or

otherwise use the Information in any medium, mode or format for any lawful purpose.

http://data.gc.ca/eng/open-government-licence-canada

http://www.flickr.com/photos/notbrucelee/8016200072/

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2013 - G8 Science Ministers

“To the greatest extent and with the fewest constraints possible publicly funded scientific research data should be open”

http://www.g8.utoronto.ca/science/130613-science.html

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2014 - Group on Earth Observations (GEO)

“promote the free and open access to Earth observing data and information for the benefit of society” – John Kerry, US Secretary of State

“Open government data is important for democratic governance and supports innovation, business creation and efficiency.” - Dr. Patrick Gallagher, Director of NIST, Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shevralay/466516545/

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GeoGratis & data.gc.ca

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Open x 3

• Open Access• Scientific journal literature

• Open Government• Processes and information within government

• Open Science• Entire scientific process

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Open scientific data online and offline

• Challenges of storing, sharing and citing datasets• Linking data to publications

• Connecting open data to software developer and civil society communities

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Problem

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa_goddard/8658706340/

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Storing

• Someone has to pay. Forever.• The location has to be resolvable. Forever.

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Sharing

• Canadian Open Government License• CC0 “Creative Commons Zero”• CC-BY “Attribution”

• More information in Dr. Theresa Scassa’s sessionOpen Government: Intellectual Property And Other Considerations Wednesday at noon

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Citing: Problem

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Citing

• Unique identifier• DataCite

• DataCite Canada

• DOI• e.g.

DOI: 10.5194/essd-3-1-2011 (paper)DOI: 10.1594/PANGAEA.737668 (data)DOI: 10.5443/1643 (data)

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Connecting: Software Developers

• machine-readable files ideally with well-supported software libraries for parsing the format(s)

• well-documented API• open license

• support & use platforms that provide the above

• hackathons to bring domain experts together with software developers

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http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/blog/posting.asp?ID=1035

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http://mikepacione.tumblr.com/post/77509854564/drinking-stats-per-capita-by-province-and-sex

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Connecting: Civil Society

• plain-language explanations• intermediary tools

• visualization (mapping)• analysis

• intermediary experts• community groups• universities

• meetups, Open Data Day, speed dating

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To be continued...

• Deena Yanofsky will talk more about this at 1:40 inThe Nature And Future Of “Open Data”

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Richard Akerman

@scilib

© 2014 Government of Canada

Licensed in the Creative Commons CC-BY