[OSGeo-Discuss] Promoting freely available geodata

[P Kishor]

I am following up on this thread, and cross-posting to several lists
-- sorry for the noise -- to inform you all of my related activities.

I have spent the past five days in Atibaia, Brazil at a
CODATA-organized (<http://www.codata.org>) workshop on "Open Access to
Scientific Data" (<http://www.cria.org.br/eventos/codata2007/>).
Besides representatives from all the science academies from Latin
America and the Caribbean, as well as from India, China, and the US,
many open access advocates, including John Wilbanks from Science
Commons, were present. The meeting was concerned with all kinds of
scientific data, geospatial data being a small but significant portion
of the same. Besides myself, Harland Onsrud from U of Maine, Orono,
were carrying the open geospatial torch.

On 3/30/07, Chris Holmes <cholmes at openplans.org> wrote:
..
> I just got off the phone with the lead counsel of Science Commons, which
> is the branch of CC made to deal with data.  It was an interesting
> conversation, though unfortunately not much good news for CC licenses for
> Geodata.
>
..

Chris's summary above describes the current position correctly. So,
what is the way out? Well, it is easier for those who create
geospatial data from scratch going forward. The general recommendation
is that you slap a CC-license on it and put the data in public domain.
A strong-ish model for this is a geodata commons
(http://geodatacommons.umaine.edu/download.php>). Of course, even
better might be to just waive all your rights in it, but that may not
be a viable alternative for many.

The problem, of course, is that most people don't create geospatial
data from scratch. Most of us take existing data whose provenance is
indeterminable and then we build upon it. Well, since we end up using
existing data, we are at risk of violating someone else's rights. One
belief is that in such a case as well waiving one's own rights might
be helpful. A related belief is that "put it out there and wait to see
if someone will sue you." The general sense is that no one has been
sued *yet*.

CC agrees that it does not have a clear and hopeful position on
geospatial data, but John Wilbanks and I "shook hands" whereby Science
Commons has agreed in principle to work with the geospatial community
to help develop clarity on this issue.

Tomorrow I will be at INPE, the Brazilian Space Research Institute in
São José dos Campos, where there is a tremendous amount of interest
*and* activity in open geospatial data and research. It is really
heartening to see very large and important research institutions such
as INPE be a strong practicing advocate of open source and open
access.

Finally, I have a Fellowship from the National Academy of Science this
summer working on open access to public sector information including
geospatial and environmental data. I hope to continue to serve OSGeo's
and open geospatial communities interests in the science policy
circles.

To summarize --

1. The scientific community as a whole wants open and permanent access
to scientific data, and that includes raw research data, not just the
publishable results of it;

2. GeoSpatial data are a small but significant portion of the corpus
of science data, so it is very important to continue to maintain an
active and vocal presence in the dialong;

3. As is, data can't be copyrighted. For those creating data, the best
option going forward might be to put them in a public commons; better
yet, waive all rights to them. Of course, this may not be a viable
alternative for many. This area is murky at best, since there is
confusion between "facts" and "data about facts;

4. For those doing research utilizing existing data that don't come
with a clear position on their provenance, (besides not using such
data) the best one can do is to waive one's own rights in the
research, and then wait till someone sues. Of course, this too is less
than satisfactory;

5. Work is needed to create a clear and unequivocal set of statements
and facts on the existing situation. As is, the situation is murky,
and not knowing what one can do itself is a big deterrent to doing
something;

6. I will be in a position to serve the open geospatial community's
interests in the ongoing dialog about access to scientific data,
especially the public sector scientific data, so please send your
thoughts and ideas to me via this list. Educate me on your concerns
via this list so I can contribute to the dialog at the Academies and
other agencies in Washington DC this summer and beyond.

Best regards. Now I go out to enjoy the late Fall sunshine in Southern Brasiooo.

-- 
Puneet Kishor http://punkish.eidesis.org/
Ph. D. Program, Nelson Institute, UW-Madison http://www.nelson.wisc.edu/
Vice President, Open Source Geospatial Foundation http://www.osgeo.org/
Fellow, National Academy of Science http://www.nationalacademies.org
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