Zzzoot

At the International Open Government Data Conference (IOGDC) Tim Berners-Lee " ...reiterated his “ five star system ” for open government data : 1 Star for putting data on the Web at all, with an open license. 2 Stars if it’s machine-readable. 3 Stars for machine-readable, non-proprietary formats 4 Stars if the data is converted into open linked data standards like RDF or SPARQL 5 Stars when people have gone through the trouble of linking it " From: http://gov20.govfresh.com/open-data-accountability-citizen-utility-and-economic-opportunity/ Original TB-L ref: http://lab.linkeddata.deri.ie/2010/star-scheme-by-example/ So according this metric by TB-L, the Canadian cites (Ottawa, Vancouver, Toronto,, Edmonton, etc) that have recently released data with not open licenses get ZERO stars !!!

My earlier entry/rant, It's not Open Data, so stop calling it that... about the non-Open Data nature of a number of Canadian cities' Open Data initiatives is supported by the just released Ten Principles for Opening Up Government Information from the Sunlight Foundation . Specifically: 6. Non-discrimination "Non-discrimination" refers to who can access data and how they must do so. Barriers to use of data can include registration or membership requirements. Another barrier is the uses of "walled garden," which is when only some applications are allowed access to data. At its broadest, non-discriminatory access to data means that any person can access the data at any time without having to identify him/herself or provide any justification for doing so. 8. Licensing The imposition of "Terms of Service," attribution requirements, restrictions on dissemination and so on acts as barriers to public use of d...

While it is a great positive change that data is being released through numerous efforts around the world, data release is not the same as Open Data release . A number of Canadian cities have announced Open Data initiatives, but they are not releasing Open Data. They are just releasing data. Of course, this is better than not releasing data. But let's at least be honest about what we are doing. Why aren't they Open Data? Because their licenses are not Open Data licenses: Not Open Data : Edmonton: " The City may, in its sole discretion, cancel or suspend your access to the datasets without notice and for any reason ..." - from Terms of Use Not Open Data : Vancouver: "The City may, in its sole discretion, cancel or suspend your access to the datasets without notice and for any reason..." - Terms of Use Not Open Data : Ottawa: " The City may, in its sole discretion, cancel or suspend your access to the datasets without notice and f...

Today, of course, U.S. president Barack Obama is visiting Ottawa . Much of the city is shut-down for the visit, at least from the perspective of getting around the city. Many are excited about his first visit outside of the U.S. as president. In related but much more minor news, my sister and mom breed and show p ortuguese water dogs (see MacDuff Kennels Portuguese Water Dogs ) , a breed that is a candidate for the Obama's next family dog . While their web site is rather anemic due to my own general neglect of the site, I do have Google Analytics turned-on, and we noticed a real spike on the site around the time of the U.S. presidential inauguration on Jan 20. Basically the site traffic doubled from its background level. Here is the graph of the time around the inauguration: By the way, if you are looking for a PWD puppy, my sister has 2 new litters born Dec 26 (8 puppies, most sold) and Jan 3 (10 puppies, some still available).

ICSTI2009 "Managing Data for Science" Conference From the site: ICSTI's 2009 Public conference will take place on June 9 and 10, 2009 at Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington Street, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Speakers from Canada, the United States and Europe will address: How eScience affects the way libraries, publishers and scientists relate to each other. How the era of "big data" will enable enhanced experimentation and collaboration in science. The program includes presentations from: Francine Berman San Diego Super-Computing Center, California Richard Boulderstone Director of e-Strategy and Programmes British Library, UK Jan Brase German National Library of Science and Technology, EU Lee Dirks Microsoft, State of Washington Peter Fox Rensselaer Polytechnic University, State of New York Paula Hurtubise Project Manager Carleton University, Ottawa Liz Lyon UKOLN University of Bath, UK James Mullins Purdue...