Taking a step back...
This is the Blue Obelisk, a community which started by happenstance at an
ACS meeting. I deliberately had no official membership, constitution,
meetings or whatever. Occasionally we meet at dinner. "We" is anyone who
...? Occasionaly people get obelisks. We have web pages, we have volunteers.
We tell the world about ourselves.
We have a mantra (ODOSOS - which I thought would be a useful thing to group
around).
We write code, create data, create specs which we think will be useful for
everyone. We strive for interoperability. This is primarily by keeping in
touch. Anyone can play.
That's the totality of the formality. Our terms are vague. I believe
deliberately.
If we try to define ourselves too fully then we are in danger of losing the
spontaneity. If there are real serious problems at the present which need
sorting then maybe we can address them.
I can promise you that you will not be able to define "Open Data" (part of
the Blue Obelisk Mantra) by referring to Open Source. CC and OKF have been
involved in trying to formalize it and it only goes so far. The best
approach for me is "community norms" - i.e. trying to iterate towards what
the community does, how it might be improved, etc.
This is an evolutionary process. I have changed my views considerably over
the last (say) 25 years while I have been working towards interoperability
in chemistry. The present is better than it was 25 years ago. Some of that
has been imperceptible change and simply changes of opinion (it now seems
that most people regard MDL and SMILES as "open" - that was definitely not
true when they were launched).
I know that we are not all going to agree - but we should aim for
interoperating as much as possible.
P.
--
Peter Murray-Rust
Reader in Molecular Informatics
Unilever Centre, Dep. Of Chemistry
University of Cambridge
CB2 1EW, UK
+44-1223-763069
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