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 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------- collaborate, communicate, compete ===================================================================== _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
