Eric,
Nevermind letting people edit USGS datasets: it starts by giving the
datasets -- and maybe even the features within them -- cool URIs so
that other web resources can cite them and express relationships to
them. That's it. When that's done, authorized linked data users at the
USGS could find external resources with "in-bound" links and re-
incorporate them as they may.
Sean
On Mar 13, 2009, at 9:36 AM, Eric Wolf wrote:
"You do your little bit. Everybody does their little bit. That's what
linked data is all about" - or is that what the Borg is all about?
Nice shoutout to OSM in the talk.
Here's a problem - where some of the walls come in:
The USGS data holdings are vital to the security of the US. I don't
mean that preventing access creates security. I mean that if the
databases are corrupted, the ability of the government to respond to
threats (human or natural) is diminished. So we can't just open the
doors to the databases. Berners-Lee didn't predict the security
concerns created by his World Wide Web and he grossly underestimates
security in opening access to raw data. In his example of OSM, there
was nothing to stop him from putting in the wrong information or even
deleting the feature.
Further, the shoestring budgets the USGS has been on for the past
eight years has ensured that the USGS only has minimal capacity. The
databases are multiple petabytes in size. We have backups of
individual databases - but we can't create an entire separate copy of
the database.
Finally, the USGS is extremely sensitive to criticism. The past eight
years have made it even hard to publish established science. People
were getting fired for published good science just because it
countered the President's policies. The people who are left at the
USGS were able to work in that environment.
The benefits of linked data are obvious. But how do we actually get
there from here? The USGS should link data internally. Then we can
look at security concerns to open the linkages.
-Eric
-=--=---=----=----=---=--=-=--=---=----=---=--=-=-
Eric B. Wolf 720-209-6818
USGS Geographer
Center of Excellence in GIScience
PhD Student
CU-Boulder - Geography
On Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 8:38 AM, Paul Harwood <[email protected]> wrote:
http://tinyurl.com/bxua4r
Appropriate to the recent data disclosure discussions...
Kind regards
Paul Harwood
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