Open+data

= **Open data** = toc

The open data movement is similar to the open access movement. But where open access works towards unrestricted access to research papers, open data works to open access to data from sources such as governmental and educational institutions to the public. In particular open data advocates work to gain public access to data collected by government or organizations funded with citizen tax dollars, although this is not a limit to where freely available access to data is sought. Data is machine readable, generally “raw” in that it is not yet processed and meaning has not yet been obtained from it. When this data is made open and available, anyone can use it, analyze it and extract useful information.

Open data, like open access, is part of the overall movement towards open knowledge. “A piece of knowledge is open if you are free to use, reuse, and redistribute it” according to the definition published by opendefinition.org, http://www.opendefinition.org part of the Open Knowledge Foundation. http://okfn.org/ Open movements seek to make knowledge in various forms available to anyone, without restriction by copyright, patents or fee. The idea of open knowledge, open data, etc has gained popularity with the growth of the internet and the Web.

Why open data?
media type="custom" key="11710784" align="right" Advocates of open data argue that restrictions on access to, and on use of data are against the common good. When data is freely share it is possible to relate it to other data from other sources so that relationships can be seen. Open data is seen as essential to build the Semantic Web.

“To make the Semantic Web or Web of Data a reality, it is necessary to have a large volume of data available on the Web in a standard, reachable and manageable format. In addition the relationships among data also need to be made available. This collection of interrelated data on the Web can also be referred to as Linked Data. Linked Data lies at the heart of the Semantic Web: large scale integration of, and reasoning on, data on the Web.”

One of the strongest advocates of open data is Tim Berners-Lee, who World Wide Web. He now works toward building a web for open, linked data that will unlock our data and reframe the way we use it together. The two videos to the right are of him speaking at TED in 2009, and again in 2010 on the possibilities of open data.

Advocates of open data believe that it belongs to all humans, particularly when the media type="custom" key="11711538" align="right"data in consideration affects all of us. Medical science, genome and environmental data are frequently cited. If public monies were used to fund the work producing data, than it should be available to the public, particularly when created by a government agency or supported institution. They also hold that facts can not be legally copyrighted. Free access to data increase the rate of scientific research and progress.

Open data projects
Creative Commons is actively involved in the Open movement. They provide licenses that specify how works and information that is automatically copyrighted can be used, removing most or all of the standard copyright restrictions. In general works with a Creative Commons license are open to use by all, although there may be restriction requiring attribution, non-commercial use or limits on changes to the originals. Because Creative commons licenses make it possible to provide data legally open to all, it has made feasible several open data projects.A few include:
 * Creative Commons**


 * **Encyclopedia of Life** http://eol.org/


 * **Open Energy Info** [|Open Energy Info] is a knowledge sharing online community dedicated to connecting people with the latest information and data on energy resources from around the world.


 * **Personal Genome Project** http://www.personalgenomes.org/

[|Data.gov] was started by the US government in 2009 with the stated purpose “to increase public access to high value, machine readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government." http://www.data.gov/about As of December 2011 they provide access to 3743 raw datasets from numerous government agencies, and almost 400,000 geodata records.
 * Data.gov**

[|data.gov.uk] is, as you might expect, the UK equivalent of the US Data.gov web site. Their stated purpose is to “[release] public data to help people understand how government works and how policies are made” and to make it “easier for people to make decisions and suggestions about government policies based on detailed information.”
 * data.gov.uk**

The [|Open Knowledge Foundation] is a community-based, not-for-profit founded in 2004 in the UK. They currently have interests groups throughout the world, and chapters in eight countries, primarily in Europe, but also Brazil and Australia. Their purpose of the OKF network is to “build tools and communities to create, use and share open knowledge, content and data that everyone can use, build on and share.”
 * Open Knowledge Foundation**

Use of open data by librariesmedia type="custom" key="11711904" align="right"
With insuring that people have access to information as one of the primary purposes of libraries, it is not surprising that both libraries and librarians are involved in open data projects and organizations. Science Librarian Kiyomi Deards at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln posted a list of [|Open Data Open Science Links] in her blog Library Adventures.com.

Libraries around the world including the Library of Congress and many other national libraries are particularly involved in Linking Open Data projects. [|Linked Open Data in Libraries, Archives, and Museums] holds regular conferences on linking data and has active forum groups around various projects.