STEVEN DE COSTASteering Group Member

@STARL3N

CKAN SYDNEY MEETUP 4 SEPTEMBER 2015

Introduction 2

Link Digital Executive Director

CKAN AssociationSteering Group Member

Open Knowledge AustraliaCo-Secretary & Treasurer

Data ShadesFounder

GovHackNational Organiser

AWS User GroupCBR Organiser

Data portal software:1. Open Source2. Large and expanding installation base

within Government worldwide3. Expanding use cases in the wider data

ecosystem4. Python web app, PostgreSQL DB5. Built for machines,

custodians and end users

WHAT IS CKAN?

LEARN MORE AT CKAN.org

DOWNLOAD FROM github.com/ckan/ckan

1. >> Organisations (optionally with sub-organisations)2. >> >> Datasets3. >> >> >> Resources

4. >> Platform Custodian5. >> >> Organisation Custodian, Editor or Member

6. >> Published or Private datasets

CKAN STRUCTURE

1. >> Constitution2. >> >> Parliamentary Legislation and Acts (Jurisdiction = Platform)3. >> >> >> Ministries (Organisation)4. >> >> >> >> Programs (Sub-Organisations)5. >> >> >> >> >> Projects (Datasets)6. >> >> >> >> >> >> Outcomes (Resources)

CKAN USE CASE PARADIGM

1. User registration2. User management3. Custodian workflows (manage datasets and data resources)4. Directory Browse by organisation or group5. Faceted search for multiple fields (supporting end user discovery)6. Resource views to preview data (a recently improved feature)7. Metadata view

CKAN UI

1. Create an organistation (usually done by platform owner)2. Login as member of organisation3. Click ‘add dataset’ 4. Step 1: Add a title, description and other metadata5. Step 2: Add resources (links to data or upload data files for hosting)6. Step 3: Add any additional info

CKAN CUSTODIAN WORKFLOW

1. Title2. Description: Using markdown as required3. Keywords: some keywords (or tags) that describe your data.4. License (required): a dropdown of available licenses for data.gov.au (the default is Creative

Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia)5. Organisation: a dropdown of organisations you can publish to. Most users can only publish to a

single organisation. This will be automatically filled in.6. Visibility: whether the dataset will be viewable to all users once complete. The default is private.7. Geospatial Coverage (required): inherited from organisation metadata this is the area which the

data covers. It can be; a point/polygon (Well-known text); an administrative boundary API; or, a reference URL (website address) from the National Gazatteer. Gazetteer reference URLs can be found by searching for a place at http://www.ga.gov.au/place-names/ then clicking through to the most appropriate location "Reference ID", and then copying and pasting the URL from the page into the Geospatial field in data.gov.au.

CKAN METADATA FOR DATA.GOV.AU

8. Temporal Coverage From / To (required): the span of time from/to which the data is applicable. If the data applies only to a single point in time you should only fill in the Temporal Coverage From field.

9. Language: the language in which the dataset is published. The default is English.10. Data Status (required): the status of the data with regard to whether it is kept updated (active,

yes) or historic (inactive, no).11. Update Frequency (required): how often the dataset is updated. Eg: Daily, Weekly, Never. (for

remote machine readable files this field will be used to fetch new versions of this data)12. Expose User Contact Information: display additional contact information for the dataset.13. AGIFT Function/Theme: the AGIFT top level government function to which the dataset relates.14. Publisher: name of Agency/publishing organisation. The default is set to the organisation’s

name.15. Jurisdiction: name of the jurisdiction in which the dataset belongs. The default is set to the

organisation’s jurisdiction.

CKAN METADATA FOR DATA.GOV.AU

1. Join the dev mailing list (monitored by tech team):https://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/ckan-dev

2. Search Stack overflow under CKAN:http://stackoverflow.com/search?q=CKAN

3. Check the roadmap on waffle.io:https://waffle.io/ckan/ideas-and-roadmap

4. Join a tech team meeting:http://ckan.org/about/technical-team/

WHERE TO GET HELP

CKAN API DOCUMENTATION

1. Get JSON-formatted lists of a site’s datasets, groups or other CKAN objects

2. Get a full JSON representation of a dataset, resource or other object

3. Search for packages or resources matching a query

4. Create, update and delete datasets, resources and other objects

5. Get an activity stream of recently changed datasets on a site

CKAN API

1. CKAN as an Information Asset Register

2. FileStore – For hosting of data and resources

3. DataStore - provides a database for structured storage of data together with a powerful Web-accessible Data API

4. License Selection (machine ready?)

5. Harvesting

A FEW MORE POINTS

Delivering the world’s best open data management systemThe purpose of the CKAN Association is to support sustainable growth and development of CKAN while also protecting the interests of the CKAN community.The Association values a healthy and thriving community which continues to deliver the best open data management system in the world.

CKAN ASSOCIATION: STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

Community interests, or needs, can be generalised as:1. Users need an enterprise level open data management system tailored to meet their needs

now and into the future.2. Individual contributors need a project that is rewarding to work for, inclusive and active.

COMMUNITY INTERESTS

Who owns or directly manages the CKAN project? The project, its releases and future direction are cooperatively managed by its community of users and contributors. Association delegates, staff and office holders may be active within the project but will exercise no more or less influence than any other contributor or user.

More information about CKAN and how to contribute can be found at CKAN.org.

DELEGATION TO SERVE AND PROTECT

What is the current structure of the CKAN Association?See http://ckan.org The steering group carries on a number of business activities.This includes raising revenue, managing resources and directing projects or programs of activity relevant to the CKAN Association’s statement of purpose.

COMPLETENESS OF PURPOSE

FORMAL MEMBERSHIPS

It's easy to find people willing to fund or work on the flashier parts of CKAN, and there is some funding for core work such as meetings and preparing releases. But there are a few important things that aren't getting addressed.

Fix Security IssuesThere are a small number of known issues that high profile sites work around by implementing workflows and tight controls over users and data published. Everyone else would benefit from a more-secure-by-default CKAN.Clear Technical DebtCKAN, has some parts that should be replaced or removed. This work doesn't add any new features and worse, threatens to break upgrades for existing sites and extensions. It is necessary work though. Unless performance and technical limitations are addressed they will grow and start turning users away from CKAN.

Ref: https://github.com/ckan/ideas-and-roadmap/issues/152 - Raised by Ian Ward, Tech Team Lead

HOW MEMBERSHIPS BENEFIT CKAN

1. Large installation base of significant platforms2. Open Source projects favoured by technical influencers, driving adoption3. Historical association with Open Knowledge adds significant ‘open’ credibility4. Support via Open Knowledge opens direct and indirect funding support5. Global awareness of CKAN due to many years in the market6. CKAN Association is established with strong representatives from three continents7. Established, experienced and professional technical team8. Extension model allows for customisations9. CKAN can be integrated with WordPress or Drupal10. Free to use11. A number of private companies now specialise in CKAN services12. Public roadmap for future features

OUR STRENGTHS

1. Current reliance on Open Knowledge funded contributors2. Technical debt (python framework needs replacement)3. Relatively* low activity on roadmap feature development4. Community and Communications Team lacks resources5. Technical team is relatively* small6. Relatively* small number of private companies specialise in CKAN services

* Compare with projects with such significant adoption in enterprises

OUR WEAKNESSES

1. Partnerships within data and civic app sector2. Many markets where CKAN is being considered3. Markets are growing4. CKAN is a technically interesting project for potential contributors5. Attractive to internal technical teams within Government6. Use case ‘distributions’ to meet new verticals7. Use case extensions can increase the value of current installations8. Regular update releases supporting a vendor community9. Vendor community can grow awareness, demand and installations of CKAN

OUR OPPORTUNITIES

10. An effective communications effort can grow awareness of the project11. A modified license would allow CKAN to be integrated with commercial applications12. Revenue from formal membership tiers can fund business activities13. In-kind contributions from formal membership can advance business activities14. Domain specific working groups can align the project with various global activities and market

segments15. Ensuring broad interoperability to widen use cases and adoption within various solution 16. Direct alignment with OK initiatives, such as OpenSpending, for increasing the value of CKAN

OUR OPPORTUNITIES

1. Alternatives to CKAN could gain in popularity, degrading contributor interest2. Project is overly reliant on support from Open Knowledge3. Possibility of user churn out, degrading the user base4. Supply of enterprise services fails to meet demand for services, killing adoption5. Project could fork in too many directions if doesn’t evolve to meet user needs over the long

term.6. Contributors churn out, leaving the community without new contributors entering

OUR THREATS

STEVEN DE COSTASteering Group Member

@STARL3N

CKAN SYDNEY MEETUP 4 SEPTEMBER 2015