Open Knowledge and the benefits for University-based research

Anna Gerber ITEE eResearch The University of Queensland

Open Knowledge Foundation Promoting the creation, sharing and application of Open Knowledge

https://okfn.org/

What is Open Knowledge? "Open knowledge is what open data becomes when it’s useful, usable and used."

- Open Knowledge Foundation

The Knowledge Hierarchy

Data => Knowledge Knowledge => Action

Knowledge is power em ment

Open

Why Open Knowledge? ! Empowering citizens, businesses, researchers

! Build on existing research, facilitate new discoveries from old data

! Transparency ! Allow re-analysis, verification, repeatability

! Creating social and commercial value

! Visibility

! Encouraging research collaboration, participation and engagement

! Citation

Why Not Open Knowledge? ! Personal vs Non-personal data ! Confidentiality

! Ethics

! Cultural sensitivity

! Legal reasons

! Commercial reasons

Open Knowledge within Universities ! Research publications ! Published articles

! Pre-print articles and technical papers ! Published through open access publishers

or self-archived in institutional repositories or field-specific repositories like arXiv.org

! Research data ! Raw data

! Processed data

The Open Definition

"Knowledge is open if anyone is free to access, use, modify, and share it — subject, at most, to measures that preserve provenance and openness."

- The Open Definition

http://opendefinition.org/

Key Features of Openness ! Universal

! Access

! Reuse and redistribution

Universal ! Anyone means anyone!

! Not restricted by purpose or field of endeavour

! Not subject to commercial restriction

Open Access ! Data and publications available as a

whole

! Available at reasonable cost (i.e. no more than costs of reproduction, distribution)

! Preferably available online

Reuse and redistribution ! Data and publications available in

convenient, standard formats

! Data available in modifiable, machine readable formats

! Data available in bulk

! Data available under an open license that permits re-use

Open Science Panton Principles (1/2) ! Panton Principles ! http://pantonprinciples.org/

! When publishing data make an explicit and robust statement of your wishes.

! Use a recognized waiver or license that is appropriate for data.

Panton Principles (2/2) ! If you want your data to be effectively used and

added to by others it should be open as defined by the Open Knowledge/Data Definition – in particular non-commercial and other restrictive clauses should not be used.

! Explicit dedication of data underlying published science into the public domain via PDDL or CCZero is strongly recommended and ensures compliance with both the Science Commons Protocol for Implementing Open Access Data and the Open Knowledge/Data Definition.

Open Source ! Open access to tools for producing, processing,

analyzing and publishing research data are key to the uptake of Open Knowledge in research !  Open Source Software

!  Open Source Hardware

!  Provide transparency as to how raw data was processed

!  Particularly important for data preservation: ensuring long-term universal access to complex data published via custom data formats

Open Learning ! Open educational resources (OER)

!  Resources for teaching and learning provided under open licenses

!  Empower non-experts to understand how to interpret and apply open research data to solve problems

Open Access Policies ! Many Institutions and funding bodies

such as the ARC or NHMRC have Open Access Policies

! Search policies by funding body: ! http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/juliet/

! UQ's Open Access for UQ Research Outputs Policy ! Publications should be published via UQ

espace as soon as possible after publication, within 12 months

Data is a platform

Data becomes knowledge when it is useful, usable, used

How to Publish Open Research Data? Before Data has been collected

1.  Obtain permission to share data when obtaining informed consent if working with human research

2.  Be clear about who owns and has the right to publish the data

After Data has been collected

1.  Decide whether it is useful or appropriate to publish the data

2.  Anonymise data as appropriate

3.  Select an open license

4.  Make the data available

5.  Make the data discoverable

Describing Open Data ! Metadata (data describing data) is

crucial for ensuring your research data can be: !  Discovered

!  Re-used

!  Shared

!  Cited

!  Preserved

!  Use standard metadata schemas such as Dublin Core and open machine-readable formats for the data itself to ensure your data will remain usable long-term

Where to Publish?

!  Talk to your librarian

!  Read ANDS Guides !  http://www.ands.org.au/guides/index.html

!  Read Open Data Handbook !  http://opendatahandbook.org/

!  Learn about Open Knowledge from OKFN AU

Need help?

!  UQ eSpace

! Domain-specific data repositories

What does the OKF do? !  Providing a bridge between open communities

!  Promoting open knowledge

!  Building networks through meetups & events

! Campaigning to open key data

! Developing open knowledge projects

!  Providing infrastructure for open knowledge projects e.g. web hosting, CKAN software

Bridging Communities !  Hackers !  Hackerspaces, Makerspaces, Developer Meetups

! Open Government !  Gov 2.0, GovCamp, AusGoal Practitioners

! Data Journalists !  Hacks/Hackers

!  Researchers !  NeCTAR OpenStack, Universities

! Citizens

! OKF Volunteers

OKF AU Governance

Software: CKAN ! Comprehensive Knowledge Archive Network

(CKAN)

! Open Source Open Data Portal software developed by OKFN

!  Used by many open data portals worldwide e.g. datahub.io project and data.gov.au

Software: Annotator ! Developed by OKFN for Open

Shakespeare project

!  Extended by UQ eResearch to support Open Annotation in the context of humanities research and scholarly editing

Meetups Open Knowledge Brisbane

http://www.meetup.com/Open-Knowledge-Brisbane-Meetup-Group/

Workshops, debates, social events

Events: GovHack ! 48 hour hackathon held annually each

July: ! 11 cities

! Over 1300 participants ! $256,000 in prizes

! Participants develop apps, web sites and data visualisations using open Government data http://www.govhack.org/

Example GovHack Projects !  ~200 projects developed over 48 hour period: !  AussieMon – UQ student project - Australian native

animal card game (like Pokemon)

!  When the heck am I? – overlays historical photos

!  Stat.Map – 3D based visualisations of open spatial data from ABS etc

!  Show the gap – visualises disparity between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians

UQ @ GovHack !  UQ student teams won several national and local

prizes including overall Best University Team

Events: Health Hack

Data hack for solving medical research problems

http://www.healthhack.com.au/

AU Projects: Hipster Map ! Community-developed and

maintained map of "hipster" locations around Melbourne

! http://hipstermelbourne.org/

Thanks

Contact:

Anna Gerber

ITEE eResearch, UQ

http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/eresearch/

a.gerber@uq.edu.au