Open Data: The Panton Discussions

If you are interested in the Open Data (OD) movement but unclear about the issues, or what scientists can do to support the movement, what better way of finding out than by talking to leading OD advocates Peter Murray-Rust of the University of Cambridge and Jordan Hatcher of Open Data Commons.

That was what I did last Tuesday as part of a new initiative called the Panton Discussions. The first in a planned series, the event lasted around two hours and took place in the Panton Arms in Cambridge.

Below is a sample of the kind of questions discussed:

* What is Open Data and why is the OD movement important? What is the problem it aims to fix?

* Amongst the OD tools available there is the Public Domain Dedication and Licence (PDDL), a process of Public Domain Dedication and Certification (PDDC), and Creative Commons Zero (CC0). What are these tools, how do they work, and how do they differ?

* Likewise, there is the Science Commons Protocol for Implementing Open Access Data and the Open Knowledge/Data Definition. How do these differ? Why do we need two similar initiatives?

* More recently we have also seen the introduction of The Panton Principles? What do this initiative provide that was not available before?

* Where does Open Data fit with Open Access (OA)?

* Where does Open Science fit in?

* What about Open Notebook Science (ONS)? Where does OD fit with ONS?

* How should scientists go about making their data open? What pitfalls do they need to avoid?

Help sought

Peter hopes to crowdsource the creation of a transcript of the discussion. Jamaica Jones and Graham Steel have both kindly offered to help, but more volunteers would make the task easier, and quicker. Peter can be contacted by email here.