[okfn-coord] Open Data Commons - future work

Tue Nov 25 21:02:38 UTC 2008

On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 12:39 PM, Jordan S Hatcher
<jordan at opencontentlawyer.com> wrote:
> Hi fellow OKFN'ers

Great to hear from you Jordan.

> This is sort of a brain dump on open data.
>
> I want to see the Open Data Commons project get some life, and I'm
> too busy to do it.
>
> I think that now is the time to try to start pulling together some of
> the resources behind the one finished licence -- the Public Domain
> Dedication and Licence (PDDL) -- and the developing Open Database
> Licence (ODbL). There is a lot of interest right now in Open Data and
> I think that if we can get some organisation behind these two
> licences we can have a positive impact.

Totally agree. I'll respond more below ...

> As of now, the Open Data Commons as a project has a home with OKFN.
> I'd like this home to be permanent, and I think that we can get some
> support from a number of other organisations to help facilitate the
> project (both resources and possibly monetary).
>
> ==Summary of where we are at:
>
> -- PDDL is released and being used
> -- ODbL (the copyleft one) is in draft status and going to be adopted
> by Open Street Map once finished.
>
> ==My thoughts on where we should go:
>
> -- A new website or updating of current one for:
> ---- updates on the licences
> ---- updates on the use of the licences
> ---- general news about open data

Yes this is top priority. I think we should:

  a) switch the opendefinition.org site to wordpress
  a) merge opendatacommons site/material into that site

> -- Explanatory materials about the licences and how they should be
> used.  This is critical to build up a set of common understandings
> and community consensus about what the terms of the licence mean: the
> Courts to the licence's constitution.

Entirely agree though to do this we need someone to volunteer to that end.

> -- A platform for chat about open data and the licences by the
> general public (could be a mailing list)

Again agree though I think for this to work we need someone/some group
to take responsibility for this. OD Advisory Council was sort of set
up for this purpose though you'd need some specific person within that
to take responsibility. If the AC wants to remain fairly hands-off and
name-platey (which is possible given membership) perhaps we could
start a dedicated OD/ODC 'working group' who were actually tasked with
the day-to-day running of things.

> -- A way that people can contribute and discuss future versions of
> the licence

Logical idea would be to do this on a wiki, and most obviously the
OKFN main wiki.

> -- A way that people can contribute and discuss the ODbL as it is
> being developed.
>
> ==My role
>
> As you all probably know I switched jobs over the summer and have
> been a lot busier (that's the rub with private practice).  I want to
> still remain involved, but want to only spend my time on the legal
> aspects and advising the project generally.

Quite understand.

> ==Other sources of help
>
> I think that if we start to make a call out for other sources of
> assistance that we will get some offers relatively quickly -- if we
> can show some project organisation and interest from other parties.

I think you are right. More generally we are going on a bit of a
fund-raising drive and are trying to get individual and institutional
'supporters' who sign up to make a regular donation, see:

http://www.okfn.org/support/

> ==Next steps
>
> So that is more or less it.  I can give someone the details for the
> current site at opendatacommons.org and they can start hacking on

We still haven't got the transfer of the domain from whoever at Talis
registered it. I know you bugged them a while ago about it but nothing
seems to have happened.

> some of the above.  I'm too busy with trying to work with OSM's pro
> bono legal counsel on the legal aspects of the ODbL to do too much
> more at the moment, but I don't want to leave it too long.

There seem to be 3 things we really need to do:

1. Get (maybe small) working group together of people who are actually
willing to work on this in the short term
2. Identify people/orgs who should be donating money in order to
support this going forward
3. Sort out the website

If we keep all of these focused and realistic this should be pretty easy.

> I'd also like to have a physical meeting if that is possible sometime
> soon about the project.  But first maybe we should have an IRC
> meeting or a conference call -- I'd prefer a conference call.

Conference call or IRC sounds good. Can you take the lead on
suggesting times and numbers?

Rufus