[od-discuss] definition clarification wrt password access

[Peter Murray-Rust]

"Open Access" when referred to scholarly publishing has been so corrupted
it's not a meaningful term.  I think I'd use the term Open Data in
preference.

There is a real problem in access to data caused by technical limitations.
Where the data "fits on a CDROM" or in dropbox it's possible to use normal
concepts. But when a data resource is only accessible through an API you
may not know the extent of it. In that case I think "Open data" should
include a concept of "give me an open listing of the data" and an API I can
use to iterate over it.

For example I have deposited 200,000 data sets in Cambridge University
repository but even I can't get them out as there is no search which
returns all of them and to build an iterator I have to write a program.
I've licensed them as PDDL (or CC-BY - forget which) but even though each
item is Open, I don't think I could call this "Open data".

And I *wanted* people to use the data!



On Fri, Dec 20, 2013 at 12:56 PM, Paul Norman <penorman at mac.com> wrote:

> > From: od-discuss [mailto:od-discuss-bounces at lists.okfn.org] On Behalf Of
> > Markus Fiebig
> > Sent: Friday, December 20, 2013 4:09 AM
> > To: od-discuss at lists.okfn.org
> > Subject: [od-discuss] definition clarification wrt password access
> >
> > Dear open-definition list members,
> >
> > being responsible for the WMO Global Atmosphere Watch World Data Centre
> for
> > Aerosol, I recently came across an interesting question concerning
> interpreting
> > the definition of open access. Suppose data was be available free of
> charge from
> > a website, but to get the data, you would need to apply for a username /
> > password account and log into the website to access the data - would
> > that qualify as open access?
>
> It's worth noting that any data under an open license can be reproduced on
> a
> third
> party site where registration is not required, so frankly, registration is
> often
> pointless. I do understand there are sometimes technical reasons such as a
> data
> warehouse where data is not delivered immediately where it's important to
> have a
> registration so you can contact the person when their data is ready, but
> otherwise
> a registration is probably not productive.
>
> I guess this brings up the question, when is data under an open license not
> open data?
>
> If the data is under an open license does not change despite any
> registration
> process or fees placed on it, but I wouldn't want to call access only after
> an excessive fee or onerous registration requirements "open access".
>
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-- 
Peter Murray-Rust
Reader in Molecular Informatics
Unilever Centre, Dep. Of Chemistry
University of Cambridge
CB2 1EW, UK
+44-1223-763069
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