[open-heritage] Open data from cultural heritage organisations?

[Rob Myers]

On 11/20/2010 05:05 PM, ianibbo at gmail.com wrote:
 >
 > One of the things thats always interested me a bit (We should do a
 > conf call again soon :)) is the OKFN's obsession with big data files.
 > CultureGrid is entirely downloadable, just not as massive data files,
 > providing an OAI interface instead. There seems to be some resistance
 > in OKFN to anything other than data files as a means for distributing
 > content? I've been minded to write an OAI ->  Datafile service, but it
 > feels a bit icky somehow. Is there a resistance to OAI or is it just
 > not well enough understood?

I appreciate that APIs can be very useful for institutions on a number 
of levels, and that they may be the price of access. But as someone who 
works with both web APIs and big old blobs of data I would say that the 
latter are less hassle to use, a more reliable resource, and more 
supportive of serious analysis.

 > In terms of the license - It's difficult because the data belongs to
 > the providers not the aggregator. I think Nick Poole was taking an
 > interest in the licensing issue, it's something we should re-visit.

It would be great if the licence could be made data.gov.uk compatible.

- Rob.