[open-science] open-science Digest, Vol 6, Issue 5

Mon Mar 16 11:43:00 UTC 2009

2009/3/16 Ian Mulvany <ian at mulvany.net>:
> Is there an index of data repositories?

There's a collection of open data tagged 'science' on CKAN.

  http://ckan.net/tag/read/science

CKAN is a community driven registry - and we encourage anyone to add
to it, if they know of any other open datasets!

> Who is gearing up to curate and maintain BIG data? Google pulled out, Amazon
> is starting to get it's feet wet in this area, anyone else?

Amazon's Deepak Singh has been looking into open datasets for Amazon
Web Services. I've corresponded with him about adding material listed
on CKAN - and they are always interested in hearing of new data they
could add.

My own feeling is that something community driven has the *potential*
to be more rich and comprehensive than something curated - mainly
because this could draw on the expertise of people working in lots of
different areas, who have up to date knowledge of what is available.
Ideally this would be a 'living' directory, integrated into the
working practice of many who work with data, who clean it up and
re-use it, and so on. Also people could take on curatorial/editorial
roles in relation to certain collections. What do people think?

We discussed this (specifically in relation to CKAN), and other things
at the 'Workshop on Finding and Re-using Open Scientific Resources',
last autumn:

  http://okfn.org/wiki/OpenScience/Workshop

Also I think this is now within the remit of the new working group on
open data in science:

  http://okfn.org/wiki/wg/science

Warm regards,

-- 
Jonathan Gray

Community Coordinator
The Open Knowledge Foundation
http://www.okfn.org