Tag Archives: Open Data

Open Data and collaboration

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Collaborating with research data is not new. It has been done fore a long time, at least when it comes to the weather data. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) started 1950. And is an organisation to that works to create a platform and standard for sharing weather data.

Or as they say on their website: “As weather, climate and the water cycle know no national boundaries, international cooperation at a global scale is essential for the development of meteorology and operational hydrology as well as to reap the benefits from their application.” WMO works to provide the framework for such international cooperation.

Who other then the the meteorologist can find this kind of data to be relevant? On what level should the data be shared?  Well for instance it could be useful for paragliding:

“[…] We need to know about local effects like thermal updrafts, clouds growth, mountain-breeze, foehn wind and all sorts of other micro weather effects. […]”

“[…] I discovered there was very little information available at this level of detail. The information exists, but is not displayed anywhere because it’s too specific.[…]”

“Opening the weather, part 2 (2013) http://blog.okfn.org/2013/06/20/opening-the-weather-part-2/[2015-10-14]

This information comes from an older blog post, is it still accurate when it comes to its description on the problems with getting specific weather data? I dont know. But SMHI seems to have good APIs for accessing their data. That it is relevant to share weather data is hard to argue, when everything is connected:


It is not always obvious whom might be interested in accessing the data. If you want to share your data, make sure that the data is well defined and easy to use. If you are about to start sharing your data you might want to ask svensk nationell datatjänst (SND) to help you out with this.

Text: Thomas

Conference: Mötesplats Open Access 2015

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One of the subjects on the conference was Open Data; making research data freely accessible. Sarah Callaghan one of the keynote speakers tells us about the need for making research data open, but also gives us some insight on why researchers are hesitant towards the initiative.

One issue is time, how can we make the data sustainable and usable in a longer perspective? And how much extra time does the researcher have allocate towards making the data fit these criteria. And what incentive does the researcher have for making the data available? Sarah points out that there have to be a reward model that is appropriate towards the risk of making the data available and the extra work effort that is needed for making the data open. She makes an example on what reaction can be expected using a quote from Terry Pratchets Unseen Accademicals: “I’m all for the free sharing of information, provided it’s them sharing their information with us.”

Turtle

This turtle is not from Pratchets discworld, and can’t carry  four elephants on it’s back and much less the world. But it is kinda cute.

From the Conference: Mötesplats Open Access (MOA) 2015. Malmö 14-15 April. You can find the presentations and the conference abstracts at: Mötesplats Open Access 2015 (note that the link goes to the Swedish site, you should still be able to find the keynote abstracts and presentations)

//Thomas Nyström, the library