Open data is data that anyone is free to use, reuse and redistribute without restriction (except, perhaps the requirements to attribute and sharealike). For precise details seehttp://opendefinition.org/.
Why Does Openness and Licensing Matter?
Why bother about openness and licensing for data? After all they don’t matter in themselves: what we really care about are things like the progress of human knowledge or the freedom to understand and share.
However, open data is crucial to progress on these more fundamental items. It’s crucial because open data is so much easier to break-up and recombine, to use and reuse.
Licensing is important because it removes uncertainty. Without a license you don’t know where you, as a user, stand: when are you allowed to use this data? Are you allowed to give to others? To distribute your own changes, etc?
Together, a definition of openness, plus a set of conformant ‘open’ licenses deliver clarity and simplicity. Not only is interoperability ensured between different sets of open data but people can know at a glance, and without having to go through a whole lot of legalese, what they are free to do....
The other two questions covered:
So How Can I Make My Data Open?
How Do I License My Data?
Posted by
Peter Suber at 5/18/2009 03:08:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
