Tuesday 28 July 2009

Beyond the Repository Fringe

There’s a quirky event taking place in Edinburgh later this week that you may want to consider attending. Beyond the Repository Fringe 09 takes place in the Informatics forum at the University of Edinburgh on the 30th and 31st July Details of the programme are available here.

I'm particularly interested in two parts of the event. Firstly, the Digital Curation 101 ‘Lite’ tutorial (naturally!) that is being run for members of the DCC Associates Network. Secondly, what promises to be an interesting tutorial by Jordan Hatcher and Jo Walsh on implementing open data. They will be talking about the work of the Open Knowledge Foundation, including CKAN and Knowledge Forge. This will be followed with an in-depth session on the legal side of open data, including the new legal tools available through Open Data Commons, including a database specific copyleft license.

Registration (which is free) for Beyond the Repository Fringe 09 is available here.

See you there?

Thursday 23 July 2009

FOI and preservation

Michael Wills, the UK’s Justice Minister has announced the publication of a new Code of Practice on managing digital and other records. He said

"Freedom of Information depends on good record keeping and the preservation of information is important if we are to further increase transparency in public life. The updated Code of Practice is a significant step in ensuring that key records remain accessible to public bodies for day to day business and are preserved for future generations."

The Code makes the excellent point (Introduction, para iv) that “Freedom of information legislation is only as good as the quality of the records and other information to which it provides access.” I couldn’t agree more.

The Code recommends public bodies across the country introduce a strategy for the preservation of digital records to ensure that they can continue to be accessed and used and are resilient to future changes in technology.

Click here to read the announcement on the Ministry of Justice website.

Click here to read the new Code Of Practice.

Wednesday 22 July 2009

First British Standard in Data Protection

You may have read recently about the introduction of the first British Standard dealing specifically with Data Protection.

BS10012 Data protection. Specification for a personal information management system has been developed to establish best practice and aid compliance with data protection legislation. It is the first standard for the management of personal information.

The British Standards Institute website explains that BS10012 “specifies the requirements for a personal information management system (PIMS), which provides an infrastructure for, among other things, maintaining and improving compliance with the Data Protection Act (DPA) 1998.”

The new standard does not prescribe exactly how operations should be run, but instead provides a framework which will enable effective management of personal information. It is intended that it be used by organizations of any size and sector to create a tailored management system which includes procedures in areas such as training and awareness, risk assessment, data sharing, retention and disposal of data and disclosure to third parties.

The DCC will be publishing a Standards Watch Paper written by Sarah Higgins on BS10012 shortly. I will be sure to let you know once this is out.

For more information on the Data Protection Act please see this DCC Briefing Paper on the topic.

Tuesday 21 July 2009

Facebook accused of breaching Canadian privacy laws

The BBC reported on Friday that Canada's Privacy Commissioner has recommended steps to ensure social networking site Facebook protects the privacy of Canadian users of the service, and meets requirements of Canadian privacy legislation. The Canadian Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart laid out the findings of a report which said Facebook's information about privacy practices was "often confusing or incomplete", and urged the site to make its policies more transparent to users.

One area of breach is Facebook's policy of holding on to subscribers' personal information, even after their accounts had been deactivated.

It was also criticised for failing to adequately restrict access of users' personal details to some of the 950,000 developers in 180 countries who provide applications, such as games, for the site.

It is reported that Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly has said Facebook is working with the Canadian commission to resolve the issues.

For more information you can read the news release on the website of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or look at the report itself.

Friday 17 July 2009

Digital Curation Conference deadline extended

Some of you may be interested in submitting a paper to this conference. The conference organisers are interested in receiving papers on a range of legal and policy issues, including: Creative Commons, special licences, the public domain and other approaches for re-use, questions of privacy, consent, and embargo.

5th International Digital Curation Conference (IDCC09)
Moving to Multi-Scale Science: Managing Complexity and Diversity.
2 – 4 December 2009, Millennium Gloucester Hotel, London, UK.
**************************************************************************
We are pleased to announce that the Paper Submission date for IDCC09 has been extended by 2 weeks to Friday 7 August 2009: http://www.dcc.ac.uk/events/dcc-2009/call-for-papers/
Remember that submissions should be in the form of a full or short paper, or a one page abstract for a poster, workshop or demonstration.
Presenting at the conference offers you the chance to:-

* Share good practice, skills and knowledge transfer
* Influence and inform future digital curation policy & practice
* Test out curation resources and toolkits
* Explore collaborative possibilities and partnerships
* Engage educators and trainers with regard to developing digital curation skills for the future

Speakers at the conference will include:-

* Timo Hannay – Publishing Director, Nature.com
* Professor Douglas Kell – Chief Executive of the Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)
* Dr. Ed Seidel, Director of the National Science Foundation’s Office of Cyberinfrastructure

All papers accepted for the conference will be published in the International Journal of Digital Curation

Sent on behalf of the Programme Committee –

co-chaired by Chris Rusbridge, Director of the Digital Curation Centre, Liz Lyon, Director of UKOLN and Clifford Lynch, Executive Director of the Coalition for Networked Information.

Wednesday 15 July 2009

FOI for Researchers workshop in Glasgow

Some of you may be interested in attending this useful upcoming workshop being held by the Research Information Network.

Freedom of Information: what’s in it for researchers?” is being held on the
14 September from 10:00 to 16:00 at The Lighthouse, 11 Mitchell Lane, Glasgow, G1 3NU

The Research Information Network is holding this free event to raise awareness of the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) as a tool for researchers and to aid understanding of the access regime. The day will cover how to use FOI to access records and information and how to make successful requests. Case studies will be presented to explore how to use FOI in practice, offering strategies for what works well for particular disciplines and types of research and insights will be provided from the Scottish perspective.

Key speakers:
• Professor Duncan Tanner – Director, Welsh Institute for Social and Cultural Affairs, Bangor University
• Sarah Hutchinson - Head of Policy and Information, Scottish Information Commissioner
• Bruno Longmore – Head of Government Records, National Archives of Scotland
• Hugh Hagan – Senior Inspecting Officer Government Records Branch, National Archives of Scotland

The workshop is aimed at academic researchers; other research workers, such as journalists; librarians, archivists and other information professionals who provide research services and research training; compliance officers interested in facilitating access and advising requestors and public policy makers in the access to information arena.

Click here for the full programme, more information or to book a free place.