Safe Storage and Transfer of Research Data - Free Seminar

For those of you in, or near Edinburgh, the Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility (WTCRF) is running a free lunchtime seminar on Wednesday 23rd September on the topic of ‘Safe Storage and Transfer of Research Data’.

The seminar will provide an update on the current policies for storing and transferring data (which have been recently revised) and will also provide an opportunity to voice concerns and ask questions. It is particularly relevant to both NHS Lothian and University of Edinburgh staff, and especially those who work across both institutions.

For more details please see the WTCRF site

IPR and Licensing Workshops - London

The Strategic Content Alliance is running a series of free IPR and Licensing workshops over the Autumn in London. These are aimed at policy makers and practitioners involved in the delivery of online content and services over the internet.

The practical workshops are designed to appeal anyone involved in the digital content lifecycle from creation to curation. They will provide an update about the IPR and licensing issues associated with the use and generation of digital content, recent case law, the types of tools which can be used to manage the issues provided through the toolkit, as well as an opportunity to test the tools against specific scenarios. The events will provide an opportunity to evaluate and critique the SCA IPR and Licensing Toolkit, recently created by Naomi Korn and Professor Charles Oppenheim.

There are three dates to choose from:
Thursday 8th October 2009,
Monday 26th October 2009, or
Thursday 12th November 2009.

The workshops will take place at MLA London, Fourth Floor, 53-56 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DG from 11:00 – 15:30 (including a free lunch).

New journal on the topic of open source software law

A short post to alert you to a new journal on the topic on open source software law.

The International Free and Open Source Software Law Review (IFOSS L. Rev.) is a collaborative legal publication aiming to increase knowledge and understanding among lawyers about Free and Open Source Software issues. Topics covered include copyright, licence implementation, licence interpretation, software patents, open standards, case law and
statutory changes.

I found the Foreword by Iain G Mitchell QC a rewarding read.

I particularly enjoyed his use of this excellent quote from Stewart Brand:

"Information wants to be free. Information also wants to be expensive. Information wants to be free because it has become so cheap to distribute, copy, and recombine - too cheap to meter. It wants to be expensive because it can be immeasurably valuable to the recipient. That tension will not go away. It leads to endless wrenching debate about price, copyright, 'intellectual property', the moral rightness of casual distribution, because each round of new devices makes the tension worse, not better."
The Media Lab: Inventing the Future at MIT

Implementing open data....and fruit skewers

Had an enjoyable day at the Beyond the Repository Fringe on Friday. Thanks a lot to the organisers.

The highlight for me was the tutorial from Jordan Hatcher & Jo Walsh on Implementing Open Data.

Jordan’s run down of the legal tools offered by Open Data Commons was useful. I was previously aware of these but thought it might be helpful to give a quick summary for those of you who are interested but couldn’t make it. For more details see www.opendatacommons.org

• Public Domain Dedication and Licence (PDDL) This is a tool for putting your data and databases into the public domain. It demonstrates your desire to relinquish or waive your rights, effectively dedicating the data and database to the public domain. Because there can be some difficulty with waiving rights in certain jurisdictions it also licenses those same rights.

• Community Norms Statement (CNS) Open Data Commons encourages the creation and use of a CNS as a complementary tool to the PDDL. A CNS sets out the general principles that those who use the data should adhere to. There is no set text for the CNSs as each community creates their own. However, you can see an example here. These are not legal documents so are not binding.

• Open Database Licence (ODbL) This is a tool to allow users to freely share, modify, and use a database, while maintaining the same freedom for others. The licensor allows others to use the database freely while retaining rights them self rather than giving all rights up to the public domain. The ODbL includes a share-alike condition but imposes no constraint on field of endeavour so does not have a non-commercial element. The final version of this was launched just a month ago on 29th June.

• Database Contents Licence (DbCL) This works alongside the ODbL. It waives all the rights in the individual contents of the database which is licensed under the ODbL. It does not cover database rights or database copyright.

P.S. loving the fruit skewers! Well done whoever thought of them.

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?

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.

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.