Newsletters/5

[okfn-announce] Open Knowledge Foundation Newsletter No. 5 Fri Jan 25 16:00:30 GMT 2008

Welcome to the fifth Open Knowledge Foundation newsletter.

Contents:

* New legal options for making data open * Response to Library of Congress report * Open Environmental Data project * Talk at the first COMMUNIA workshop * Other news in brief * Support the Open Knowledge Foundation! * Further information

NEW LEGAL OPTIONS FOR MAKING DATA OPEN

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In December Science Commons announced the 'Protocol for Implementing Open Access Data'. Jordan Hatcher simultaneously launched the 'Public Domain Dedication & License (PDDL)'. Both were developed with input and feedback from the Open Knowledge Foundation to ensure compliance with the Open Knowledge Defition (opendefinition.org).

A beta of a new Creative Commons license for data, CCZero, has also just been released.

'Good news for open data: Protocol for Implementing Open Access Data, Open Data Commons PDDL and CCZero' 

Protocol for Implementing Open Access Data 

ODC Public Domain Dedication and Licence 

CCZero 

RESPONSE TO LIBRARY OF CONGRESS REPORT

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The OKF responded to the Library of Congress report on the 'Future of Bibilographic Control' making the case that they should promote open licensing for bibliographic metadata. Over 150 groups and individuals co-signed the response, including Lawrence Lessig, Brewster Kahle and Tim O’Reilly.

Response to ‘The Future of Bibliographic Control’ draft from the Library of Congress 

Response and signatories 

OPEN ENVIRONMENTAL DATA PROJECT

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The Open Environmental Data project aims to document public domain and other freely reusable environmental datasets. In addition to registering packages of data on CKAN, we'd like to provide an overview of relevant research organisations, data distributors and free/open source software, as well as summarising law and policies specifically pertaining to environmental data.

Open Environmental Data 

'The IPCC Data Distribution Centre - environmental data licensing' 

TALK AT THE FIRST COMMUNIA WORKSHOP

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COMMUNIA, the new 'European Thematic Network on the Digital Public Domain' had their first workshop in January. The OKF suggested COMMUNIA members work together to to create a set of 'public domain calculators' and to pool open metadata - whether for artistic works or databases.

First COMMUNIA Workshop - “Technology and the Public Domain” 

Open Knowledge: Promises and Challenges 

OTHER NEWS IN BRIEF

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- Cofundos project is launched for 'community innovation and funding' 

- Eduserv study on open content licensing in cultural heritage sector published 

- UK Government start to develop PSI Reuse Request Service 

- Free Knowledge Institute is launched 

SUPPORT THE OPEN KNOWLEDGE FOUNDATION!

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A donation to the Open Knowledge Foundation would greatly help us with our overhead costs, including hosting (currently around £1000/year) and project development. To find out more about supporting our work, please visit:

http://www.okfn.org/support

FURTHER INFORMATION

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If you would like to know more about what we are up to, please take a look at our active projects page.

http://www.okfn.org/projects/

If you are interested in participating in any of the OKF's projects, please see our participate page, or join the OKF discuss list.

http://www.okfn.org/participate/ http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-discuss

For further news and comments, see our blog:

http://blog.okfn.org

The Open Knowledge Foundation is a not-for-profit organization. It is incorporated in the United Kingdom as a company limited by guarantee with company number 5133759. The registered office is 37 Panton Street, Cambridge, CB2 1HL, UK.