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Workshop on Open Data for Human Development - Sessions Report
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/workshop-on-open-data-for-human-development-2015-06-report
<b>CIS facilitated a workshop on open data policy and tools for government officials from Sikkim, Meghalaya, and Tripura, and those from Bhutan and Maldives, in June 2015. The workshop was co-facilitated with Akvo, DataMeet, and Mapbox, and was supported by International Centre for Human Development of UNDP India. Here we share the workshop report and other related documents. The report is written by Sumandro, along with Amitangshu Acharya of Akvo.</b>
<p> </p>
<h2>Day 01, June 03, 2015</h2>
<p>The first day of the workshop began with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prem_Das_Rai"><strong>Mr. Prem Das Rai</strong></a>, Honourable MP, Loksabha, Sikkim, briefly addressing the participants. He contextualised the workshop against the background of technological changes and emerging opportunities of governance through effective usages of data. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._K._Shiva_Kumar"><strong>Dr. A.K. Shiva Kumar</strong></a>, Director of the <a href="http://www.undp.org/content/india/en/home/operations/projects/human-development/the-international-centre-for-human-development.html">International Centre for Human Development (IC4HD)</a>, UNDP India, welcomed the participants and initiated a panel discussion on data, ICTs and governance. The panel had three speakers: <a href="https://twitter.com/SrivatsaKrishna"><strong>Mr. Srivatsa Krishna</strong></a>, IAS and Secretary, <a href="https://www.bangaloreitbt.in/">Department of Information Technology, Biotechnology, and Science and Technology</a>, Government of Karnataka; <a href="http://www.cgg.gov.in/adg_profile.html"><strong>Dr. B. Gangaiah</strong></a>, Additional Director General, <a href="http://www.cgg.gov.in/">Centre for Good Governance</a>, Hyderabad; and <a href="https://twitter.com/sunil_abraham"><strong>Sunil Abraham</strong></a>, Executive Director, <a href="http://cis-india.org/">the Centre for Internet and Society</a>, Bengaluru and Delhi.</p>
<p><strong>Mr. Krishna</strong> spoke about the strategies adopted in setting up IT and ITES clusters in Cyberabad, Andhra Pradesh and in Bengaluru, Karnataka. He noted that tax cuts and accelerated land allocation are key to incentivising the private sector to set up IT and ITES units. Another major concern is that of ensuring supply of good quality IT workers. He also emphasised on the need for governments to build effective public facing electronic services - either in the form of Nemmadi Kendras, where people can physically go to access various government services, or in the form of mobile applications that bring different civic services into one digital interface, like <a href="https://www.bangaloreone.gov.in/public/default.aspx">Bangalore One</a> and <a href="https://www.mobile.karnataka.gov.in/goken/login.aspx">Karnataka Mobile One</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Dr. Gangaiah</strong> gave an extensive overview of the idea and applications of open data in the contexts of governance and development. He noted that government data (in India) often suffers from criticisms related to quality, as well as the lack of availability of the same in public domain. The key problems, he identified, for opening up government data in India are that most often the data is collected by a government agency for a very specific purpose, and the steps required to ensure wider circulation and use of the same is not taken (such as lack of documentation and interoperability of data); and that the government agencies most often consider the collected data as a source of power, and hence as something to be retained and not disclosed in full details. The slides from Dr. Gangaiah’s presentation can be accessed <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7xi0bhhq-OxcGs3UndvWDZJMlk/view?usp=sharing">here</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Mr. Abraham</strong>’s presentation highlighted several areas of concern when deploying data-driven techniques and solutions for human development challenges. He described how the current phase of open data discussions by central and state governments in India represent the third phase of ‘openness’ in governance in India. While the first phase focused on usage of Free/Libre Open Source Softwares in building electronic governance applications and information systems, the second phase involved embracing of open software standards and formats across government information systems and IT solutions. It is very important to note that with the third phase of openness focusing on opening up of data and information, both of these earlier foci of free and open source softwares, and open standards and interoperability are returning as complementary components to ensure seamless publication of open government data. However, he argued, when deploying data-driven techniques and solutions for human development challenges, it is imperative to remember three things: 1) collection of data is a time- and effort-consuming task, and hence must be optimised so as to not to take away time and effort from actual developmental interventions, 2) bad quality of development data is a structural problem, often emanating from the data being not useful to the person actually collecting it, and 3) availability of data does not automatically change or open up the process of decision-making.</p>
<p>The second session of the day started with a detailed presentation by <strong>Mr. T. Samdup</strong>, Joint Director, Department of Information Technology, Government of Sikkim, on the context, the making, and the salient features of the <a href="http://www.sikkim.gov.in/stateportal/Link/SODAAP%20Policy%20Document.pdf">Sikkim Open Data Acquisition and Accessibility Policy (SODAAP)</a>, 2014. He explained that the Policy mandates setting up of an online state data portal that will host all data sets generated by various agencies of the Government of Sikkim, and making such data available, subject to concerns of privacy and security, across all state government agencies and the citizens in general. The key needs driving this Policy have been that for availability of accurate and timely data on various aspects of human development in the state, as well as for reducing expenses and confusions due to duplication of data collection efforts. The slides from Mr. Samdup’s presentation can be accessed <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7xi0bhhq-OxcktuMm0tTGFMWHc/view?usp=sharing">here</a>.</p>
<p>The presentation by <strong>Mr. Samdup</strong> was followed by one by <a href="https://twitter.com/ajantriks"><strong>Mr. Sumandro Chattapadhyay</strong></a> of the Centre for Internet and Society on an initial set of questions and concerns that should be addressed by the implementation plan of the SODAAP. He took a detailed look at the four objectives mentioned in the Policy document, and discussed what tasks, decisions, and deliberations are needed to achieve each of those. In conclusion, he listed a set of core components of the implementation process that must also be discussed in the implementation plan document, namely: 1) governance and oversight structure for implementation, 2) incentivising government personnel for opening up data across departments, including financial support for the same, 3) metadata, documentation of data collection process, and implementing unique identifiers, and 4) developing processes of sharing of data between the Union and the state government, especially in reference to national Management Information Systems. The slides from Mr. Chattapadhyay’s presentation can be accessed <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7xi0bhhq-OxNUVGM1ZqcGhiUUU/view?usp=sharing">here.</a></p>
<p>These presentations were followed by a general discussion on various aspects of the SODAAP and the challenges to be overcome during its implementation. This session provided a general introduction to the SODAAP, especially for workshop participants who are not from Sikkim, and also set up the key questions to be discussed and answered while preparing the first draft of the SODAAP implementation plan.</p>
<p>After the second session ended, the participants were asked to individually write down the key challenges they identify for the implementation process of SODAAP. These responses were compiled by Sumandro and made available as a reference document for the implementation plan. The chart below summarises these responses.</p>
<p><iframe src="http://ajantriks.github.io/cis/charts/2015.08_sodaap-challenges/index.html" frameborder="0" height="400" width="700"></iframe></p>
<p> </p>
<p>In the third session of the day, <a href="https://twitter.com/joycarpediem"><strong>Joy Ghosh</strong></a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/amitangshu"><strong>Amitangshu Acharya</strong></a> of <a href="http://akvo.org/">Akvo</a> talked about the challenges of collecting structured born-digital data from the grassroots level, and how using mobile-based applications, like <a href="http://akvo.org/products/akvoflow/">Akvo FLOW</a>, can address such challenges. Akvo FLOW runs on all Android-based smartphones, and allows ground level development workers to directly feed data into the phone, as well as collect related materials like GPS location and photographs, based upon a form that is centrally designed and downloaded into their phones by the development workers. The data is then kept in the phone till it is sent back to the main server, where data coming from all different surveyors using the same form is shown on a map-based interface for easy navigation of the data across space and time. In this session, Mr. Acharya first introduced the participants to the issues around digital data collection, touching upon issues of ethics, capacity, prioritisation of data collection process along with tools. Mr. Ghosh then took over to describe the functioning of the tool, and then distributed several smartphones, pre-loaded with Akvo FLOW, among the participants for an applied data collection exercise where the participants walked around the NIAS campus and collected data using the FLOW interface. They returned to see their data mapped and analysed on the online dashboard. Their presentation can be accessed <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0kFsiLLpy0XdDM2TE5tckE5Zlk/view?usp=sharing">here</a>.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Day 02, June 04, 2015</h2>
<p>The second day started with two consecutive presentations by <a href="https://twitter.com/thej"><strong>Mr. Thejesh GN</strong></a> of <a href="http://datameet.org/">DataMeet</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/Sramach9"><strong>Mr. Sivaram Ramachandran</strong></a> of <a href="http://mapbox.com/">Mapbox</a> on the tools and techniques for working with statistical data and with geospatial data, respectively. The former presentation took the participants through the stages of working with statistical data: from collecting and finding data, to cleaning and validating, and finally analysing the data. Various free and open source tools for each of these stages were also discussed in brief, such as <a href="https://pdftables.com/">PDF Tables</a><a> and </a><a href="http://tabula.technology/">Tabula</a> for converting PDF tables to spreadsheets, <a href="http://openrefine.org/">Open Refine</a> for cleaning data, and <a href="http://app.raw.densitydesign.org/">RAW</a> and <a href="https://datawrapper.de/">DataWrapper</a> for generating web-based dynamic charts. The latter presentation explored the various ways in which geospatial data can be used to inform and support decision-making, and the tools that can be used to render and present geospatial data in forms that are accessible for decision-makers within government and also for individual users. Mr. Ramachandran presented the various free and open source tools available for working with geospatial data, such as <a href="https://www.mapbox.com/mapbox-studio/">Mapbox Studio</a>, <a href="http://qgis.org/en/site/">Quantum GIS</a>, and <a href="http://leafletjs.com/">Leaflet JS</a>. He also gave a brief introduction to <a href="http://openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetMap</a>, the wiki-like user-contributed global map data platform. Both the presentations can be accessed <a href="http://thejeshgn.com/presentations/Data_Journalism_Workshop.html">here</a> and <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7xi0bhhq-OxQTB3eVpjNmtTUDg/view?usp=sharing">here</a>, respectively. After this session, the participants were divided into two groups. One group engaged further with tools and techniques of working with statistical and geospatial data. The second group took part in a series of exercises to identify and document the current data flows and bottlenecks thereof across several key departments of Government of Sikkim.</p>
<p>The group engaging in applications of various software tools for working with statistical and geospatial data was facilitated by <strong>Mr. Thejesh</strong> and <strong>Mr. Ramachandran</strong>. This group worked with a sample statistical data set, taking it across the stages of finding, cleaning, analysing, and visualising as discussed earlier. The participants used the online version of <a href="http://www.tableau.com/">Tableau</a> to create dynamic charts. Afterwards, they were introduced to various methods of contributing and downloading data from the OpenStreetMap, including directly adding data points through the online editor named <a href="http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/ID">iD</a>. The participants went out in the NIAS campus to collect geospatial data about various natural and human-made features of the campus, such as trees, pathways, etc.</p>
<p>The second group working on documenting data flows and identifying bottlenecks was facilitated by <strong>Mr. Chattapadhyay</strong>, <strong>Mr. Acharya</strong>, and <strong>Ms. Rajashi Mukherjee</strong> from Akvo. The group was further divided into department-wise teams, one each for the Department of Health, the Department of Economic Statistics, Monitoring, and Evaluation (DESME), the Human Resource Development Department (HRDD), and representatives from Gram Panchayat Units. The exercise began with each of the teams discussing and drawing the flow of data for one of the major data set maintained by the agency concerned. The data flows were drawn by identifying key moments of its processing (such as primary collection, verification, digitisation, analysis, storage, reporting, etc.), the actors involved in that moment, the tools and data formats relevant for each moment, and which agency finally stores and uses the data. Once these processes were described on paper, the next part of the exercise focused on identifying which challenges exist at which part of these data flows. This was followed up by a ranking of all these challenges, in terms of how critically they affect the ability of the agency concerned to use and share the final data. All the teams worked separately, and conversed with the facilitators as needed, to develop the data flow diagrams and identify the key challenges.</p>
<p>The major common challenges noted by these teams were: <strong>1)</strong> delays in collection, verification, and digitisation of data, <strong>2)</strong> inability of state government agencies to access data collected as part of centrally-funded welfare schemes, and <strong>3)</strong> parallel systems of data collection employed by different departments leading to duplication of efforts and data.</p>
<p>Several interesting insights came through in this exercise. For example, data related to education is collected both by the HRDD, and the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA). However, SSA data is not shared with the HRDD. Also, the HRDD publishes all its data, including the name of students, on their <a href="http://sikkimhrdd.org/Home.aspx">website</a>, making it publicly available. One of the data challenges identified by the HRDD was their difficulty in tracking if scholarship money is reaching the suitable students. When a student moves from one school to another, the records do not get updated easily. This leads to different schools continuing to receive funds for the same scholarship. Aligning school records is important to prevent such leakages.</p>
<p>After these two grouped exercises, all the participants gathered back so that the data flows diagrams and identification of key challenges documented by departmental teams could be presented to the entire group. Each team presented their data flow diagram, and discussed challenges and opportunities. This created a context for different departments to discuss what kind of data they often needed from each other, and how there was neither a platform for inter-departmental discussion on such issues, nor systems that facilitate the same. There was an agreement that an open data platform could address this issue to a great extent. The discussion also highlighted that the most significant data collecting government agency in Sikkim is DESME, however, it does not publish any data in machine-readable formats, and does not even have a website.</p>
<p>This data flow and bottleneck exercise made it very clear that there are several data production and collection processes in place in Sikkim, and also systems that are digesting, processing, and reporting data. Hence, implementing the open data policy will need to negotiate with such complexity.</p>
<p>In the final session of the day, <strong>Dr. Shiban Ganju</strong> made a presentation on applications of open data in healthcare. His talk focused on how converting medical information about a patient being stored at various locations to a combined and shareable Electronic Health Record can save the patient as well as the medical practitioners from duplication of medical tests, easier mobility from one medical institute to another, and a clearer macro-level understanding of key public health indicators. Dr. Ganju discussed the open health data initiatives in the United States, in the United Kingdom, and in Sweden, before discussing the challenges faced in implementing interoperable standards for open health data in India. The slides from Dr. Ganju’s presentation can be accessed <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7xi0bhhq-OxTTczUTY3MWZFbG8/view?usp=sharing">here</a>.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Day 03, June 05, 2015</h2>
<p>The final day started with a set of presentations from <strong>Mr. Garab Dorji</strong>, Deputy Chief IT Officer, Office of the Prime Minister, Thimphu, Bhutan of the Government of Bhutan, <strong>Mr. Birendra Tiwari</strong>, Senior Informatic Officer, Department of Information Technology, Government of Meghalaya, and <strong>Mr. Milan Chhetri</strong> of Melli Dara Paiyong Gram Panchayat Unit, Sikkim, on various technological solutions being explored, implemented, and practiced by the respective governments and administrative units.</p>
<p><strong>Mr. Milan Chhetri</strong>’s presentation was on the operationalisation of Cyber Villages in Sikkim, which had been initiated in 2013 with support from the Honourable Chief Minister of Sikkim, <strong>Pawan Kumar Chamling</strong>. Cyber Villages aim to address digital divide, by empowering local village units with handheld data devices to collect data from every household and connect the same to a real time dashboard. All village related data is expected to be available in one place. At the same time as part of e-governance initiative, SMS based updates on Government programmes and services will be sent to all villagers. Mr. Chhetri ended his presentation with a short promotional video of the concept, which is embedded below.</p>
<iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/ZOqAl8kDwKY?rel=0" frameborder="0" height="360" width="640"></iframe>
<p> </p>
<p>The second session of the day started with a presentation from <a href="https://twitter.com/DurgaPrMisra"><strong>Mr. D. P. Misra</strong></a>, National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy - Programme Management Unit (NDSAP-PMU), National Informatics Centre, Government of India. The presentation focused on the process of implementation of the <a href="http://data.gov.in/sites/default/files/NDSAP.pdf">National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy</a> approved by the Government of India in 2012. Mr. Misra has played a key role in the NDSAP-PMU that was trusted with development of the national open government data platform of India and in setting up the procedures and standards for publication of government data by various central and state government agencies through that Platform. His talk described the technical solutions designed by the NDSAP-PMU to make data accessible for the end-users in various file formats, to make visualisation of available data easy, and to make it possible for users to comment upon existing data and to request for data that is unavailable at the moment. Further, he emphasised the need for outreach initiatives by the government so as to build awareness and activities around the available open government data. The slides from Mr. Misra’s presentation can be accessed <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7xi0bhhq-OxZjZrc0c4cmxpZFk/view?usp=sharing">here</a>.</p>
<p>The presentation by Mr. Misra was followed by a group exercise where various teams, self-selected by the participants, worked on different sections of the SODAAP implementation plan to put together ideas and plans for the first draft of the document. Five groups were formed and each of them worked on a separate section of the implementation plan: <strong>1)</strong> Governance Framework and Budgetary Support, <strong>2)</strong> Data Inventory and Negative List, <strong>3)</strong> Data Acquisition and Open Standards, <strong>4)</strong> Data Publication Process, Licenses, and Timeframes, and <strong>5)</strong> Awareness, Capacity, and Demand of Data. The initial section titled ‘Introduction to the Policy and its Principles’ was put together by Vashistha Iyer on the basis of the SODAAP document. The technical section on the ‘Sikkim Open Data Portal’ was left out of this drafting exercise, as it was decided that the representatives of the Department of Information Technology will prepare this section on the basis of their interactions with the NDSAP-PMU later in June.</p>
<p>The drafting session was followed by presentations by each team working on a separate section, and quick feedbacks from all the participants. These drafts, along with the feedbacks, have been compiled together by Mr. Chattapadhyay, and is shared with the officials from the Government of Sikkim for their further discussion and eventual finalisation of the SODAAP implementation plan document.</p>
<p>The workshop ended with a round of final words and sharing of learning by the participants, and a vote of thanks on the behalf of the organisers.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/workshop-on-open-data-for-human-development-2015-06-report'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/workshop-on-open-data-for-human-development-2015-06-report</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroOpen DataOpen Government DataFeaturedSikkim Open Data Acquisition and Accessibility PolicyOpenness2015-08-28T08:16:09ZBlog EntryWorkshop on Open Data for Human Development
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/workshop-on-open-data-for-human-development-2015-06
<b>Sumandro Chattapadhyay and Sunil Abraham will take part in the workshop being organised for government officials from Bhutan, Maldives, Meghalaya, Sikkim, and Tripura, by the International Centre for Human Development (IC4HD) of UNDP India, during June 3-6, 2015. The workshop will be held at the National Institute of Advanced Studies Campus in Bengaluru. Sunil will be one of the panelists in the opening discussion on 'data and transparency in governance,' and Sumandro will provide input for and lead the sessions on developing the draft implementation plan for the Sikkim Open Data Acquisition and Accessibility Policy. Sumandro worked with the IC4HD team to design the objectives and the agenda of the workshop.</b>
<p> </p>
<h2>Sikkim Open Data Acquisition and Accessibility Policy</h2>
<p> </p>
<p>Government of Sikkim passed the <a href="http://www.sikkim.gov.in/stateportal/Link/SODAAP%20Policy%20Document.pdf" target="_blank">SODAA Policy</a> in 2014 so as to streamline and open up the availability of “authentic data to buttress the achievements of the Government of Sikkim and to gather data on key metrics to be able to spur growth in all the areas of human development.” The Policy mandates setting up an open data portal, hosted by the State Data Centre of Sikkim, where data contributed by all the state government agencies will reside, and from which the same data will be made openly accessible to government agencies, non-government organisations, and private individuals alike. Only data that is shareable – data that is not part of negative list prepared by any government agency – and that is non-sensitive – data that does not contain information that can be used to identify any private individual – will be made available through this Sikkim open data portal. The Department of Information Technology of the Government of Sikkim has been assigned the role of being the nodal agency for coordinating and monitoring the implementation “of policy through close collaboration with all State Government Departments and agencies.”</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Objectives of the Workshop</h2>
<p> </p>
<p>The Government of Sikkim understands that data collection, management, and reporting processes at the different departments must go through a structural reconfiguration before systematic and sustainable publication of data through this open data portal can be possible. This work will of course involve a long duration of change, and participation of a wide range of actors. The <a href="http://www.in.undp.org/content/india/en/home/operations/projects/human-development/the-international-centre-for-human-development.html" target="_blank">International Centre for Human Development</a>, at UNDP India, is organising this workshop for Sikkim government officials to conceptualise and develop the outlines of an action strategy towards this goal of streamlining data acquisition and publication processes across government departments.</p>
<p>Discussions in this workshop will focus on the activities of four departments of the Government of Sikkim – Department of Health, Rural Management and Development Department (RMDD), Human Resource Development Department (HRDD), and Department of Agriculture. At least two officials from each of these departments would take part in the workshop. Apart from these departments, officials from Department of Information Technology (DIT), Department of Economic Statistics, Monitoring, and Evaluation (DESME), and others, will also participate.</p>
<p>Apart from government officials from Sikkim, those from Bhutan, Maldives, Meghalaya, and Tripura will also attend the workshop, so as to think ahead towards their respective open data initiatives.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Agenda of the Workshop</h2>
<p> </p>
<h3>Day 1: June 3, 2015</h3>
<p> </p>
<table class="plain">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Time</th>
<th>Session</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>0930-1000</td>
<td><strong>Welcome and Introductions</strong><br />
A.K. Shiva Kumar, Director, IC4HD<br />
P.D. Rai, Honourable Member of Parliament (LS) from Sikkim</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1000-1100<br />
<strong>Session 1</strong></td>
<td><strong>Panel Discussion</strong><br />
<strong>Data and Transparency in Governance</strong><br />
Moderator: P. D. Rai<br />
Panellists:
<ul><li>Srivatsa Krishna, Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Biotechnology and Science & Technology, Government of Karnataka</li>
<li>B. Gangaiah, Additional Director General, Centre for Good Governance, Hyderabad</li>
<li>Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, The Centre for Internet and Society</li></ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1100-1130<br />
<strong>Session 2</strong></td>
<td><strong>Sikkim Open Data Acquisition and Accessibility Policy</strong><br />
Moderator: P. D. Rai<br />
Presentation by: T. Samdup, Joint Director, Department of Information Technology, Sikkim</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1130-1200</td>
<td><strong>Tea Break</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1200-1300<br />
<strong>Session 3</strong></td>
<td><strong>Implementing an Open Data Policy - Key Components</strong><br />
Moderator: A. K. Shiva Kumar<br />
Presentation by: Sumandro Chattapadhyay, The Centre for Internet and Society</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1300-1400</td>
<td><strong>Lunch</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1400-1430<br />
<strong>Session 4</strong></td>
<td><strong>Group Exercise 1</strong><br />
<strong>Challenges of Opening up Government Data in Sikkim</strong><br />
Facilitated by: Sumandro Chattapadhyay</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1430-1530<br />
<strong>Session 5</strong></td>
<td><strong>Mobile Phone-based Data Collection</strong><br />
<strong>Introduction to Akvo FLOW</strong><br />
Moderator: Meenaz Munshi, IC4HD<br />
Presentation by: Joy Ghosh and Amitangshu Acharya, AKVO</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1530-1600</td>
<td>Tea Break</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>16:00-1730<br />
<strong>Session 6</strong></td>
<td><strong>Group Exercise 2</strong><br />
<strong>Collecting Data Using Akvo FLOW</strong><br />
Facilitated by: Joy Ghosh and Amitangshu Acharya, AKVO</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p> </p>
<h3>Day 2: June 4, 2015</h3>
<p> </p>
<table class="plain">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Time</th>
<th>Session</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>0930-1000<br />
<strong>Session 7</strong></td>
<td><strong>Analysing, Visualising, and Publishing Data</strong><br />
Moderator: Amitangshu Acharya<br />
Presentation by: Thejesh GN, DataMeet</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1000-1045<br />
<strong>Session 8</strong></td>
<td><strong>Collecting, Visualising, and Publishing Geographic Data</strong><br />
Moderator: Amitangshu Acharya<br />
Presentation by: Shiv Ramachandran, MapBox</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1045-1145<br />
<strong>Session 9</strong></td>
<td><strong>Group Exercise 3</strong><br />
<strong>Organising, Analysing, Visualising, and Publishing Data</strong><br />
Facilitated by: Thejesh GN and Shiv Ramachandran</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1145-1200</td>
<td><strong>Tea Break</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1200-1300</td>
<td><strong>Group Exercise 3</strong><br />
<strong>Organising, Analysing, Visualising, and Publishing Data</strong><br />
(Continued)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1300-1400</td>
<td><strong>Lunch</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1400-1500<br />
<strong>Session 10</strong></td>
<td><strong>Open Data and Health Management</strong><br />
Presentation by: Dr. Shiban Ganju, Consultant, Ingalls Health, Harvey, Illinois, Chicago; Chair, Atrimed Health Consulting, Bangalore</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1500-1600<br />
<strong>Session 11</strong></td>
<td><strong>Open Data and Primary Education</strong><br />
Presentation by: Gautam John, Karnataka Learning Partnership</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p> </p>
<h3>Day 3: June 5, 2015</h3>
<p> </p>
<table class="plain">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Time</th>
<th>Session</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>0930-1030<br />
<strong>Session 12</strong></td>
<td><strong>Panel Discussion</strong><br />
<strong>Regional Experiences and Reflections on Open Data</strong><br />
Panellists: representative from Bhutan, and from Meghalaya</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1030-1115<br />
<strong>Session 13</strong></td>
<td><strong>Implementing National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy</strong><br />
Presentation by: D. P. Misra, National Informatics Centre</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1115-1130<br />
<strong>Session 14</strong></td>
<td><strong>Group Exercise 4</strong><br />
<strong>Drafting the SODAAP Implementation Plan</strong><br />
Facilitated by: Sumandro Chattapadhyay</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1130-1200</td>
<td><strong>Tea Break</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1200-1300</td>
<td><strong>Group Exercise 4</strong><br />
<strong>Drafting the SODAAP Implementation Plan</strong><br />
(Continued)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1300-1400</td>
<td><strong>Lunch</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1400-1500<br />
<strong>Session 15</strong></td>
<td><strong>Group Presentations</strong><br />
<strong>Draft SODAAP Implementation Plan</strong><br />
Moderator: P. D. Rai<br />
Facilitated by: Sumandro Chattapadhyay</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1500-1530</td>
<td><strong>Wrap-Up and Vote of Thanks</strong></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/workshop-on-open-data-for-human-development-2015-06'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/workshop-on-open-data-for-human-development-2015-06</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroOpen DataFeaturedWorkshopPolicies2015-06-02T15:34:06ZBlog EntryWikipedia Introductory Session organized for Data and India portal consultants
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/wikipedia-introductory-session
<b>On May 13, 2013, the Access to Knowledge team led by Subhashish Panigrahi conducted a Wikipedia Introductory Session at the National Informatics Centre in New Delhi for the consultants working for Data and India portal. This session was aimed to emphasize how these portals and their useful data could be used on Wikipedia to create good quality articles.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Recently <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/" class="external-link">Centre for Internet and Society</a>'s <a class="external-link" href="http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge">Access To Knowledge</a> team was invited to demonstrate the usefulness of Wikipedia for the consultants of <a class="external-link" href="http://www.nic.in/">National Informatics Centre</a> (NIC) working for the <a class="external-link" href="http://data.gov.in/">Data.gov.in</a> and the <a class="external-link" href="http://india.gov.in/">National Portal of India</a> at NIC's New Delhi office. Data portal being one of the very important open data portal of the Government of India has worked immensely to populate over 2400 datasets from 32 departments participating in it.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote1sym" name="sdfootnote1anc"><sup>1</sup></a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Many of the data need to be transcribed in popular medias especially on web. Wikipedia being world's largest online encyclopedia could be one such primary platform to use these useful data. <a class="external-link" href="http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Psubhashish">Subhashish</a> from A2K team explained the usefulness of Wikipedia for the people associated with this project. The session went with discussing about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_policies">policies</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style">Manual of style</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Five_pillars">Five pillars of Wikipedia</a> followed by a demonstration of editing articles on English Wikipedia. Post editing session there was a discussion session about the notability and how to check accuracy of articles by using valid references.</p>
<hr />
<div id="sdfootnote1">
<p class="sdfootnote"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote1anc" name="sdfootnote1sym">1</a> <a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/11DMH5w">http://bit.ly/11DMH5w</a></p>
</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/wikipedia-introductory-session'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/wikipedia-introductory-session</a>
</p>
No publishersubhaOpen StandardsDigital GovernanceDigital AccessOpen DataOpen ContentOpen AccessOpennessOpen Innovation2013-07-17T06:33:20ZBlog EntryWhose Open Data Community is it? - Accepted Abstract
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/whose-open-data-community-is-it-abstract
<b>My paper titled 'Whose Open Data Community is it? Reflections on the Open Data Ecosystem in India' has been accepted for presentation at the Open Data Research Symposium to be held during the 3rd International Open Data Conference <http://opendatacon.org/> in Ottawa, Canada, on May 28-29 2015. The final paper will be shared by second week of May. Here is the accepted abstract.</b>
<p> </p>
<h3>Where are the NGOs?</h3>
<p>On February 04, 2013, several members of the DataMeet group <<a href="http://datameet.org/" target="_blank">http://datameet.org/</a>> were invited by the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy Project Management Unit (NDSAP-PMU) – the nodal agency responsible for developing, implementing, and managing the Open Government Data Platform of India <<a href="https://data.gov.in/" target="_blank">https://data.gov.in/</a>> – to share thoughts on the status of the implementation of the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP), the open data policy of India, and discuss potentials for collaboration. A key proposal made by the NDSAPPMU team regarding how DataMeet can contribute to the implementation process, involved DataMeet mobilising the developer community connected to the group to build applications that use the opened up data and demonstrate the value of open government data to drive greater contribution by government agencies and greater utilisation by citizen groups. For DataMeet, a network of open data users and advocates, this invitation to collaborate sets up a slightly different problematic than that in most of the cases of free and open source software development project. The task here is to develop projects that use already available data, which may not offer significantly return to investment at present, but will accellerate the process of opening up of more valuable government data.</p>
<p>However, building an application that effectively utilise government data to foreground a compelling argument or story requires more than a team of developers – it also require domain experts with a deep sense of the context from which the data is emanating. With a vibrant scene of nongovernmental organisations involved in monitoring, analysis, and implementation of developmental projects, many of such domain experts in India are located within such organisations, with some being in the academic institutes too. Reporting from an open data community meeting organised by the World Bank at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, on December 10, 2014, Isha Parihar asks: “Where are the NGOs?” She points out that “[t]he discussions around open data [in India] also highlight the absence of nonprofit organisations among the technologyfocused groups, entrepreneurs, and businesses <strong>[1]</strong>.” This observation is especially critical as the meeting was organsied by World Bank not only to gather public responses to be presented to Government of India, but also to take stock of the open data community in India. The absence of NGOs, although, does not indicate at the lack of interest of the nongovernmental research and advocacy organisations in India to work with government data. Such organisations, on the contrary, have a long history of accessing, using, sharing, and communicating government data obtained through both proactive and reactive disclosure mechanism. While surveying such practices in a recent report, Sumandro Chattapadhyay argues <strong>[2]</strong> that the lack of a common understanding of the open data community in India emerges from both the lack of an established forum where commercial and non-commercial reusers of data discuss and articulate their requirements and demands, and the
existence of an established range of actors accessing, using, and resharing government data for commercial and noncommercial purposes who are still uncertain regarding how open government data will exactly transform and augment their existing practices.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>Whose Open Data Community is it?</h3>
<p>In the context of the emerging open data ecosystem in India, thus, the notion of the open data community comes forward as both the problem – in terms of the community not yet being there to effectively take forward the open data agenda – and the solution – as the component of the ecosystem that can successfully bridge gaps between interests and capacities of various stakeholders. Given the gap and the stakeholder concerned, the open data community is expected to perform various critical functions. This paper tracks these conceptualisations of open data community in India. Based upon conversations with fourteen organisations working across four cities in India, the question of 'whose open data community is it' is explored in this paper following three pathways – (1) by documenting how the understanding of the open data community, and the location of the organisation concerned in reference to that, changes across these organisations, (2) by describing how the idea of who all are included in the open data community in India changes across these organisations, and (3) by identifying how different organisations formulate the intended audiences of the open data community in India. In doing so, I argue that a range of critical challenges being experienced by the open data ecosystem in India often gets articulated as things that can be resolved by a more active and effective open data community. This distorts the distribution of responsbilities across various kinds of stakeholders for contributing to the open data ecosystem. In conclusion, I note the need to stop using open data community as a solution-for-all-open-data-evils, and for a pragmatic approach to understand the kinds of open data challenges it can address, and those that it cannot.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>Endnotes</h3>
<p><strong>[1]</strong> Parihar, Isha. 2015. On the Road to Open Data: Glimpses of the Discourse in India. Akvo. January 14. Accessed on March 02, 2015, from <a href="http://akvo.org/blog/on-the-road-to-open-data-glimpses-of-the-discourse-in-india/" target="_blank">http://akvo.org/blog/on-the-road-to-open-data-glimpses-of-the-discourse-in-india/</a></p>
<p><strong>[2]</strong> Chattapadhyay, Sumandro. 2014. Opening Government Data through Mediation: Exploring Roles, Practices and Strategies of (Potential) Data Intermediary Organisations in India. Accessed on March 02, 2015, from <a href="http://ajantriks.github.io/oddc/report/sumandro_oddc_project_report.pdf" target="_blank">http://ajantriks.github.io/oddc/report/sumandro_oddc_project_report.pdf</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/whose-open-data-community-is-it-abstract'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/whose-open-data-community-is-it-abstract</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroData SystemsOpen DataResearchOpen Data CommunityResearchers at Work2015-11-13T05:41:15ZBlog Entry Where's My Data? Submission for Knight News Challenge 2015
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/wheres-my-data-submission-for-knight-news-challenge-2015
<b>We are very excited to be contribute to a join submission with DataMeet and Oorvani for the Knight News Challenge 2015. We are proposing "an application for users to search for locally-relevant data, discuss missing data, demand data, explore and respond to data demands by others, and start data crowd-sourcing exercises." Please go to the submission page and support our project. The text of the proposal is available below. It was prepared by Nisha Thompson of DataMeet, Meera K of Oorvani, and I. The 'Where's My Data' banner is created by Nisha using icons from the Noun Project.</b>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Please support our project by visiting and 'applauding' it on the Knight News Challenge website: <a href="https://www.newschallenge.org/challenge/data/entries/where-s-my-data">https://www.newschallenge.org/challenge/data/entries/where-s-my-data</a>. You will have to log in to the website though, apologies for that.</strong></p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Where's My Data? Search, Demand, and Collect Data</h2>
<h3>In one sentence, describe your idea as simply as possible.</h3>
<p>An application for users to search for locally-relevant data, discuss missing data, demand data, explore and respond to data demands by others, and start data crowd-sourcing exercises.</p>
<p><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/CISRAW_WheresMyData.png/image_preview" alt="KNC 2015 - Where's My Data" class="image-inline image-inline" title="KNC 2015 - Where's My Data" /></p>
<p> </p>
<h3>Full Description</h3>
<p>The proposed application aims to solve two key problems in accessing reliable data faced by citizens, journalists, and researchers. The first problem is knowing where a required data set can be found, and the second problem is collecting the required data set if it does not exist in the first place.</p>
<p>Many individual initiatives have been developed to collect specific data. For example, Powercuts (http://powercuts.in/) was a Ushahidi installation to crowd-source data using Twitter, Kiirti (http://www.kiirti.org/) was used to map complaints about auto drivers, IChangeMyCity (http://www.ichangemycity.com/) is a platform that collects general complaints from around Bangalore. However, these apps were either short lived because they could not sustain their one premise or they do not give insight into what people want to know and what data is important to them. Also, they often did not open up this data to be used by others, beyond visualisations offered on the sites.</p>
<p>Citizens have many questions regarding their urban surroundings - how much water is coming to the neighbourhood daily, where are the waste pick up trucks, what is the status of a road repairing process, etc, the answers require data that either is difficult to get or doesn't answer their query in the way they want. Journalists and researchers are also interested in collecting and analysing these same data sets. A one off platform for one issue won't properly represent the demand for information in modern day (data starved) India.</p>
<p>For example, a local residents’ group wanted to impress on their elected rep the seriousness of the incidence of a disease, as the local government was not taking concrete steps to manage the emerging epidemic. In the absence of official data on suspected cases of illness, this application could help them to reach out through e-mails and social media networks to do a quick survey on how many residents or their family members have got affected.</p>
<p>The application will not only make it easier to undertake such crowd-sourcing efforts, but also to share the data back and make it open for usage by others, including journalists and researchers.</p>
<p>We are already building an Urban Open Data Platform for Bengaluru, India. The application will allow searching this portal and any other such portal, especially if any is developed by the municipality. It will also pipe the crowd-sourced data to this Urban Open Data Platform.</p>
<p><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/CISRAW_CitizenMatters.jpg/image_preview" alt="KNC 2015 - Citizen Matters" class="image-inline image-inline" title="KNC 2015 - Citizen Matters" /></p>
<p> <img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/CISRAW_OpenBangalore.png/image_preview" alt="KNC 2015 - Open Bangalore" class="image-inline" title="KNC 2015 - Open Bangalore" /></p>
<p>This tool will reduce duplication of data gathering, gives data a longer shelf life and acts as a source of public data that feeds into a city-wide urban Open Data Portal under development by a consortium that we are part of.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>How will the Application Work?</h3>
<ol><li>The application will allow the user to search for data across the data catalogues connected to the application.</li>
<li>If the data is not found, the user can post details about the required data, which other users in her/his networks can see and comment on. They can either point the person towards an existing data set, or support the need to collect the data being demanded.</li>
<li>When the user finds out that the data set s/he needs does not exist, the application will allow her/him to start a crowd-sourcing exercise, using various channels such as e-mails, social media posts, web-based questionnaires, etc.</li>
<li>For each of these channels, a separate plug-in will be developed so as to open up the software development process. For this project, we will focus on developing plug-ins for two channels: 1) questionnaires integrated with the <a href="http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/">Citizen Matters</a> website, and 2) use tweets to collect replies using a unique hashtag.</li>
<li>User can share the crowd-sourcing request within her/his own social networks, or use one of the groups (say, the Citizen Matters group focusing on local journalism, or the <a href="http://datameet.org/">DataMeet</a> group focusing on open data enthusiasts in the city) to share their calls for data collection.</li></ol>
<p> </p>
<h3>Briefly Describe the Need that You're Trying to Address</h3>
<p>A common cry in Indian cities is the lack of datasets required to understand issues, either at local or at national scales. This tool will be the place to voice demands, ask others about potential sources, or an easy way to create data sourcing activities.This will enable journalists, advocacy organisations, and researchers to search for data and help others to find the data they are looking for. It also records demands for non-existing data and helps take initiatives to collect such data.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>What Progress have You Made so Far?</h3>
<p>The team is already working on an Urban Open Data Platform, that will host public data, and a data catalog. We have already executed a few crowd-sourcing projects, and helped develop tools for journalists and researchers interested in civic issues.A data source search tool has been in development in the form of Open Data JSON <<a href="https://github.com/datameet/opendata.json">https://github.com/datameet/opendata.json</a>>. A Bangalore focused data catalog has been in use for awhile as well and provides a base of data to use for people’s search <<a href="http://openbangalore.org">http://openbangalore.org</a>>.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>What would be a Successful Outcome for Your Project?</h3>
<p>Success for this project means having a better understanding of what information is needed most by people and what data is required. We will gain detailed evidence regarding what kind of data people want. This entails a collection of questions, who is asking and from where, and what data gaps exist. The number of crowdsourcing projects initiated shows the intensity of the need, and how comfortable citizens are asking for data and proactively starting a data collection project.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>Please List your Team Members and their Relevant Experience/Skills</h3>
<p>Meera K, Oorvani Foundation, a media group who will provide editorial support to curate data, dissemination of data or queries, and audience reach. Nisha Thompson and Thejesh GN, from DataMeet, open data community, who will provide the technology and community aspects of the tool. Sumandro Chattapadhyay of the Centre for Internet and Society, will help planning the project and linking the effort with other Indian and global initiatives in open data and development.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/wheres-my-data-submission-for-knight-news-challenge-2015'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/wheres-my-data-submission-for-knight-news-challenge-2015</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroCityOpen DataPracticeCrowdsourcingResearchers at Work2015-10-05T15:00:16ZBlog EntryWestern Ghats Portal: Workshop on Biodiversity Informatics
http://editors.cis-india.org/news/bio-diversity-informatics-workshop
<b>The Western Ghats portal team is organising a one-day workshop to explore the contemporary state on biodiversity informatics on 25 November 2011 at Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE), Bangalore.</b>
<h2>Schedule</h2>
<table class="plain">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><span class="Apple-style-span">09:00 – 09:20</span></td>
<td><span class="Apple-style-span">Registration of participants</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span class="Apple-style-span">09:20 – 09:30</span></td>
<td><span class="Apple-style-span">Welcome / Introduction</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span class="Apple-style-span">09:30 – 11:15</span></td>
<td><span class="Apple-style-span">Plenary talks - Technology behind biodiversity informatics (3 talks)</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span class="Apple-style-span">11:15 – 11:30</span></td>
<td><span class="Apple-style-span">Tea break</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span class="Apple-style-span">11:30 – 12:30</span></td>
<td><span class="Apple-style-span">Plenary talks - Scientific commons and policy (2 talks)</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span class="Apple-style-span">12:30 – 13:00</span></td>
<td><span class="Apple-style-span">Discussion</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span class="Apple-style-span">13:00 – 14:00</span></td>
<td><span class="Apple-style-span"> Lunch break</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span class="Apple-style-span">14:00 – 16:00</span></td>
<td><span class="Apple-style-span">Biodiversity portals in India - Presentations by different teams/panel discussion</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span class="Apple-style-span">16:00 – 16:15</span></td>
<td><span class="Apple-style-span">Tea break</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span class="Apple-style-span">16:15 – 17:00</span></td>
<td><span class="Apple-style-span">Discussions and networking</span></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h2>Spheres of the Workshop:</h2>
<h3>Plenary I: Technology behind biodiversity informatics - 0930 - 1115 hrs</h3>
<div>
<div><strong>Development of Information System, Open Data standards, Archive and Geospatial solutions, Visualization in Bhuvan - Arul Raj</strong>, National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) - 20 mins + 10 mins discussion</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
<div>
<div><strong>Exploring the semantic web for species pages - M. Sravanthi</strong>, Western Ghats Portal - 20 mins + 10 mins discussion</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
<div>
<div><strong>Challenges on the emerging discipline of Biodiversity Informatics - Donald Hobern</strong>, Atlas of Living Australia - 30mins + 10 mins discussion</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
<div><strong>Focus</strong>:</div>
<div>
<div>The objective of this session is to understand the global developments in biodiversity informatics in relation with developments in India. The session will focus on:</div>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<ul><li> the evolution of the discipline of biodiversity informatics and its current status</li><li>the development of standards in Indian context</li><li>the technologies for biodiversity informatics</li><li>the challenges in biodiversity informatics<br /><br /></li></ul>
<h3><strong>Plenary II: Scientific commons and policy - 1130 - 1300 hrs</strong></h3>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<div><strong>Commons in the context of Biodiversity Information - Danish Sheikh</strong>, Alternative Law Forum - 20 mins + 10 mins</div>
</div>
<div>
<div><strong>Open data in the scientific realm - Sunil Abraham</strong>, Centre for Internet and Society - 20 mins + 10 mins</div>
</div>
<div>Discussion on Scientific commons and Policy - 30 mins</div>
<div> </div>
<div><strong>Focus</strong>:<br />
<div>The objective of the session is to understand the commons principle and its implications for scientific research. The session will focus on:</div>
</div>
<div>
<ul><li>the experience of developing a creative commons policy in Indian scenario and the resulting impacts for scientific collaboration, open data and open access</li><li>policy and social implications of open data sharing</li></ul>
<div> </div>
</div>
<h3>Plenary III - Biodiversity portals in India - 1400 - 1700 hrs</h3>
<div><strong>Moderation</strong>: R. Prabhakar/ MD Madhusudhan<br /><strong>Panelists</strong>: (Introductory note by each of the panelists - 10 minutes each)</div>
<div> </div>
<div><strong>Suhel Quader</strong>, Season Watch (<a class="external-link" href="http://www.seasonwatch.in">www.seasonwatch.in</a>), Migrant Watch (<a class="external-link" href="http://www.migrantwatch.in">www.migrantwatch.in</a>)</div>
<div><strong>Sanjay Molur</strong>, Pterocount (<a class="external-link" href="http://www.pterocount.org/">www.pterocount.org/</a>)</div>
<div><strong>K.N.Ganeshaiah</strong> - Indian Bioresource Information Network (www.ibin.co.in)</div>
<div><strong>Ramesh BR</strong> - Western Ghats Portal (<a class="external-link" href="http://www.thewesternghats.in/">www.thewesternghats.in/</a>)</div>
<div><strong>Shwetank Verma</strong>, Biodiversity of India, formerly Project Brahma (<a class="external-link" href="http://www.biodiversityofindia.org">http://www.biodiversityofindia.org</a>)</div>
<div><strong>Krishnamegh Kunte</strong>, ifoundbutterflies <a class="external-link" href="http://ifoundbutterflies.org/">(http://ifoundbutterflies.org/</a>)<br /><strong>Vijay Barve</strong>, DiversityIndia (<a class="external-link" href="http://diversityindia.org/">http://diversityindia.org/</a>)<br /><strong>Deepak Menon</strong>, India Water Portal (<a class="external-link" href="http://www.indiawaterportal.org/">http://www.indiawaterportal.org/</a>)<br /><strong>Chitra Ravi</strong>, India Biodiversity Portal (<a class="external-link" href="http://indiabiodiversity.org/">http://indiabiodiversity.org/</a>)<br /><strong>Mr D.K Ved</strong>, Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions (<a class="external-link" href="http://envis.frlht.org">http://envis.frlht.org</a>)</div>
<div> </div>
<div><strong>Focus</strong>:<br />
<div>The objective of the session is to learn from each other’s experience and develop a combined vision for the future of biodiversity informatics in India. The panelists will present a focused summary of the</div>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<ul><li>key features available on their portals</li><li>the experience of building the portal</li><li>the key lessons learnt</li><li>future plans</li></ul>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<div>We believe these four aspects will be of common interest to all participants and the presentations are expected to stimulate discussion around these four aspects.</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
<div><strong>Summary of the Day</strong>: R Prabhakar - Call for synergy/collaboration/Thank you!!</div>
<div> </div>
<h2>Concept Note</h2>
<div>
<div>Rapid advancements in the domains of computer Science and information technologies have allowed integration of biodiversity information and analytical capabilities to collaborate on social networks, leading to the emergence of a new discipline, Biodiversity Informatics. The dynamics in this discipline are defined by integrating multiplicity with the semantic web and enabling of democratic social networks focused on biodiversity. We are bound to see tremendous diversification in the scope of biodiversity informatics globally and in India.</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
<div>
<div>Harnessing technology for aggregating, storing, querying and analyzing biodiversity data has seen major developments over the last decade. There has been a plethora of biodiversity information resources that include mailing lists and discussions groups, occurrence records, geographical databases, biodiversity image libraries, institutional databases, species description pages, specimen records of herbaria and museum databases, and biodiversity focused Internet sites. The challenges on the biodiversity informatics landscape are on two fronts: (1) A semantic web framework to link these biodiversity information islands; and (2) Effective and flexible data exchange standards for seamless information sharing among these sites.</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
<div>
<div>The evolution of social networks and communities around biodiversity information systems has been a unique factor in influencing the ways in which these information systems have developed. The assimilation and aggregation of user-generated biodiversity data and dissemination under the 'commons' principle has gained momentum globally. It has changed the way scientific collaborations are being made, and created possibilities for effective citizen-science initiatives. It is now possible to ask fresh questions, with more data, newer methods, better tools and for citizens to participate and report data from different geographies. With this, local-level data can be integrated with large-scale data leading to a better understanding of biodiversity.</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
<div>
<div>With the increased penetration of the Internet into developing economies, and the widespread adoption of web technologies, biodiversity informatics has spawned an impressive variety of initiatives. These initiatives range from global knowledge bases and networks, national initiatives, eco-region based initiatives, as well as sharply focused initiatives which address a single species or event. There have been tangible advantages for stakeholders from these initiatives which has inspired many other endeavours. Success stories exist at both global and local level, and learning from these experiences can help one understand the multi-faceted nature of this discipline.</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
<div>
<div>The Western Ghats Portal team is organising a one-day workshop to explore the contemporary state of biodiversity informatics as expressed in three spheres: i) technology behind biodiversity informatics, ii) scientific commons and policy and iii) biodiversity portals in India. With these objectives in mind, we welcome your active participation during the workshop. It could provide an opportunity for us to interact and learn from similar endeavors in this discipline.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Download the agenda <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/wgp-agenda.pdf" class="internal-link" title="Western Ghats Portal Workshop in Bangalore">here</a> [PDF, 124 kb]</div>
</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/news/bio-diversity-informatics-workshop'>http://editors.cis-india.org/news/bio-diversity-informatics-workshop</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaOpen DataOpenness2011-11-08T05:01:14ZNews ItemWater Data Consultation
http://editors.cis-india.org/news/water-data-consultation
<b>Pranesh Prakash spoke on Policy Issues and Developments around Open Data at an event organized by Arghyam in Bangalore on March 23, 2012. </b>
<h2>Agenda<br /></h2>
<table class="plain">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>10:00 a.m.</td>
<td> Welcome Address</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>10:05 a.m.</td>
<td>Introduction by participants about themselves and their<br />
organizations</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>10:45 a.m.</td>
<td>Context Setting and Data Project Pranesh/ Nisha *</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11:30 a.m.</td>
<td> Tea Break</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11:45 to 1:15 p.m.</td>
<td>Planning Commission Report Presentation and Q&A</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1:15-2:00 p.m.<br /></td>
<td>Lunch</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2:00-4:00 p.m. <br /></td>
<td>Discussion: Role of Civil Society Actors for Data</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>4:00-5:00 p.m.<br /></td>
<td> Road Ahead ( including 15 minute consensus of Summary )</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>5:00 p.m.</td>
<td>Vote of Thanks<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>5:05 p.m.</td>
<td>High Tea</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Venue: Evoma Hotel, # 14, Bhattarahalli, Near Garden City College, Old Madras Road, K.R Puram, Bangalore<br />
Date: March 23, 2012</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/news/water-data-consultation'>http://editors.cis-india.org/news/water-data-consultation</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaOpen Data2012-04-04T06:24:33ZNews ItemWashington Meet on Open Data Principles
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/washington-meeting-on-open-data-principles
<b>Sunil Abraham was invited to discuss the common international open data principles on February 24, 2015. The meeting took place at the World Bank office in Washington.</b>
<p>The meeting focused on:</p>
<ul>
<li>Reviewing the content of the Open Data Charter document </li>
<li>Understanding the target audience of the document, and how to be inclusive of local governments and non-government organizations </li>
<li>Developing a strategic plan and calendar of key events to support adoption of principles </li>
<li>Setting out practical next steps </li>
</ul>
<p><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/g-20-open-data-process.pptx" class="internal-link">Download Sunil's presentation here</a></p>
<ul>
</ul>
<hr />
<table align="left" class="listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center"><b>Agenda Item</b></p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center"><b>Description</b></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>1. Welcomes and Introductions</p>
<p>(9:30-9:45)</p>
</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li> See attendance list </li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>2. Background Information</p>
<p>(9:45-10:30)</p>
</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li> Presentations on: </li>
</ul>
<p>o G8 Open Data Charter</p>
<p>o G20 open data initiative</p>
<p>o Post-2015 and the Data Revolution</p>
<p>o OGP OD WG</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">
<p align="center"><b>Break (10:30-10:45)</b></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>3. Strategic alignment of open data principles initiatives</p>
<p>(10:45-11:15)</p>
</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li> Discuss need for common approach on OD principles </li>
</ul>
<p>· Discuss whether principles articulated in Int'l OD Charter, meet this need</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>4. Content of OD Charter</p>
<p>(11:15-12:15)</p>
</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li> Review Int'l OD Charter </li>
<li> Provide comments on content, potential changes </li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">
<p align="center"><b>Lunch (12:15-13:00)</b></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>5. International consultation on OD Charter</p>
<p>(13:00-13:30)</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>· Suggest key stakeholders (governments, private sector, and civil society organizations) to consult on OD Charter</p>
<p>· Discuss strategy and methods for global consultation on OD principles, especially with Global South</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>6. Governance of OD Charter</p>
<p>(13:30-14:15)</p>
</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li> Discuss need for ongoing governance for Charter </li>
</ul>
<p>· Discuss mechanisms and resources necessary to keep Charter updated and foster its adoption</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">
<p align="center"><b>Break (14:15-14:30)</b></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>7. Critical path for OD principles</p>
<p>(14:30-15:15)</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>· Develop list of key milestones and events to support Charter adoption and implementation</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>8. Next steps</p>
<p>(15:15-16:00)</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>· Develop list of specific action items for completion in the next 2 months, as well as over the medium- and long-term</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/washington-meeting-on-open-data-principles'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/washington-meeting-on-open-data-principles</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaOpen DataOpenness2015-03-09T02:05:01ZNews ItemThe Government’s Increased Focus on Regulating Non-Personal Data: A Look at the Draft National Data Governance Framework Policy
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/national-data-governance-framework-policy
<b>Digvijay Chaudhary and Anamika Kundu wrote an article on the National Data Governance Framework Policy. It was edited by Shweta Mohandas.</b>
<h2>Introduction</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Non Personal Data (‘NPD’) can be <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780429022241-8/regulating-non-personal-data-age-big-data-bart-van-der-sloot">understood</a> as any information not relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. The origin of such data can be both human and non-human. Human NPD would be such data which has been anonymised in such a way that the person to whom the data relates cannot be re-identified. Non-human NPD would mean any such data that did not relate to a human being in the first place, for example, weather data. There has been a gradual demonstrated interest in NPD by the government in recent times. This new focus on regulating non personal data can be owed to the economic incentive it provides. In its report, the Sri Krishna committee, released in 2018 agreed that NPD holds considerable strategic or economic interest for the nation, however, it left the questions surrounding NPD to a future committee.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">History of NPD Regulation</h2>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">In 2020, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (‘MEITY’) constituted an expert committee (‘NPD Committee’) to study various issues relating to NPD and to make suggestions on the regulation of non-personal data. The NPD Committee differentiated NPD into human and non-human NPD, based on the data’s origin. Human NPD would include all information that has been stripped of any personally identifiable information and non-human NPD meant any information that did not contain any personally identifiable information in the first place (eg. weather data). The final report of the NPD Committee is awaited but the Committee came out with a <a href="https://static.mygov.in/rest/s3fs-public/mygov_160922880751553221.pdf">revised draft</a> of its recommendations in December 2020. In its December 2020 report, the NPD Committee proposed the creation of a National Data Protection Authority (‘NPDA’) as it felt this is a new and emerging area of regulation. Thereafter, the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 (‘JPC’) came out with its <a href="http://164.100.47.193/lsscommittee/Joint%20Committee%20on%20the%20Personal%20Data%20Protection%20Bill,%202019/17_Joint_Committee_on_the_Personal_Data_Protection_Bill_2019_1.pdf">version of the Data Protection Bill </a>where it amended the short title of the PDP Bill 2019 to Data Protection Bill, 2021 widening the ambit of the Bill to include all types of data. The JPC report focuses only on human NPD, noting that non-personal data is essentially derived from one of the three sets of data - personal data, sensitive personal data, critical personal data - which is either anonymized or is in some way converted into non-re-identifiable data.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">On February 21, 2022, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (‘MEITY’) came out with the <a href="https://www.meity.gov.in/content/draft-india-data-accessibility-use-policy-2022">Draft India Data Accessibility and Use Policy, 2022</a> (‘Draft Policy’). The Draft Policy was strongly criticised mainly due to its aims to monetise data through its sale and licensing to body corporates. The Draft Policy had stated that anonymised and non-personal data collected by the State that has “<a href="https://www.medianama.com/2022/06/223-new-data-governance-policy-privacy/">undergone value addition</a>” could be sold for an “appropriate price”. During the Draft Policy’s consultation process, it had been withdrawn several times and then finally removed from the website.<a href="https://www.meity.gov.in/writereaddata/files/Draft%20India%20Data%20Accessibility%20and%20Use%20Policy_0.pdf"> The National Data Governance Framework Policy</a> (‘NDGF Policy’) is a successor to this Draft Policy. There is a change in the language put forth in the NDGF Policy from the Draft Policy, where the latter mainly focused on monetary growth. The new NDGF Policy aims to regulate anonymised non-personal data (‘NPD’) kept with governmental authorities and make it accessible for research and improving governance. It wishes to create an ‘India Datasets programme’ which will consist of the aforementioned datasets. While MEITY has opened the draft for public comments, is a need to spell out the procedure in some ways for stakeholders to draft recommendations for the NDGF policies in an informed manner. Through this piece, we discuss the NDGF Policy in terms of issues related to the absence of a comprehensive Data Protection Framework in India and the jurisdictional overlap of authorities under the NDGF Policy and DPB.</p>
<h2 dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">What the National Data Governance Framework Policy Says</h2>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">Presently in India, NPD is stored in a variety of governmental departments and bodies. It is difficult to access and use this stored data for governmental functions without modernising collection and management of governmental data. Through the NDGF Policy, the government aims to build an Indian data storehouse of anonymised non-personal datasets and make it accessible for both improving governance and encouraging research. It imagines the establishment of an Indian Data Office (‘IDO’) set up by MEITY , which shall be responsible for consolidating data access and sharing of non-personal data across the government. In addition, it also mandates a Data Management Unit for every Ministry/department that would work closely with the IDO. IDO will also be responsible for issuing protocols for sharing NPD. The policy further imagines an Indian Data Council (‘IDC’) whose function would be to define frameworks for important datasets, finalise data standards, and Metadata standards and also review the implementation of the policy. The NDGF Policy has provided a broad structure concerning the setting up of anonymisation standards, data retention policies, data quality, and data sharing toolkit. The NDGF Policy states that these standards shall be developed and notified by the IDO or MEITY or the Ministry in question and need to be adhered to by all entities.</p>
<h2 dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">The Data Protection Framework in India</h2>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">The report adopted by the JPC, felt that it is simpler to enact a single law and a single regulator to oversee all the data that originates from any data principal and is in the custody of any data fiduciary. According to the JPC, the draft Bill deals with various kinds of data at various levels of security. The JPC also recommended that since the Data Protection Bill (‘DPB’) will handle both personal and non-personal data, any further policy / legal framework on non-personal data may be made a part of the same enactment instead of any separate legislation. The draft DPB states that what is to be done with the NDP shall be decided by the government from time to time according to its policy. As such, neither the DPB, 2021 nor the NDGF Policy go into details of regulating NPD but only provide a broad structure of facilitating free-flow of NPD, without taking into account the <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/cis-comments-revised-npd-report/view">specific concerns</a> that have been raised since the NPD committee came out with its draft report on regulating NPD dated December 2020.</p>
<h2 dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">Jurisdictional overlaps among authorities and other concerns</h2>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">Under the NDGF policy, all guidelines and rules shall be published by a body known as the Indian Data Management Office (‘IDMO’). The IDMO is set to function under the MEITY and work with the Central government, state governments and other stakeholders to set standards. Currently, there is no sign of when the DPB will be passed as law. According to the JPC, the reason for including NPD within the DPB was because of the impossibility to differentiate between PD and NPD. There are also certain overlaps between the DPB and the NDGF which are not discussed by the NDGF. NDGF does not discuss the overlap between the IDMO and Data Protection Authority (‘DPA’) established under the DPB 2021.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">Under the DPB, the DPA is tasked with specifying codes of practice under clause 49. On the other hand, the NDGF has imagined the setting up of IDO, IDMO, and the IDC, which shall be responsible for issuing codes of practice such as data retention, and data anonymisation, and data quality standards. As such, there appears to be some overlap in the functions of the to-be-constituted DPA and the NDGF Policy.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">Furthermore, while the NDGF Policy aims to promote openness with respect to government data, there is a conflict with <a href="https://opengovdata.org/">open government data (‘OGD’) principle</a>s when there is a price attached to such data. OGD is data which is collected and processed by the government for free use, reuse and distribution. Any database created by the government must be publicly accessible to ensure compliance with the OGD principles.</p>
<h2 dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">Conclusion</h2>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">Streamlining datasets across different authorities is a huge challenge for the government and hence the NGDF policy in its current draft requires a lot of clarification. The government can take inspiration from the European Union which in 2018, came out with a principles-based approach coupled with self-regulation on the framework of the free flow of non-personal data. The <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52019DC0250&from=EN">guidance</a> on the free-flow of non-personal data defines non-personal data based on the origin of data - data which originally did not relate to any personal data (non-human NPD) and data which originated from personal data but was subsequently anonymised (human NPD). The <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52019DC0250&from=EN">regulation</a> further realises the reality of mixed data sets and regulates only the non-personal part of such datasets and where the datasets are inextricably linked, the GDPR would apply to such datasets. Moreover, any policy that seeks to govern the free flow of NPD ought to make it clear that in case of re-identification of anonymised data, such re-identified data would be considered personal data. The DPB, 2021 and the NGDF, both fail to take into account this difference.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/national-data-governance-framework-policy'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/national-data-governance-framework-policy</a>
</p>
No publisherDigvijay Chaudhary and Anamika KunduOpen DataOpen Government DataInternet GovernancePrivacy2022-06-30T13:24:35ZBlog EntryTechnology Evangelists and Religious Evangelists — A Talk by Katherine Sydenham
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/technology-evangelists-religious-evangelists
<b>Katherine Sydenham from the University of Michigan School of Information will deliver a lecture at the Centre for Internet & Society office in Bangalore on August 10, 2012, from 5.00 p.m. to 6.30 p.m.</b>
<h3>Abstract</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The current investigation explores the possibility of comparison of techniques used by technology evangelists and religious evangelists. The study sought informants from three major categories: proprietary software evangelists, proponents of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), and religious evangelists of several religious traditions. A preliminary analysis of qualitative data indicates that there are enough similarities in strategies used by members from each group to make the inquiry relevant. Early data also reveal significant differences in each group´s strategy that may inform and shape future efforts on behalf of technology evangelists to reach a wider audience for their products.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "> </p>
<h3>Katherine Sydenham</h3>
<p>Katherine is a doctoral student at the University of Michigan School of Information. Her research in the Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD) field focuses on technology adoption by marginalized communities. Her background is in Religious Studies and Library and Information Science. Her summer internship at Microsoft Research is exploring the strategic similarities between technology evangelism and religious evangelism.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a class="external-link" href="http://www.si.umich.edu/people/katherine-sydenham">Click here</a> to read more about Katherine</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/technology-evangelists-religious-evangelists'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/technology-evangelists-religious-evangelists</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaOpen DataEvent Type2012-09-04T10:44:34ZEventTalks by Richard Abisla and Kaliya Young
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/events/talks-by-richard-abisla-and-kaliya-young
<b>The Centre for Internet & Society will be hosting public talks by Richard Abisla and Kaliya Young, who are both 2019 India-U.S. Public Interest Technology Fellows at New America at its Bangalore office on March 4, 2019.</b>
<p>The event is over. <a class="external-link" href="https://twitter.com/cis_india/status/1102863819288666112">Pictures of the speakers were posted on Twitter</a>.</p>
<hr />
<h3>Agenda</h3>
<ul>
<li>4:30 - 5:10 p.m.: "Open Data from Below: Civil Society and Open Data" by Richard Abisla</li>
<li>5:10 - 5:50 p.m.: "Exploring the Domains of Identity and Emerging Open standards for Decentralized Identity" by Kaliya Young</li>
</ul>
<h2>The Talks</h2>
<h3>"Open Data from Below: Civil Society and Open Data" by Richard Abisla</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Often NGOs and Civil Society Organizations' roles in the Open Data movement are considered to be solely last mile training with citizens. This talk will give examples from the TechSoup Global Network of how NGOs act to prioritize, organize, and create open data sets that can exist alongside official data sources, or become official government data. The talk will explore barriers to opening up data, both from within government and civil society, and possible solutions. For more info <a class="external-link" href="https://meet.techsoup.org/about-us/techsoup-global-network">click here</a>.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">"Exploring the Domains of Identity and Emerging Open standards for Decentralized Identity" by Kaliya Young</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In this seminar she will share two significant pieces of her work firstly the Domains of Identity that provides a clear picture of all the different domains individual's data ends up in databases. This can serve as the basis of a dialogue about the proper relationship between different domains. Secondly she has been at the heart of a community developing new Decentralized Identity Technology standards and will share more about them and how they can enable a many-to-many exchange of verifiable credentials between individuals and the institutions they interact with.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">The Speakers</h2>
<h3>Richard Abisla</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Richard Abisla is a 2019 India-U.S. Fellow at New America. Abisla is currently the Portfolio Manager for the Americas at Caravan Studios, a division of TechSoup. Abisla has a long history of working alongside local communities to help them access digital information and education and integrate technology into both their work and lives. He has created and directed technology education and adoption programs in Honduras, Jamaica, Chicago, and San Francisco, all the while focusing on increasing access to digital resources for those who need them most. Most recently, Abisla has focused on working with librarians and library users in Brazil to create applications and processes that help solve local problems through open data resources, as well as training librarians to integrate human-centered design principles into their work in order to plan more impactful programming.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Kaliya Young</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Kaliya Young is a 2019 India-U.S. Fellow at New America. Young is one of the world’s leading experts on decentralized or self-sovereign identity technology. She is the author of A Comprehensive Guide to Self-Sovereign Identity and currently holds the position of adjunct professor at Merritt College where she is developing a curriculum about identity. For the last 15 years, she has worked within the industry to catalyze the formation of a new layer of the internet designed to serve individuals. She began sketching out distributed social networks in 2003 and co-founded the Internet Identity Workshop in 2005 with Doc Searls and Phil Windley. More details can be <a class="external-link" href="https://www.newamerica.org/our-people/kaliya-young/">found here</a>. She is also known as <a class="external-link" href="https://www.identitywoman.net/">Identity Woman</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/events/talks-by-richard-abisla-and-kaliya-young'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/events/talks-by-richard-abisla-and-kaliya-young</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminOpen DataEventOpenness2019-03-07T23:59:25ZEventSurvey of Estimates of Economic Value of Open Government Data
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/survey-of-estimates-of-economic-value-of-open-government-data
<b>This is a survey of estimates of economic value of open government data, and public sector information in general, across regions, countries, and sectors offered by several reports published during the last decade. The survey is undertaken by Ömer Faruk Sarı, a student of Business Administration at Koc University in Istanbul, Turkey, and research intern with CIS. </b>
<p> </p>
<h2>Introduction</h2>
<p>This is a survey of economic value estimates of open government data, and public sector information in general, by consultancy groups and government bodies across the world. The first part of the post lists estimates from different regions and countries, while the second part collects estimates for different sectors. Major reports surveyed in this study include the 'MEPSIR: Measuring European Public Sector Information Resources' report (2006), 'The Value of Spatial Information' report by ACIL Tasman (2008), 'Review of Recent Studies on PSI Re-Use and Related Market Developments' report by Graham Vickery (2012), 'Market Assessment of Public Sector Information' report by Deloitte (2013), 'Open Data: Unlocking Innovation and Performance with Liquid Information' by McKinsey (2013), 'Big and Open Data in Europe: A Growth Engine or a Missed Opportunity?' by Warsaw Institute for Economic Studies (2014), and 'Open for Business: How Open Data can Help Achieve the G20 Growth Target' report by Omidyar Network (2014).</p>
<p><strong>Note about Exchange Rate:</strong>The monetary values stated in these reports vary by years and currencies. The original estimates are mentioned in the currency concerned followed by the converted amount in US Dollar (using exchange rate of the same year) provided within brackets. The exchange rates concerned are mentioned at the bottom of the post.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Countries and Regions</h2>
<h3>Global</h3>
<p>McKinsey estimates global economic value of open data as USD 3.2 Trillion for seven sectors - Education, Transportation, Consumer Products, Electricity, Oil and Gas, Healthcare, and Consumer Finance. [1]</p>
<h3>European Union</h3>
<p>Pira International Ltd. et al, in 2000, estimated the monetary value of open data for EU countries as EUR 68 Billion (USD 76 Billion). [2]</p>
<p>Zangenberg and Company, estimated this number for EU countries as for minimum EUR 29 Billion (USD 38 Billion) and for an upper limit of EUR 143 Billion (USD 188 Billion). [3]</p>
<p>The Warsaw Institute for Economic Studies (WISE Institute) estimates the economic value of open data in EU, as increase in GDP by 2020, as EUR 206 Billion (USD 253 Billion). [4]</p>
<p>Graham Vickery estimated this number as EUR 200 Billion (USD 264 Billion) in 2012. [5]</p>
<p>In 2006, MEPSIR, in their report for European Commission, mentioned EUR 27 Billion (USD 36 Billion) could be gained by use of open data. [6]</p>
<p>McKinsey, in their report in 2013, estimated the monetary value of open data for EU countries as USD 900 Billion. [1]</p>
<iframe src="http://ajantriks.github.io/cis/charts/2015.08_open-data-value-eu/index.html" frameborder="0" height="300" width="700"></iframe>
<h3>G20</h3>
<p>For G20 countries taken together, Omidyar Network estimates the economic value of open data as USD 2.6 Trillion. [7]</p>
<h3>Australia</h3>
<p>Omidyar Network, in their study on business value of open data, estimated the potential of open data for Australia as AUD 3.4 Billion (USD 2.8 Billion). [7]</p>
<p>In 2008, ACIL Tasman estimated the potential economic value of open data for Australia as AUD 1.4 Billion (USD 938 Million). [8]</p>
<p>John Houghton's estimation for the monetary value of open data is AUD 195 Million (USD 197 Million). [9]</p>
<h3>Denmark</h3>
<p>Zangenberg and Company, in 2011, estimated the economic value of open data for Denmark as DKK 520 Million (USD 92 Million). [3]</p>
<h3>France</h3>
<p>SerdaLAB, in 2009, estimated EUR 1.57 Billion (USD 2.3 Billion) can be gained by open data in France. [10]</p>
<h3>Germany</h3>
<p>In 2011, Dr, Martin Fornefeld et al estimated the economic value of open data for Germany as EUR 1.7 Billion (USD 2.2 Billion), only for geo-information. [11]</p>
<p>The POPSIS study estimated this number as EUR 3.2 Million (USD 4.2 Million), in the same year, 2011. [12]</p>
<h3>Norway</h3>
<p>Graham Vickery's report mentions the potential value of open data as NOK 260 Million (USD 43 Million). [5]</p>
<h3>Spain</h3>
<p>The Proyecto Aporta (Spanish open data portal project) study estimated the economic value of the infomediary sector in Spain as EUR 330-550 Million (USD 452-753 Million), in 2012. [13]</p>
<h3>The Netherlands</h3>
<p>In 2011, the POPSIS study estimated the economic potential that can be gained from open data in Netherlands as EUR 78 Million (USD 102 Million). [12]</p>
<h3>United Kingdom</h3>
<p>Deloitte, in their report, estimated the value of open data as GBP 6.2-7.2 Billion (USD 10-11.8 Billion) for United Kingdom. [14]</p>
<p>Rufus Pollock, in 2011, estimated GBP 4.5-6 Billion (USD 7-9.3 Billion) that can be unlocked by use of open data. [15]</p>
<p>Dot-Econ's estimation for monetary value of open data in United Kingdom is EUR 590 Million (USD 778 Million). [16]</p>
<h3>United States</h3>
<p>McKinsey's estimation, in 2013, for the value that can be unlocked by open data in United States is quite remarkable at USD 1.1 Trillion. [1]</p>
<p>Pira International Ltd. et al, in 2000, estimated the value as EUR 750 Billion (USD 838 Billion). [2]</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Data Types and Sectors</h2>
<h3>Consumer Finance</h3>
<p>McKinsey estimates USD 210-280 Billion, globally, for the consumer finance sector. [1]</p>
<p><strong>Based on McKinsey's Report:</strong> The estimate for G20 countries is USD 169 Billion; for Australia, the estimate is AUD 4.2 Billion (USD 4.3 Billion).</p>
<h3>Consumer Products</h3>
<p>Across the globe, with the use of open data McKinsey estimates USD 520-1470 Billion can be generated from services of consumer products. [1]</p>
<p><strong>Based on McKinsey's Report:</strong> G20 countries, in total, have a potential value of USD 419 Billion for this sector; the value is estimated at AUD 10 Billion (USD 10.2 Billion) for Australia.</p>
<h3>Education</h3>
<p>McKinsey estimates that USD 890-1180 Billion can be generated alone in education sector, across the globe. [1]</p>
<p><strong>Based on McKinsey's Report:</strong> Open data in the education sector in G20 countries can generate USD 717 Billion; for Australia, value of open data in education sector is estimated to be AUD 14 Billion (USD 14.2 Billion).</p>
<h3>Electricity</h3>
<p>McKinsey estimates USD 340-580 Billion, across the globe. [1]</p>
<p><strong>Based on McKinsey's Report:</strong> For electricity sector, USD 193 Billion is estimated for G20 countries; estimate for Australia for electricity sector depending on open data is AUD 6.7 Billion (USD 6.8 Billion).</p>
<h3>Geospatial Data</h3>
<p>Dr. Nam D. Pham estimates the potential value of Geo-spatial information in US as USD 96 Billion. [17]</p>
<p>In the report by Pira International Limited et al, the economic value of geo-spatial information in EU estimated as EUR 36 Billion (USD 40 Billion). [2]</p>
<p>Fornefeld et al estimates the value of geo-spatial information in Germany as EUR 1.7 Billion (USD 2.2 Billion). [11]</p>
<p>The POPSIS study estimates the economic value of Meteorological data re-use market in Netherlands as EUR 10 Million (USD 13 Million). [12]</p>
<p>Graham Vickery estimates (in 2012) NOK 72 Million (USD 12 Million) can be generated in Norway through geo-spatial information. [5]</p>
<p>The Proyecto Aporta study estimates potential value of geo-spatial information in Spain as EUR 183 Million (USD 240 Million). [13]</p>
<p>ACIL Tasman in their report, estimated that as a direct result of the uptake of spatial technologies New Zealand’s real GDP increased by NZD 1.2 Billion (USD 670 Million) in 2008 through productivity-related gains as a result of the increasing adoption of modern spatial information technologies since 1995. [8]</p>
<p>In the United Kingdom, a 'supply-side' assessment estimated the market size and growth potential for geographic information (GI) products and services. The market size in year 2007 was estimated to be GBP 657 Million (USD 1.32 Billion). [18]</p>
<p>Based on PwC's study in 2010, John Houghton estimates the value of spatial data in Australia as AUD 25 Million (USD 25.3 Million). [9]</p>
<p>Ordnance Survey of UK estimates the economic value of open data published by the same agency as GBP 2.9-6.1 Million (USD 4.5-9.5 Million). [19]</p>
<iframe src="http://ajantriks.github.io/cis/charts/2015.08_open-geo-data-value/index.html" frameborder="0" height="400" width="700"></iframe>
<h3>Healthcare</h3>
<p>Globally, USD 300-450 Billion is the estimate of McKinsey, depending on open data use in healthcare sector.[1]</p>
<p><strong>Based on McKinsey's Report:</strong> Open data in the healthcare sector can generate USD 242 Billion for G20 countries; estimate for Australia is AUD 5.9 Billion (USD 6 Billion).</p>
<h3>Oil and Gas</h3>
<p>McKinsey estimates USD 240-510 Billion that can be generated through open data for the oil and gas sector, across the globe. [1]</p>
<p><strong>Based on McKinsey's Report:</strong> Oil and gas sector, with the use of open data, can generate USD 169 Billion for G20 countries; the value for Australia is estimated to generate AUD 4.8 Billion (USD 4.9 Billion).</p>
<h3>Transportation</h3>
<p>McKinsey estimates the value of transportation sector with the use of open data as USD 720-920 Billion for the transportation sector, globally. [1]</p>
<p><strong>Based on McKinsey's Report:</strong> G20 countries altogether can generate USD 580 Billion in transportation sector; estimate of the value of open data in the transportation sector in Australia is AUD 18 Billion (USD 18.2 Billion).</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Reference</h2>
<p>[1] Manyika, James, et al. 2013. Open Data: Unlocking Innovation and Performance with Liquid Information. McKinsey Global Institute. October. Accessed from <a href="http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/business_technology/open_data_unlocking_innovation_and_performance_with_liquid_information">http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/business_technology/open_data_unlocking_innovation_and_performance_with_liquid_information</a>.</p>
<p>[2] Pira International Ltd. et al. 2000. Commercial exploitation of Europe’s Public Sector Information - Executive Summary. European Commission, Brussels. Aceeseed from <a href="ftp://ftp.cordis.europa.eu/pub/econtent/docs/2000_1558_en.pdf">ftp://ftp.cordis.europa.eu/pub/econtent/docs/2000_1558_en.pdf</a>.</p>
<p>[3] Zangenberg and Company. 2011, Kvantificering af værdien af åbne offentlige data (Quantifying the Value of Open Government Data). Report Prepared for the Danish National Information Technology and Telecom Agency. Accessed from <a href="https://digitaliser.dk/resource/1021067/artefact/Kvantificering+af+den+erhvervsm%c3%a6ssige+v%c3%a6rdi+af+%c3%a5bne+offentlige+data+-+Zangenberg2011.pdf">https://digitaliser.dk/resource/1021067/artefact/Kvantificering+af+den+erhvervsm%c3%a6ssige+v%c3%a6rdi+af+%c3%a5bne+offentlige+data+-+Zangenberg2011.pdf</a>.</p>
<p>[4] Buchholtz, Sonia, et al. 2014. Big and Open Data in Europe: A Growth Engine or a Missed Opportunity? demosEUROPA – Centre for European Strategy and Warsaw Institute for Economic Studies. Accessed from <a href="http://www.bigopendata.eu/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/bod_europe_2020_full_report_singlepage.pdf">http://www.bigopendata.eu/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/bod_europe_2020_full_report_singlepage.pdf</a>.</p>
<p>[5] Vickery, Graham. 2012. Review of Recent Studies on PSI Re-Use and Related Market Developments. European Commission, Brussels. Accessed form <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/newsroom/cf//document.cfm?doc_id=1093">http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/newsroom/cf//document.cfm?doc_id=1093</a>.</p>
<p>[6] Dekkers, Makx, et al. 2006. MEPSIR: Measuring European Public Sector Information Resources - Final Report of Study on Exploitation of Public Sector Information – Benchmarking of EU Framework Conditions. European Commission, Brussels. Accessed from <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/newsroom/cf/document.cfm?doc_id=1198">http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/newsroom/cf/document.cfm?doc_id=1198</a>.</p>
<p>[7] Lateral Economics. 2014. Open for Business: How Open Data can Help Achieve the G20 Growth Target. Omidyar Network. June. Accessed from <a href="https://www.omidyar.com/sites/default/files/file_archive/insights/ON%20Report_061114_FNL.pdf">https://www.omidyar.com/sites/default/files/file_archive/insights/ON%20Report_061114_FNL.pdf</a>.</p>
<p>[8] ACIL Tasman. 2008. The Value of Spatial Information: The Impact of Modern Spatial Information
Technologies on the Australian Economy. March. Accessed from <a href="http://www.crcsi.com.au/assets/Resources/7d60411d-0ab9-45be-8d48-ef8dab5abd4a.pdf">http://www.crcsi.com.au/assets/Resources/7d60411d-0ab9-45be-8d48-ef8dab5abd4a.pdf</a>.</p>
<p>[9] Houghton, John. 2011. Costs and Benefits of Data Provision. Report to the Australian National Data Service. September. Accessed from <a href="http://www.ands.org.au/resource/houghton-cost-benefit-study.pdf">http://www.ands.org.au/resource/houghton-cost-benefit-study.pdf</a>.</p>
<p>[10] Guerre, Louise, et al. 2009. Le marché de l’information électronique professionnelle en France. SerdaLAB. Presentation at CCIP on January 27. Accessed from <a href="http://www.fnps.fr/Public/Article/File/DOCUMENTS/Presentation_ET_IEP09_270109.pdf">http://www.fnps.fr/Public/Article/File/DOCUMENTS/Presentation_ET_IEP09_270109.pdf</a>.</p>
<p>[11] Fornefeld, Martin, et al. 2011. Die europäische Gesetzgebung als Motor für das deutsche GeoBusiness (European Legislation as a Driver for German GeoBusiness). Accessed from <a href="http://www.micus.de/pdf/MICUS_GeoBusiness-BMWi.pdf">http://www.micus.de/pdf/MICUS_GeoBusiness-BMWi.pdf</a>.</p>
<p>[12] Citadel Consulting et al. 2011. POPSIS: Pricing Of Public Sector Information Study - Models of Supply and Charging for Public Sector Information (ABC) - Final Report. European Commission. October. Accessed from <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/dae/document.cfm?doc_id=1158">http://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/dae/document.cfm?doc_id=1158</a>.</p>
<p>[13] Ministry of Finance and Public Administration et al. 2012. Characterization Study of the Infomediary Sector. Proyecto Aporta. Accessed from <a href="http://datos.gob.es/sites/default/files/files/Estudio_infomediario/121001%20RED%20007%20Final%20Report_2012%20Edition_vF_en.pdf">http://datos.gob.es/sites/default/files/files/Estudio_infomediario/121001%20RED%20007%20Final%20Report_2012%20Edition_vF_en.pdf</a>.</p>
<p>[14] Deloitte. 2013. Market Assessment of Public Sector Information. Report to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, Government of UK. Accessed from <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/198905/bis-13-743-market-assessment-of-public-sector-information.pdf">https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/198905/bis-13-743-market-assessment-of-public-sector-information.pdf</a>.</p>
<p>[15] Pollock, Rufus. 2010. Welfare Gains from Opening up Public Sector Information in the UK. University of Cambridge. Accessed from <a href="http://rufuspollock.org/economics/papers/psi_openness_gains.pdf">http://rufuspollock.org/economics/papers/psi_openness_gains.pdf</a>.</p>
<p>[16] DotEcon. 2006. The Commercial Use of Public Information (CUPI). Report OFT861. Office of Fair Trading, Government of UK. Accessed from <a href="http://www.opsi.gov.uk/advice/poi/oft-cupi.pdf">http://www.opsi.gov.uk/advice/poi/oft-cupi.pdf</a>.</p>
<p>[17] Pham, Nam D. 2011. The Economic Benefits of Commercial GPS Use in the U.S. and the Costs of Potential Disruption. June. Accessed from <a href="http://www.gpsalliance.org/docs/GPS_Report_June_21_2011.pdf">http://www.gpsalliance.org/docs/GPS_Report_June_21_2011.pdf</a>.</p>
<p>[18] Coote, Andrew, and Les Rackham. 2008. An Assessment of the Size and Prospects for Growth of the UK Market for Geographic Information Products and Services. ConsultingWhere. Accessed from <a href="http://www.consultingwhere.com/wp-content/uploads/resources/UK_Market_Assessment_v11_Final.pdf">http://www.consultingwhere.com/wp-content/uploads/resources/UK_Market_Assessment_v11_Final.pdf</a>.</p>
<p>[19] Carpenter, John, and Phil Watts. 2013. Assessing the Value of OS OpenData™ to the Economy of Great Britain - Synopsis. Ordnance Survey. June. Accessed from <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/207692/bis-13-950-assessing-value-of-opendata-to-economy-of-great-britain.pdf">https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/207692/bis-13-950-assessing-value-of-opendata-to-economy-of-great-britain.pdf</a>.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Exchange Rates</h2>
<p>Note: Exchange rates are taken for December of the year concerned.</p>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>Euro per 1 US Dollar</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2000</td>
<td>0.8947</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2006</td>
<td>0.7580</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2009</td>
<td>0.6868</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2010</td>
<td>0.7562</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2011</td>
<td>0.7599</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2013</td>
<td>0.7296</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2014</td>
<td>0.8123</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>British Pound per 1 US Dollar</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2006</td>
<td>0.5095</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2011</td>
<td>0.6415</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2013</td>
<td>0.6106</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2014</td>
<td>0.6397</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Australian Dollar per 1 US Dollar</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2008</td>
<td>1.4919</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2011</td>
<td>0.9874</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2014</td>
<td>1.2144</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>New Zealand Dollar per 1 US Dollar</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2008</td>
<td>1.7923</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Norwegian Krone per 1 US Dollar</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2010</td>
<td>5.9774</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Danish Krone per 1 US Dollar</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2011</td>
<td>5.6495</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/survey-of-estimates-of-economic-value-of-open-government-data'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/survey-of-estimates-of-economic-value-of-open-government-data</a>
</p>
No publisherÖmer Faruk SarıOpen Government DataDigital EconomyOpen DataEconomicsOpenness2015-08-22T08:42:30ZBlog EntrySummary of the Minutes of the Workshop on Biodiversity Informatics
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/summary-of-the-minutes-of-the-workshop-on-biodiversity-informatics
<b>The Western Ghats Portal team had organized a one-day workshop to explore the contemporary state of biodiversity informatics as expressed in three spheres: technology behind biodiversity informatics, scientific commons and policy and biodiversity portals in India. It hoped to provide an opportunity to interact and learn from similar endeavors in this emerging discipline. The workshop was held at Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE), Bangalore on 25 November 2011.</b>
<p>There were 5 speakers and 10 panelists representing as many portal
initiatives, participating at the venue or via WebEx, addressing an
audience of 75 comprising of students, researchers, representatives from
governmental bodies and technological platforms.The entire day’s
sessions were peppered with questions and discussions, directed to the
presenters as also within the members of the audience.</p>
<p>The technology session presented an Indian initiative, Bhuvan, a
geospatial data alternative to GoogleEarth that was pertinent to the
India centric audience. The second presentation was the Atlas of Living
Australia, an international endeavor that was able to give a broad
overview of how government funding for the sharing of government data on
a public platform was able to source large information and present it
for open access on a portal. The project aims to serve a variety of
users from scientists, citizen scientists to policy makers and activists
in biodiversity and conservation. The WGP was presented by a discussion
of architecture and design of participation interface for recording and
accumulating biodiversity observation data. The scientific commons and
policy session covered a wide range of topics: the interpretation of the
Indian laws for portal developments across disciplines, the
governmental policies that may hinder the development of Open source
platforms, the creative commons licenses and how they work for
scientific data, and whether developing a biodiversity commons would
help the community at large.</p>
<p>Global initiatives in the area of scientific commons were presented.
Views from the participants on various aspects and the practicality of a
legal framework were discussed. There are plans to discuss and evolve a
draft of a charter for scientific commons that would be relevant for
biodiversity and conservation. A clearly articulated and agreed data
policy is also one of the deliverables of the project.</p>
<p>The third session centred on the experience of India-centric
biodiversity portals. Two of the panelists presented their portals and
attended the session over WebEx from the United States. A spectrum of
portals was presented. Some of them were focused on single taxa, or a
theme focus from medicinal plants to thematic citizen science
initiatives. The IBP and WGP were presented as broad based with large
collections of spatial data and species data. Perspective plans of large
biodiversity portal initiatives, like the GBIF node for India, INBIF,
were outlines to showing the things that may come in the next few years.</p>
<p>The discussions revolved around scientific rigor versus citizen
participation, large-scale projects v/s small-scale focused portals, and
maintaining quality with crowd sourced data. Ideas about how peer
recognition and scientific status could be achieved were discussed.
Focused portals closely managed by experts to provide valuate
biodiversity and species data were discussed, with methods of
maintaining quality and curating data. The event concluded by
discussions of how each portal can maintain its identity and focus but
at the same time evolve mechanisms for interoperability and exchange of
information. There were open discussions on whether we can network and
provide easy toolkits for building focused participation sites.</p>
<h2>Minutes of the Workshop on Biodiversity Informatics</h2>
<h3>Objectives of the Workshop</h3>
<p>Over the last few years, Biodiversity Informatics has emerged as a
field to aggregate and consolidate biodiversity information across the
world. With the increased penetration of the Internet into developing
economies, and the widespread adoption of web technologies, biodiversity
informatics has spawned an impressive variety of initiatives. These
initiatives range from global knowledge bases and networks, national
initiatives, eco-region based initiatives, as well as sharply focused
initiatives which address a single species or event. There have been
tangible advantages for stakeholders from these initiatives which has
inspired many other endeavors. Success stories exist at both global and
local level, and learning from these experiences can help one understand
the multi-faceted nature of this discipline.</p>
<p>The Western Ghats Portal team organized a one-day workshop to explore
the contemporary state of biodiversity informatics as expressed in
three spheres: i) technology behind biodiversity informatics, ii)
scientific commons and policy and iii) biodiversity portals in India.
The workshop was intended to bring together technologists, open data
policy experts, leaders of portal initiatives and user groups and
stakeholders to meet and discuss experiences and approaches to
Biodiversity Informatics.</p>
<p>Seventy five participants attended the workshop covering governmental
agencies, NGO’s, academic institutes, student groups, CEPF grantees and
other relevant stakeholders. There were 5 speakers and 10 panelists
representing as many portal initiatives, participating at the venue or
via WebEx from the continents of Australia and North America.</p>
<h3>Plenary I: Technology behind biodiversity informatics - 0930 - 1115 hrs</h3>
<p>This session was introduced by Dr.B.Ramesh of the French Institute of
Pondicherry, who welcomed the participants of the workshop. He
highlighted the growth of Biodiversity Informatics leveraging the
Internet. In this emerging discipline, stressed the need to take stock
of the latest developments in the area.</p>
<p><strong>Development of Information System, Open Data standards, Archive and Geospatial solutions, Visualization in Bhuvan - M. Arulraj</strong>, National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).</p>
<p>Arulraj gave an overview of the Bhuvan project, ISRO’s geo-portal
serving as a rich geteway to Indian earth observations. The project was
launched in August 2009 and has made rapid strides since then to expose
earth observation images and thematic maps on the Indian sub-continent.
The Bhuvan project has multiple modules, which include 3-D and 2-D
visualizations; a data archive and data download; thematic land use and
land cover maps; a mobile application; and a discussion forum. The
project is in active development and in beta, but is adding many
features and data to the portal. In addition to data dissemination it
provides a webGIS platform with the ability to do analyses and create
geographical layers by users. The Bhuvan portal conforms to the national
map policy while exposing spatial information and imagery through its
evolving portal.</p>
<p>Arulraj explained the architecture of the portal and surveyed the
webGIS and open source technologies that were available. A demo terminal
of Bhuvan was exposed during the lunch session. During the discussions
on map policy, Arulraj quoted that as per Remote Sensing Data Policy
(RSDP)-2011, all satellite data of resolutions up to 1 m shall be
distributed on a nondiscriminatory basis and on “as requested basis” by
NRSC/ISRO.</p>
<p><strong>Architecture and design of participation interfaces - Anand Janakiraman</strong>, Western Ghats Portal</p>
<p>Anand Janakiram spoke about the design of participation interfaces
for the Western Ghats portal. The intent was to engage with user groups
on the user interfaces and usability of an observation interface, where
users will be able to upload a multi-media object; provide a location
for the observation; make a species call with a certain level of
confidence; and provide notes and comments on the observation. The
observation will be rated by the crowd. Species calls could be changed
if necessary and agreed or disagreed upon.</p>
<p>Various rating systems were discussed. These included a 5 or ten star
rating system, like movie rating systems; a multi-dimensional rating
system like in Wikipedia; a “like” rating system that is used in many
sites; and an expert based rating system. There was a lot of discussion
on rating systems among the participants concerning the necessity of an
expert based system; the wisdom of the public in identifications; a
simple and easy to use rating system on the portal.</p>
<p><strong>Challenges on the emerging discipline of Biodiversity Informatics - Donald Hobern</strong>, Atlas of Living Australia - Web participation.</p>
<p>Donald Hobern participated in the session from Australia over the
Internet. His talk and presentation was viewed by the participants via
two-way WebEx where he answered questions and interacted with the
audience.</p>
<p>Donald presented the Australian Government supported
multi-institutional project called the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA).
The ALA is a multi-institutional project with large funding to build a
comprehensive biodiversity site focused on Australia. The conceptual
model for the portal is to build a platform that will aggregate
biodiversity information resources from specimen records, field
observations, literature, images, experts and amateurs. The information
will be integrated as species pages, distributions, regional atlases,
and nomenclature. Through this, the portal aims to serve a whole range
of users ranging from researchers, taxonomists, land-use planners, and
conservation and park managers.</p>
<p>Donald explained the typical specimen, field occurrence and
occurrence data and how it is the data is presented via collections. He
also explained the services to manage sensitive data and name services
available to the public through APIs. The ALA also has rich mapping
tools that help relate biodiversity to spatial parameters like rainfall,
temperature and other abiotic and biotic factors.</p>
<p>ALA also develops user communities among various stakeholders that
include resource management groups, conservation groups, ecological
researchers, environmental agencies, field naturalists and taxonomy
researchers. They also develop specific use cases and applications for
each of these groups.</p>
<p>The questions and interaction session was animated, even though it
was on the Internet. One of the issues raised was that the ALA seems to
be building an all encompassing and comprehensive portal, without any
particular focus theme or focus group. How was the planning of features
and functions being done? Donald’s response was the portal team would
build functions that they thought would be useful and then engage with
user groups to better and fine-tune the application. They engage with
user groups about functions on the portal.</p>
<p>The Western Ghats Portal team would like to thank Donald Hobern for
his active participation in the workshop with a valued presentation on
the state-of-the-art of a comprehensive biodiversity portal.</p>
<h3>Plenary II: Scientific commons and policy - 1130 - 1300 hrs</h3>
<p>The session was chaired by Dr. Ravi Chellam of the Madras Crocodile
Bank Trust. Ravi introduced the session and the speakers. The idea was
to generate discussions on data sharing policy among the participants in
the context of the Indian legal framework of map policy, biodiversity
act, intellectual property, scientific creative commons, and the culture
and attitude of Indian scientists. Ravi suggested that the session
should lead to further discussions to evolve a policy for data sharing
among biodiversity and conservation researchers and to evolve a charter
for the best practices among the community.</p>
<p><strong>Commons in the context of Biodiversity Information - Danish Sheikh</strong>, Alternative Law Forum</p>
<p>Danish Sheikh from the Alternate Law Forum (ALF) discussed the
creative commons and stressed that it maintains the copyright of the
contributor. Creative Commons only specifies the terms of sharing the
information and in today’s Internet driven world open access to
information was essential. With a complex legal framework of creative
commons, map policy, biodiversity act, and research interests of
individuals, for sharing biodiversity data we must consider property
versus propriety. The sharing of information on the portal must be seen
from the non-commercial and academic nature of the information as well
as the use of data for social good of conservation. Government data in
the form of maps and reports should be sharable on an artistic license
and they could be deployed on the portal. In the sharing of biodiversity
information, there are no concrete cases of violations of laws and thus
there are no examples to learn from.</p>
<p>Danish Sheikh had prepared a draft of declaration to be discussed and
agreed upon by the community. This was to be circulated to the
participants, comments solicited and a broad consensus evolved on the
best practices for sharing biodiversity information. The discussions
centered on the map policy and the need to carefully study the map
policy and the biodiversity act from a legal perspective and arrive at a
policy for the portal that will conform to the laws and acts in India.</p>
<p><strong>Open data in the scientific realm - Sunil Abraham</strong>, Centre for Internet and Society</p>
<p>Sunil Abraham from the Center for Internet and Society (CIS) spoke on
various national and international initiatives on open data in the
scientific realm. National consultations and discussions have been going
on towards evolving a National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy
(NDSAP) among scientists and researchers in the country. The principle
of the policy is based on openness, flexibility, transparency, legal
conformity, protection of intellectual property, formal responsibility,
and professionalism. Based on these principles, various definitions have
evolved. He stressed upon a clear articulation of non-sharable data in
the negative list based upon the legal framework and Right to
Information Act; restricted access data and open access data.</p>
<p>Sunil Abraham also discussed various international initiatives on
scientific data sharing especially in the ecology and biodiversity
realm. He spoke of the Eye on Earth initiative for evolving a sharing
policy, the framework of the Shared European Environment Information
System (SEIS) and various standards for data sharing.</p>
<p>Discussions were around the issues of motivations for data sharing
and building social networks and peer encouragement for data sharing. He
opined that there was no recipe for engaging the crowd towards building
and participating on social networks and sharing information.</p>
<p>Sunil also suggested that the community should evolve a best
practices policy document by discussions and debates among themselves.
CIS should be seen as a service provider and advocate for evolving a
shared policy and lobbying with government if necessary. But the
biodiversity community should provide the lead in this effort and the
CIS would only be advisory.</p>
<h3>Plenary III - Biodiversity portals in India - 1400 - 1700 hrs</h3>
<p>The session was moderated by MD Madhusudan of the Nature Conservation
Foundation, Mysore. Over the last few years there has been a multitude
of portals focused on aggregating and publishing biodiversity
information of the Indian sub-continent. Some of these portals are
focused upon a region or taxa or subject of interest and some portals
address a wider canvas of issues on biodiversity and conservation. The
session was focused on presentations by each of the portals, presenting
the key features and focus of their portals; the experience of building
and running the portals; key lessons learnt and future plans for the
portal.</p>
<p>The response for the sessions on biodiversity was enthusiastic. Over
12 portal initiatives were presented. Some of the presentations were by
participants in the United States, who run portals on India. The
presentations and participation was done over WebEx sessions overcoming
the challenge of different time zones.</p>
<p>Madhusudhan moderated the session, keeping focus, and allowing time for discussions and debates.</p>
<p><strong>V.B Mathur</strong>, Indian Biodiversity Information Facility (InBIF)</p>
<p>VB Mathur presented plans for a GBIF node to be set up in India at
the Wildlife Institute of India called Indian Biodiversity Facility
(InBIF). The project is just being initiated and is conceived as a broad
and participative initiative to address the challenges to conservation
in the 21st century India. With a growing economy, the objective is to
provide biodiversity information to build sustainable development for
larger and inclusive populations of India. The InBIF has developed a
vision and mission statement and will produce a concept paper by a
consultative process by next year 2012. InBIF recognizes that such an
inclusive biodiversity portal will require significant funding and the
involvement of already present biodiversity portals. InBIF proposes to
seek substantial funding based on the concept paper via the 12th
Five-Year-Plan period starting 2012-2013.</p>
<p><strong>Suhel Quader</strong>, Season Watch (<a class="external-link" href="http://www.seasonwatch.in/">http://www.seasonwatch.in</a>), Migrant Watch (<a class="external-link" href="http://www.migrantwatch.in/">http://www.migrantwatch.in</a>)</p>
<p>Suhel Quader presented two portals Seasons Watch and Migrant Watch
focused on citizen science initiatives. The Seasons Watch portal is
focused on the observation and recording of seasons as revealed by
trees, by their fruiting, flowering and leaf fall patterns. About 100
species are observed all over the country. Migrant Watch observes the
arrival and departure of migrant bird species across the sub-continent.
Both these large citizen science efforts are focused on the recording
and understanding of seasons to create a base-line of data on seasons
and their variations. These sites are driven by questions and
hypotheses. The sites have an active citizen participation. The portals
are planning to expand significantly into school networks. The data
generated by citizens are freely available on the portals and it
encourages others to download, explore, analyze and publish analysis on
the data accumulated on the portal.</p>
<p>Sanjay Molur, Pterocount (<a class="external-link" href="http://www.pterocount.org/">http://www.pterocount.org/</a>)</p>
<p>Sanjay Molur presented Pterocount a South Asian bat monitoring
program. The project is aimed at creating awareness about bat
conservation issues and developing data on the status of South Asian bat
populations. There are about 3500 species of bats and data on the bat
roosts and their populations is collected through online portals as well
as offline forms. The information from all these sites will be compiled
and analyzed for trends in the population of bats, to identify key
threats to roosts and to provide recommendations for their conservation.
The data collected is contributed to the IUCN and is shared with other
researchers under creative commons licenses. The study is currently
focused on a single bat species Pteropus giganteus, but plans to expand
to other bat species as well.</p>
<p><strong>Suma Tagadur</strong>, Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions (<a class="external-link" href="http://envis.frlht.org/">http://envis.frlht.org</a>)</p>
<p>Sathya Sangeetha presented the medicinal plants’ envis site
maintained by the Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health
Traditions. The site is focused on the development of a database for
medicinal plants with details of taxonomy, local names, status,
distribution and trade. The site undertakes a systematic update for 12
medicinal plants per year. They also study the conservation status of
medicinal plants and help in the identification of a plant red list.
They have plans to develop a children’s portal for increasing awareness
of medicinal plants among children. With a focused agenda, the site has a
specific and valuable role in biodiversity and conservation of India.</p>
<p><strong>Ramesh BR</strong> - Western Ghats Portal (<a class="external-link" href="http://www.thewesternghats.in/">http://www.thewesternghats.in/</a>)</p>
<p>BR Ramesh presented the Western Ghats Portal. This is a relatively
young initiative launched about six months ago building on the India
Biodiversity Portal. The focus of the portal is to collect biodiversity
and conservation information on the Western Ghats, a biodiversity
hotspot. The portal has a map module, a species pages module, a
collaborative module and integrative theme pages. The portal has
aggregated significant available data on the Western Ghats and deployed
it on the portal. The portal plans to add an observation recording
interface and campaign for large scale participation on the portal, and
species identification keys.</p>
<p><strong>Shwetank Verma</strong>, Biodiversity of India, formerly Project Brahma (<a class="external-link" href="http://www.biodiversityofindia.org/">http://www.biodiversityofindia.org</a>)</p>
<p>Shwetank Verma presented the Biodiversity of India Portal. The portal
is developed and managed completely by voluntary effort, and is aimed
at being a wiki resource on the biodiversity of India. The site
aggregates data on Indian biodiversity from various public sites and
presents it attractively on the portal. It has an effective search
engine LigerCat that helps index all information on the portal. It aims
to add and enrich information on the human and cultural aspects of
species and their uses. The portal is keen on networking and sharing
information with other biodiversity sites by building necessary APIs for
interactions between various biodiversity sites.</p>
<p><strong>Krushnamegh Kunte</strong>, ifoundbutterflies (<a class="external-link" href="http://ifoundbutterflies.org/">http://ifoundbutterflies.org/</a>) web participation</p>
<p>Krushnamegh Kunte presented the ifoundbutterfiles portal over a WebEx
session from the United States. ifoundbutterflies is a community site
on the butterflies of India. It contains information on species pages,
life cycle pages, photographs, and identification keys of over 600
species of butterflies in India. All information is carefully peer
review and curated a team of biologists studying and researching
butterflies. The data is assuredly authenticated and verified and will
form a reliable source of butterfly information on India. </p>
<p><strong>Vijay Barve</strong>, DiversityIndia (<a class="external-link" href="http://diversityindia.org/">http://diversityindia.org/</a>) web participation</p>
<p>Vijay Barve presented the DiversityIndia, a social network group over
a WebEx session from the United States. The effort started off as a
yahoo group and then moved to facebook as a more convenient platform to
share information on the biodiversity of India. It plans to aggregate
the information posted in these groups into a site that will maintain
and develop biodiversity databases. The group is open to sharing
information and resources with other portals working on the biodiversity
of India.</p>
<p><strong>Deepak Menon</strong>, India Water Portal (<a class="external-link" href="http://www.indiawaterportal.org/">http://www.indiawaterportal.org/</a>)</p>
<p>Samuel Rajkumar presented the India Water Portal. Their portal is
supported by campaigning for participation and awareness among various
fora on water resources. The features include a question bank and an
interaction with experts on water; a data repository on water; and a
children’s section. The portal is currently working on a data project
aimed at accumulating a large repository of water related data on the
portal for open access. The portal intends on expanding with a map
component and a data visualization module.</p>
<p><strong>Chitra Ravi</strong>, India Biodiversity Portal (<a class="external-link" href="http://indiabiodiversity.org/">http://indiabiodiversity.org/</a>)</p>
<p>Chitra Ravi presented the India Biodiversity Portal. The portal was
started in 2008 after the first phase of portal development. Over the
past year, the portal has been enriched with checklists and species
pages. The portal is closely integrated with the Western Ghats Portal
sharing the platform, its features and the data. A comparison of the
availability of data in EOL showed that for the lesser known flora and
fauna, there is very little information publicly available. The portal
expects to fill this gap, by generating rich species and distribution
content for Indian species.</p>
<p><strong>M.D. Madhusudhan</strong>, Status of Golden Jackals in India</p>
<p>MD Madhusudhan presented a focused and time-based project on the
Golden Jackals on India. The site campaigned and crowd sourced on the
current and historical occurrence of the golden jackal in India. The
enthusiasm for participation was evident with large data collection. The
data was analyzed and made available publicly and freely to whoever
wanted to use the data. There was a need felt for a generic portal to
support such focused time-based crowd sourcing and citizen science
efforts.</p>
<p><strong>K.Sankara Rao</strong>, Centre for Ecological Sciences, IISc</p>
<p>K Sankara Rao, presented the Center for Ecological Sciences’ creation
of a virtual herbarium database from the rich herbarium available at
the Institute. The herbarium is Father Saldhana’s collection on the
flora of Karnataka and has the best representation of plant specimens of
Karnataka. The effort to digitize the herbarium is a passionate project
that will make the herbarium resources to be more widely available.
Sankara Rao requested volunteers to come forward and work on the
project.</p>
<p><strong>Discussions and summary of the day:</strong></p>
<p>The discussions centered on a range of topics and concerns for
Biodiversity Informatics in India. They focused on the following themes:</p>
<p>Large and comprehensive portals versus narrow and focused portals.
While focused portals seem efficient in achieving their objectives,
large portals are trying to explore different mechanisms of harnessing
and disseminating information. While such large and comprehensive
portals are necessary, they will require larger efforts, longer periods
and significant funding to deliver useful content in biodiversity.</p>
<p>Participation and Quality. There were different views on crowd
sourcing information and validation mechanisms. The importance of
expert-driven efforts on ensuring quality was appreciated, while there
was recognition that amateur naturalists and hobbyists could be very
knowledgeable and reliable.</p>
<p>The scientific status of a portal can be enhanced with careful expert
driven peer review mechanism. Portals could also serve as repositories
for data papers publications and citations that would be valued by the
scientific community. Target users for the portal. Discussions on target
users for the portal covered the whole spectrum from specialists and
scientists to activists and concerned citizens. A biodiversity portal
was expected to provide information to a variety of users and
stakeholders, including managers and policy makers.</p>
<p>Data exchange between portals: There was a general consensus on the
interaction and exchange of data among portals. This was heartening to
note, but since all the portals are new and evolving, mechanisms of
exchange and building APIs for exchange was lower in priority for most
portals. However, all portals were open to sharing information. Many of
the citizen science portals have made their data public and
downloadable.</p>
<p>There were discussions on larger projects like the WGP to engage in
technology facilitation for various citizen science projects. This was
discussed and opportunities for such technology facilitation need to be
explored.</p>
<p>Various mechanisms, such as quiz competitions, interaction with
experts, bio-blitzes, campaigns and road shows; to involve and engage
citizens on the portal were discussed. There were open-ended discussions
on how each portal can maintain its identity and focus, but at the same
time evolve mechanisms for interoperability and exchange of
information, and on whether we can network and provide easy tool kits
for building focused participation sites.</p>
<p>Dr. Prabhakar, concluded the event with a thank you note and by
expressing hope that the biodiversity conservation community can build
together on the momentum the workshop has created.</p>
<h2>List of participants present at the Workshop on Biodiversity Informatics, 25th November, 2011, ATREE, Bangalore</h2>
<table class="plain">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Sr.No</th>
<th>Name</th>
<th>Affiliation</th>
<th>Role</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>1<br /></td>
<td>Abhisheka</td>
<td>Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE)</td>
<td>Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 2</td>
<td>Ajith Ashokan</td>
<td>Mar Athanasios College for Advanced Studies Tiruvalla<br />(MACFAST), Kerala</td>
<td>Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 3</td>
<td>Amruta</td>
<td>Research and Action in Natural Wealth<br />Administration (RANWA)</td>
<td>Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 4</td>
<td>Anand Janakiraman</td>
<td>Western Ghats Portal</td>
<td>Speaker</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 5</td>
<td>Aneesh A</td>
<td>Ashoka Trust for Research<br />in Ecology and the<br />Environment (ATREE)</td>
<td>Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 6</td>
<td>Anup Prasad K S</td>
<td>TCS, Bangalore</td>
<td>Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 7</td>
<td>Anuradha S</td>
<td>University of Maryland,<br />College Park</td>
<td>Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 8</td>
<td>Aravind N A</td>
<td>Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the<br />Environment (ATREE)</td>
<td>Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 9</td>
<td>Asha.A</td>
<td>Centre for Ecological<br />Sciences - Indian Institute of<br />Science (IISc)</td>
<td>Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 10</td>
<td>Ashwini H S</td>
<td>Kuvempu University</td>
<td>Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 11</td>
<td>Avinash K S</td>
<td>Kuvempu University</td>
<td>Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 12</td>
<td>Baiju Raj</td>
<td>Agra bear rescue facility</td>
<td>Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 13</td>
<td>Balasubramanian D</td>
<td>French Institute of Pondicherry</td>
<td>Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 14</td>
<td>Baranidharan.K</td>
<td>Forest College and<br />Research Institute</td>
<td>Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 15</td>
<td>Chitra Ravi</td>
<td>Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the<br />Environment (ATREE)</td>
<td>Panelist</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 16</td>
<td>Danish Sheikh</td>
<td>Alternate Law Forum</td>
<td>Speaker</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 17</td>
<td>Deepak Menon<br /></td>
<td>ARGHYAM<br /></td>
<td>Panelist</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 18</td>
<td>Devayani Khare</td>
<td>French Institute of Pondicherry</td>
<td>Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 19</td>
<td>Dharnidharan</td>
<td>French Institute of Pondicherry</td>
<td>Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 20</td>
<td>Dinesh T B</td>
<td>Servelots Infotech Pvt. ltd</td>
<td>Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 21</td>
<td>Dr. B R Ramesh</td>
<td>French Institute of Pondicherry</td>
<td>Panelist</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 22</td>
<td>Dr. Bhaskar Acharya</td>
<td>Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE)</td>
<td>Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 23</td>
<td>Dr. Chikkaswamy</td>
<td>Om Bioscience Research</td>
<td>Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 24</td>
<td>Dr. Easa</td>
<td>Asia Biodiversity Conservation Trust (ABCT)</td>
<td>Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 25</td>
<td>Dr. Gautam Talukdar</td>
<td>Wildlife Institute of India</td>
<td>Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 26</td>
<td>Dr. Gladwin Joseph</td>
<td>Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE)</td>
<td>Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 27</td>
<td>Dr. Jagdish Krishnaswamy</td>
<td>Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE)</td>
<td>Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 28</td>
<td>Dr. K N Ganeshaiah</td>
<td>University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore</td>
<td>Panelist<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 29</td>
<td>Dr. Karthikeyan Vasudevan</td>
<td>Wildlife Institute of India</td>
<td>Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 30</td>
<td>Dr. L Shashikumar</td>
<td>Jnana Bharathi, Bangalore University</td>
<td>Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 31</td>
<td>Dr. M H Swaminath</td>
<td>Addl. Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildife)</td>
<td>Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 32</td>
<td>Dr. M Sanjappa</td>
<td>Botanical Survey of India(BSI)</td>
<td>Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 33</td>
<td>Dr. N S Hallikhed</td>
<td>BISB</td>
<td>Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 34</td>
<td>Dr. R Sukumar</td>
<td>Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES), IISc</td>
<td>Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 35</td>
<td>Dr. Ravi Chellam</td>
<td>Madras Crocodile Bank Trust</td>
<td>Speaker</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 36</td>
<td>Dr. V B Mathur</td>
<td>Wildlife Institute of India</td>
<td>Panelist</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 37</td>
<td>G Areendran</td>
<td>Wildlife Institute of India</td>
<td>Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 38</td>
<td>G Muthu Sankar</td>
<td>French Institute of Pondicherry</td>
<td>Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 39</td>
<td>Harinandanan P V</td>
<td>Mar Athanasios College for Advanced Studies Tiruvalla (MACFAST), Kerala</td>
<td>Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 40</td>
<td>Jagadish</td>
<td>Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE)</td>
<td>Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 41</td>
<td> Jyotish M S</td>
<td>Mar Athanasios College for Advanced Studies Tiruvalla (MACFAST), Kerala</td>
<td> Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 42</td>
<td> Kavitha A</td>
<td>Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE)</td>
<td> Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 43</td>
<td> Kiran M C</td>
<td>Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE)</td>
<td> Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 44</td>
<td> Krushnamegh Kunte</td>
<td> Harvard University</td>
<td>Panelist <br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 45</td>
<td> M Arulraj</td>
<td>National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), Hyderabad</td>
<td> Speaker</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 46</td>
<td> M D Madhusudan</td>
<td> Nature Conservation Foundation</td>
<td> Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 47</td>
<td> M Sathya Sangeetha</td>
<td>Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions</td>
<td> Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 48</td>
<td> Madhura Niphadkar</td>
<td>Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE)</td>
<td> Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 49</td>
<td> Meganath V</td>
<td>Mar Athanasios College for Advanced Studies Tiruvalla (MACFAST), Kerala</td>
<td> Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 50</td>
<td> Naveena N L</td>
<td>University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, Bangalore</td>
<td> Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 51</td>
<td> Nishadh</td>
<td>Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History</td>
<td> Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 52</td>
<td> Prashanth M B</td>
<td>Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE)</td>
<td> Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 53</td>
<td> Priti Gururaj</td>
<td> Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE)</td>
<td> Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 54</td>
<td> Prof. K Sankara Rao</td>
<td>Centre for Ecological Sciences - Indian Institute of Science (IISc)</td>
<td> Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 55</td>
<td> R C Prasad</td>
<td> Spatial Informatics Lab, IIITHyderabad</td>
<td> Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 56</td>
<td> Radhika Santhanam</td>
<td> Śramani</td>
<td> Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 57</td>
<td> Rahul Yadava</td>
<td>Strand Life Sciences<br /></td>
<td> Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 58</td>
<td> Rajan Pilakandy</td>
<td> Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History</td>
<td> Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>59</td>
<td> Rakesh K N</td>
<td>Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE)</td>
<td> Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 60</td>
<td> Ramesh Kannan</td>
<td>Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE)</td>
<td> Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 61</td>
<td> Ravikanth</td>
<td>Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE)</td>
<td> Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 62</td>
<td> Sabah Rubina</td>
<td>Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE)</td>
<td> Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 63</td>
<td> Samuel Rajkumar</td>
<td> Independent web-developer</td>
<td> Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 64</td>
<td> Sangeetha Sathya</td>
<td> FRLTH-IAIM</td>
<td> Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 65</td>
<td> Santosh S Gaikwad</td>
<td>Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History</td>
<td> Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 66</td>
<td> Seena Narayanan K</td>
<td>Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE)</td>
<td> Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 67</td>
<td>Senthilkumar Umapathy</td>
<td> Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE)</td>
<td> Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 68</td>
<td> Shashank P R</td>
<td> University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, Bangalore</td>
<td> Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 69</td>
<td> Shrinivas K R</td>
<td> Kuvempu University</td>
<td> Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 70</td>
<td> Shwetank Verma</td>
<td> Indian Institute of Science (IISc)</td>
<td> Panelist</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 71</td>
<td> Sivarajan</td>
<td> French Institute of Pondicherry</td>
<td> Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 72</td>
<td> Sreerupa Sen</td>
<td>Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE)</td>
<td> Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 73</td>
<td> Suhel Quader</td>
<td> National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS)</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 74</td>
<td> Suma Tagadur</td>
<td> Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions</td>
<td> Panelist</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 75</td>
<td> Sunil Abraham</td>
<td> Centre for Internet and Society</td>
<td> Speaker</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 76</td>
<td> Supriya K S</td>
<td>National Center for Biological Sciences</td>
<td> Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 77</td>
<td> T Bala</td>
<td> Keystone Foundation - Flora of Nilgiri</td>
<td> Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 78</td>
<td> Veeranagappa P</td>
<td>University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, Bangalore</td>
<td> Audience</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 79</td>
<td> Vidyadhar Atkore</td>
<td>Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE)</td>
<td>Audience <br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> 80</td>
<td> Vijay Barve</td>
<td> Diversity India</td>
<td> Panelist</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Also see <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/bio-diversity-informatics-workshop" class="external-link">Western Ghats Portal: Workshop on Biodiversity Informatics </a>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/summary-of-the-minutes-of-the-workshop-on-biodiversity-informatics'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/summary-of-the-minutes-of-the-workshop-on-biodiversity-informatics</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaOpen DataOpenness2012-01-30T16:24:40ZBlog EntrySubmitted Comments on the Telangana State Open Data Policy 2016
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/comments-on-the-telangana-state-open-data-policy-2016
<b>Last month, the Information Technology, Electronics & Communications Department of the Government of Telangana released the first public draft of the Telangana State Open Data Policy 2016, and sought comments from various stakeholders in the state and outside. The draft policy not only aims to facilitate and provide a framework for proactive disclosure of data created by the state government agencies, but also identify the need for integrating such a mandate within the information systems operated by these agencies as well. CIS is grateful to be invited to submit its detailed comments on the same. The submission was drafted by Anubha Sinha and Sumandro Chattapadhyay.</b>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Download the submitted document: <a href="http://cis-india.org/openness/files/cis-telangana-state-open-data-policy-v-1-submission/at_download/file">PDF</a>.</strong></p>
<hr />
<h3><strong>1. Preliminary</strong></h3>
<p><strong>1.1.</strong> This submission presents comments and recommendations by the Centre for Internet and Society (“CIS”) <strong>[1]</strong> on the proposed draft of the Telangana Open Data Policy 2016 (“the draft policy”). This submission is based on Version 1 of the draft policy shared by the Information Technology, Electronics & Communications Department, Government of Telangana (“the ITE&C Department”).</p>
<p><strong>1.2.</strong> CIS commends the ITE&C Department for its generous efforts at seeking inputs from various stakeholders to draft an open data policy for the state of Telangana. CIS is thankful for this opportunity to provide a clause-by-clause submission.</p>
<h3><strong>2. The Centre for Internet and Society</strong></h3>
<p><strong>2.1.</strong> The Centre for Internet and Society, CIS, is a non-profit organisation that undertakes interdisciplinary research on internet and digital technologies from policy and academic perspectives. The areas of focus include digital accessibility for persons with diverse abilities, access to knowledge, intellectual property rights, openness (including open data, free and open source software, open standards, open access, open educational resources, and open video), internet governance, telecommunication reform, digital privacy, and cyber-security. The academic research at CIS seeks to understand the reconfiguration of social processes and structures through the internet and digital media technologies, and vice versa.</p>
<p>2.2. This submission is consistent with CIS’ commitment to safeguarding general public interest, and the interests and rights of various stakeholders involved. The comments in this submission aim to further the principle of citizens’ right to information, instituting openness-by-default in governmental activities, and to realise the various kinds of public goods that can emerge from greater availability of open (government) data. The submission is limited to those clauses that most directly have an impact on these principles.</p>
<h3><strong>3. Comments and Recommendations</strong></h3>
<p><em>This section presents comments and recommendations directed at the draft policy as a whole, and in certain places, directed at specific clauses of the draft policy.</em></p>
<h3>3.1. Defining the Scope of the Policy in the Preamble</h3>
<p><strong>3.1.1.</strong> CIS observes and appreciates that the ITE&C Department has identified the open data policy as a catalyst for, and as dependent upon, a larger transformation of the information systems implemented in the state, to specifically ensure that these information systems.</p>
<p><strong>3.1.2.</strong> CIS commends the endeavour of the draft policy to share data in open and machine-readable standards. To further this, it will be useful for the preamble to explicitly mandate proactive disclosure in both human-readable and machine-readable formats, using open standards, and under open license(s).</p>
<p><strong>3.1.3.</strong> CIS recommends that the draft policy state the scope of the policy at the outset, i.e. in the Preamble section of the document. This will provide greater clarity to the stakeholders who are trying to ascertain applicability of the draft policy to their data.</p>
<p><strong>3.1.4.</strong> CIS commends the crucial mandate of creating data inventory within every state government ministry / department. We further recommend that the draft policy also expressly states the need to make these inventories publicly accessible.</p>
<p><strong>3.1.5.</strong> CIS commends the draft policy’s aim to build a process to engage with data users for better outcomes. We suggest that the draft policy also enumerates the “outcomes” of such engagement, in order to provide more clarity. We recommend that these “outcomes” include greater public supply of open government data in an effective, well-documented, timely, and responsible manner.</p>
<p><strong>3.1.6.</strong> Further, CIS suggests that the draft policy define “information centric and customer centric data” to provide more clarity to the document, as well as its scope and objectives.</p>
<h3>3.2. Provide Legal and Policy References</h3>
<p><strong>3.2.1.</strong> Strengthening transparency, predictability, and legal certainty of rules benefits all stakeholders. Thus, as far as possible, terms in the draft policy should use pre-existing legal definitions. In case of ambiguities arising after the implementation of the policy, consistency in definitions will also lead to greater interpretive certainty. It must be noted that good quality public policies which promote legal certainty, lead to better implementation.</p>
<p><strong>3.2.2.</strong> CIS observes that the draft policy re-defines various terms in Section 4 that have already been defined in National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (“NDSAP”) 2012 <strong>[2]</strong>, the Right to Information 2005 (“RTI Act”) <strong>[3]</strong>, and IT (Reasonable security practices and procedures and sensitive personal data or information) Rules 2011 <strong>[4]</strong>. We strongly recommend that the draft policy uses the pre-existing definitions in these acts, rules, and policies.</p>
<p><strong>3.2.3.</strong> Further, CIS observes that while certain sections accurately reflect definitions and parts from other acts, rules and policies, such sections are not referenced back to the latter. These sections include, but are not limited to: Sections 3, 7, 8, 4 (definitions of Data set, Data Archive, Negative list, Sensitive Personal data). We strongly recommend that accurate legal references be added to the draft policy after careful study of the language used.</p>
<h3>3.3. Need for More Focused Objective Statement</h3>
<p><strong>3.3.1.</strong> While the draft policy has a very comprehensive statement of its objectives, including "<em>all issues related to data in terms of the available scope of sharing and accessing spatial and non-spatial data under broad frameworks of standards and interoperability</em>," it may consider offering a more focused statement of its key objective, which is to provide a policy framework for proactive disclosure of government data by the various agencies of the Government of Telangana.</p>
<p><strong>3.3.2.</strong> Further, the objective statement must clearly state that the policy enables publication of data created by the agencies of the Government of Telangana, and/or by private agencies working in partnership with public agencies, using public funds as open data (that is, using open standards, and under open license). The present version of the objective statement mentions "<em>sharing</em>" and "<em>accessing</em>" the data concerned under "<em>broad frameworks of standards and interoperability</em>" but does not make it clear if such shared data will be available in open standards, under open licenses, and for royalty-free adaptation and redistribution by the users concerned.</p>
<h3>3.4. Suggestions related to the Definitions</h3>
<p><strong>3.4.1.</strong> The term “Data” has not been defined in accordance with NDSAP 2012. We suggest that the definition provided in NDSAP is followed so as to ensure legal compatibility.</p>
<p><strong>3.4.2.</strong> The term “Sensitive Personal Data” seems to have been defined on the basis of the definition provided in the IT (Reasonable security practices and procedures and sensitive personal data or information) Rules 2011. Please add direct reference so as to make this clear. We further suggest that the term “Personal Information”, also defined in the same IT Rules, is also included and referred to in the draft policy, so that not only Sensitive Personal Data is barred from disclosure under this policy, but also Personal Information (that is "<em>any information that relates to a natural person, which, either directly or indirectly, in combination with other information available or likely to be available with a body corporate, is capable of identifying such person</em>") <strong>[5]</strong>.</p>
<p><strong>3.4.3.</strong> The term “Negative List” is defined in a manner that allows the state government ministries and agencies to identify which data are to be considered as non-shareable without any reference to an existing policy framework that list acceptable grounds for such identification. The term must be defined more restrictively, as this definition can allow an agency to avoid disclosure of data that may not be legally justifiable as non-shareable or sensitive. Thus, we recommend a more limited definition which may draw upon the RTI Act 2005, and specifically consider the factors mentioned in Sections 8 and 9 of the Act as the (only) set of acceptable reasons for non-disclosure of government data.</p>
<p><strong>3.4.4.</strong> The terms “Shareable Data” and “Sensitive Data” are used in several places in the draft policy but are not defined in Section 4. Both these terms are defined in NDSAP 2012. We suggest that both these terms be listed in Section 4, in accordance with the respective definitions provided in NDSAP 2012.</p>
<p><strong>3.4.5.</strong> The terms “Data Archive”, “Data Acquisition”, “Raw Data”, “Standards-Compliant Applications”, and “Unique Data” are defined in Section 4, but none of these terms appear elsewhere in the draft policy. We suggest that these terms are either better integrated into the document, or may not be defined at all.</p>
<h3>3.5. Rename Section 6 to Focus on Implementation of the Policy</h3>
<p><strong>3.5.1.</strong> Though the Section 6 is named as “Shareable Data”, it instead categorically lists down how the policy is to be implemented. This is a very welcome step, but the Section title should reflect this purpose of the Section.</p>
<p><strong>3.5.2.</strong> The decision proposed in the draft policy to make it mandatory for "<em>each funding organization</em>" to "<em>highlight data sharing policy as preamble in its RFPs as well as Project proposal formats</em>" is much appreciated and commendable. For a clearer and wider applicability of this measure, we recommend that this responsibility should apply to all state government agencies, including agencies where the state government enjoys significant stake, and all public-private partnerships entered into by the state government agencies, and not only to "<em>funding organizations</em>" (a term that has also not been defined in the draft policy).</p>
<p><strong>3.5.3.</strong> While the Section details out various measures and steps of implementation of the policy, it does not clarify which agency and/or committee would have the authority and responsibility to coordinate, monitor, facilitate, and ensure these measures and steps. Not only governmental representatives but also non-governmental representatives may be considered for such a committee.</p>
<h3>3.6. Host All Open Government Data in the State Portal</h3>
<p><strong>3.6.1.</strong> We observe that the Section 6 indicates that , the designated domain for the open government data portal for the state of Telangana, will only store metadata related to the proactive disclosed data sets but not the data sets themselves. This is further clarified in Section 10. We strongly urge the ITE&C Department to reconsider this decision to not to store the actual open data sets in the state open government data portal itself but in the departmental portals. A central archive of the open data assets, hosted by the state open government data portal, will allow for more effective and streamlined management of the open data assets concerned, including their systematic backing-up, better security and integrity, permanent and unique disclosure, and rule-driven updation. This would also reduce the burden upon all the government agencies, especially those that do not have a substantial IT team, to run independent department-specific open data portals.</p>
<h3>3.7. Reconsider the Section on Data Classification</h3>
<p><strong>3.7.1.</strong> While it is clear that the Section 7 on Data Classification follows the classification of various data sets created, managed, and/or hosted by government agencies offered in the NDSAP 2012, it is not very clear what role this classification plays in functioning and implementation of the draft policy. While Open Access and Registered Access data may both be considered as open government data that is to be proactively disclosed by the state government agencies via the state open government data portal, the Restricted Access data overlaps with the kinds of data already included in the Negative List defined in the draft policy (and elsewhere, like the RTI Act 2005). Further, the final sentence in this Section ensures that all data users provide appropriate attribution of the source(s) of the data set concerned, which (though is an important statement) should not be part of this Section on Data Classification. We suggest reconsideration of inclusion of this Section.</p>
<h3>3.8. Reconsider the Section on Technology for Sharing and Access</h3>
<p><strong>3.8.1.</strong> While it is clear that the Section 8 on Technology for Sharing and Access is adapted from the Section 9 of the NDSAP 2012, the text in this Section seems to be not fully compatible with other statements in this draft policy. For example, the Section states that "<em>[t]his integrated repository will hold data of current and historical nature and this repository over a period of time will also encompass data generated by various State Government departments</em>." However, the draft policy states in Section 10 that "<em>data.telangana.gov.in will only have the metadata and data itself will be accessed from the portals of the departments</em>."</p>
<p><strong>3.8.2.</strong> We strongly urge the ITE&C Department to revise this Section through close discussion with the NDSAP Project Management Unit, National Informatics Centre, which is the technical team responsible for developing and managing the portal, since the present version of this Section lists the original feature set of the portal as envisioned in 2012 but does not reflect the most recent feature set that has been already implemented in the portal concerned.</p>
<h3>3.9. Current Legal Framework (Section 9) should List to Relevant Acts, Rules, Policies, and Guidelines</h3>
<p><strong>3.9.1.</strong> CIS observes that the draft policy attempts to lay out the applicable legal framework in Section 2 and 9 of the draft policy, and submits that the legal framework is incomplete and recommends that the draft policy lists all the following relevant acts, rules, policies and guidelines:</p>
<ol type="A">
<li>National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy, 2012<br /><br /></li>
<li>Right to Information Act, 2005<br /><br /></li>
<li>Information Technology Act, 2002<br /><br /></li>
<li>Information Technology (Reasonable security practices and procedures and sensitive personal data or information) Rules, 2011.<br /></li></ol>
<p><strong>3.9.2.</strong> CIS submits that apart from the policies mentioned above, the implementation of the draft policy is intricately linked to concepts of "open standards," "open source software," "open API," and "right to information." These concepts are governed by specific acts and policies, and are applicable to government owned data, as follows:</p>
<ol type="A">
<li><strong>Adoption of Open Standards:</strong> CIS observes that the draft policy draws on the importance of building information systems for interoperability and greater information accessibility. Interoperability is achieved by appropriate implementation of open standards. Thus, CIS submits that the Policy on Open Standards for e-Governance <strong>[6]</strong> which establishes the guidelines for usage of open standards to ensure seamless interoperability, and the Implementation Guidelines of the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy, 2012 <strong>[7]</strong> should be mentioned in the draft policy.<br /><br /></li>
<li><strong>Adoption of Open Source Software:</strong> The Policy on Adoption of Open Source Software for Government of India states that the "<em>Government of India shall endeavour to adopt Open Source Software in all e-Governance systems implemented by various Government organizations, as a preferred option in comparison to Closed Source Software</em> <strong>[8]</strong>." As the draft policy proposed to guide the development of information systems to share open data is being developed and implemented both by the Government of Telangana and by other agencies (academic, commercial, and otherwise), it must include an explicit reference and embracing of this mandate for adoption of Open Source Software, for reasons of reducing expenses, avoiding vendor lock-ins, re-usability of software components, enabling public accountability, and greater security of software systems.<br /><br /></li>
<li><strong>Implementation of Open APIs:</strong> CIS observes that the draft policy refers to Standard compliant applications in Section 4. CIS suggests that final version of the policy refer to and operationalise the Policy on Open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for Government of India <strong>[9]</strong>. This will ensure that the openly available data is available to the public, as well as to all the government agencies, in a structured digital format that is easy to consume and use on one hand, and is available for various forms of value addition and innovation on the other. Refer to Official Secrets Act, 1923: The Official Secrets Act penalises a person if he/she "<em>obtains, collects, records or publishes or communicates to other person any secret official code or password, or any sketch, plan, model, article or note or other document or information which is calculated to be or might be or is intended to be, directly or indirectly, useful to an enemy for which relates to a matter the disclosure of which is likely to affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State or friendly relations with foreign States</em> <strong>[10]</strong>." CIS submits that this Act should be referred to in this context of ensuring non-publication of the aforementioned data.<br /></li></ol>
<h3>3.10. Mandate a Participatory Process for Developing the Implementation Guidelines</h3>
<p><strong>3.10.1.</strong> We highly appreciate and welcome the fact that the draft policy emphasises rapid operationalisation of the policy by mandating that the ITE&C Department will prepare a detailed implementation guideline within 6 months of the notification of this policy, and all state government departments will publish at least 5 high value datasets within the next three months. Just as an addition to this mandate, we would like to propose that it can be suggested that the ITE&C Department undertakes a participatory process, with contributions from both government agencies and non-government actors, to develop this implementation guideline document. We believe that opening up government data in an effective and sustainable manner, for most government agencies, involves a systematic change in how the agency undertakes day-to-day data management practices. Hence, to develop productive and practical implementation guidelines, the ITE&C Department needs to gather insights from the other state government agencies regarding their existing data (and metadata) management practices <strong>[11]</strong>. Further, participation of the non-government actors in this process is crucial to ensure that the implementation guidelines appropriately identify the high value data sets, that is data sets that should be published on a priority basis.</p>
<h3>3.11. Defer the Decision about Roles of Data Owners, Generators, and Controllers</h3>
<p><strong>3.11.1.</strong> As the draft policy does not specifically define the terms “Data Owners”, “Data Generators”, and “Data Controllers”, and the Section 11 only briefly describes some of the roles of these types of actors, we suggest removal of this discussion and the decision regarding the specific roles and functions of the Data Owners / Generators / Controllers from the draft policy itself. It will be perhaps more appropriate and effective to define these terms, as well as their roles and functions, in the implementation guidelines to be prepared by the ITE&C Department after the notification of the open data policy, since these terms relate directly to the final designing of the implementation process.</p>
<p><strong>3.12.</strong> CIS is grateful to the ITE&C Department for this opportunity to provide comments, and would be honoured to provide further assistance on the matter.</p>
<h3><strong>Endnotes</strong></h3>
<p><strong>[1]</strong> See: <a href="http://cis-india.org/" target="_blank">http://cis-india.org/</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[2]</strong> See: <a href="http://data.gov.in/sites/default/files/NDSAP.pdf" target="_blank">http://data.gov.in/sites/default/files/NDSAP.pdf</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[3]</strong> See: <a href="http://rti.gov.in/webactrti.htm" target="_blank">http://rti.gov.in/webactrti.htm</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[4]</strong> See: <a href="http://meity.gov.in/sites/upload_files/dit/files/GSR313E_10511(1).pdf" target="_blank">http://meity.gov.in/sites/upload_files/dit/files/GSR313E_10511(1).pdf</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[5]</strong> See Section 2 (1) (i) of IT (Reasonable security practices and procedures and sensitive personal data or information) Rules 2011.</p>
<p><strong>[6]</strong> See: <a href="https://egovstandards.gov.in/sites/default/files/Published%20Documents/Policy_on_Open_Standards_for_e-Governance.pdf" target="_blank">https://egovstandards.gov.in/sites/default/files/Published%20Documents/Policy_on_Open_Standards_for_e-Governance.pdf</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[7]</strong> See: <a href="https://data.gov.in/sites/default/files/NDSAP_Implementation_Guidelines_2.2.pdf" target="_blank">https://data.gov.in/sites/default/files/NDSAP_Implementation_Guidelines_2.2.pdf</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[8]</strong> See: <a href="http://deity.gov.in/sites/upload_files/dit/files/policy_on_adoption_of_oss.pdf" target="_blank">http://deity.gov.in/sites/upload_files/dit/files/policy_on_adoption_of_oss.pdf</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[9]</strong> See: <a href="http://deity.gov.in/sites/upload_files/dit/files/Open_APIs_19May2015.pdf" target="_blank">http://deity.gov.in/sites/upload_files/dit/files/Open_APIs_19May2015.pdf</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[10]</strong> See: <a href="http://www.archive.india.gov.in/allimpfrms/allacts/3314.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.archive.india.gov.in/allimpfrms/allacts/3314.pdf</a>, Sections 2 (2) and 3 (1) (c).</p>
<p><strong>[11]</strong> A similar process was undertaken by the IT Department of the Government of Sikkim when developing the implementation guideline document. The ITE&C Department may consider discussing the matter with the said department to exchange relevant learnings.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/comments-on-the-telangana-state-open-data-policy-2016'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/comments-on-the-telangana-state-open-data-policy-2016</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroOpen DataOpen Government DataFeaturedPoliciesOpennessHomepage2016-09-01T05:49:51ZBlog EntrySubmitted Comments on the 'Government Open Data Use License - India'
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/submitted-comments-on-the-government-open-data-use-license-india
<b>The public consultation process of the draft open data license to be used by Government of India has ended yesterday. Here we share the text of the submission by CIS. It was drafted by Anubha Sinha, Pranesh Prakash, and Sumandro Chattapadhyay.</b>
<p> </p>
<p><em>The following comments on the 'Government Open Data Use License - India' was drafted by Anubha Sinha, Pranesh Prakash, and Sumandro Chattapadhyay, and submitted through the <a href="https://www.mygov.in/group-issue/public-consultation-government-open-data-use-license-india/">MyGov portal</a> on July 25, 2016. The original submission can be found <a href="https://www.mygov.in/sites/default/files/mygov_146946521043358971.pdfh">here</a>.</em></p>
<hr />
<h2>I. Preliminary</h2>
<ol>
<li>This submission presents comments by the Centre for Internet and Society (“<strong>CIS</strong>”) <strong>[1]</strong> on the draft Government Open Data Use License - India (“<strong>the draft licence</strong>”) <strong>[2]</strong> by the Department of Legal Affairs.<br /><br /></li>
<li>This submission is based on the draft licence released on the MyGov portal on June 27, 2016 <strong>[3]</strong>.<br /><br /></li>
<li>CIS commends the Department of Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India for its efforts at seeking inputs from various stakeholders prior to finalising its open data licence. CIS is thankful for the opportunity to have been a part of the discussion during the framing of the licence; and to provide this submission, in furtherance of the feedback process continuing from the draft licence.</li></ol>
<h2>II. Overview</h2>
<ol start="4">
<li>The Centre for Internet and Society is a non-governmental organisation engaged in research and policy work in the areas of, inter alia, access to knowledge and openness. This clause-by-clause submission is consistent with CIS’ commitment to safeguarding general public interest, and the interests and rights of various stakeholders involved. Accordingly, the comments in this submission aim to further these principles and are limited to those clauses that most directly have an impact on them.</li></ol>
<h2>III. Comments and Recommendations</h2>
<ol start="5">
<li><strong>Name of the Licence:</strong> CIS recommends naming the licence “Open Data Licence - India” to reflect the nomenclature already established for similar licences in other nations like the UK and Canada. More importantly, the inclusion of the word ‘use’ in the original name “Government Open Data Use License” is misleading, since the licence permits use, sharing, modification and redistribution of open data.<br /><br /></li>
<li><strong>Change Language on Permissible Use of Data:</strong> The draft licence uses the terms “Access, use, adapt, and redistribute,” which are used in UNESCO’s definition of open educational resources, whereas, under the Indian Copyright Act <strong>[4]</strong>, it should cover “reproduction, issuing of copies,” etc. To resolve this difference, we suggest the following language be used: “Subject to the provisions of section 7, all users are provided a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to all rights covered by copyright and allied rights, for the duration of existence of such copyright and allied rights over the data or information.”<br /><br /></li>
<li><strong>Add Section on the Scope of Applicability of the Licence:</strong> It will be useful to inform the user of the licence on its applicability. The section may be drafted as: “This licence is meant for public use, and especially by all Ministries, Departments, Organizations, Agencies, and autonomous bodies of Government of India, when publicly disclosing, either proactively or reactively, data and information created, generated, collected, and managed using public funds provided by Government of India directly or through authorized agencies.”<br /><br /></li>
<li><strong>Add Sub-Clause Specifying that the Licence is Agnostic of Mode of Access:</strong> As part of the section 4 of the draft licence, titled ‘Terms and Conditions of Use of Data,’ a sub-clause should be added that specifies that users may enjoy all the freedom granted under this licence irrespective of their preferred mode of access of the data concerned, say manually downloaded from the website, automatically accessed via an API, collected from a third party involved in re-sharing of this data, accessed in physical/printed form, etc.<br /><br /></li>
<li><strong>Add Sub-Clause on Non-Repudiability and Integrity of the Published Data:</strong> To complement the sub-clause 6.e. that notes that data published under this licence should be published permanently and with appropriate versioning (in case of the published data being updated and/or modified), another sub-clause should be added that states that non-repudiability and integrity of published data must be ensured through application of real/digital signature, as applicable, and checksum, as applicable. This is to ensure that an user who has obtained the data, either in physical or digital form, can effectively identify and verify the the agency that has published the data, and if any parts of the data have been lost/modified in the process of distribution and/or transmission (through technological corruption of data, or otherwise).<br /><br /></li>
<li><strong>Combine Section 6 on Exemptions and Section 7 on Termination:</strong> Given that the licence cannot reasonably proscribe access to data that has already been published online, it is suggested that it would be better to simply terminate the application of the licence to that data or information that ought not to have been published for grounds provided under section 8 of the RTI Act, or have been inadvertently published. It should also be noted that section 8 of the RTI Act cannot be “violated” (as stated in Section 6.g. of the draft licence), since it only provides permission for the public authority to withhold information, and does not impose an obligation on them (or anyone else) to do so. The combined clause can read: “Upon determination by the data provider that specific data or information should not have been publicly disclosed for the grounds provided under Section 8 of the Right to Information Act, 2005, the data provider may terminate the applicability of the licence for that data or information, and this termination will have the effect of revocation of all rights provided under Section 3 of this licence.”<br /><br /></li>
<li>It will be our pleasure to discuss these submissions with the Department of Legal Affairs in greater detail, supplement these with further submissions if necessary, and offer any other assistance towards the efforts at developing a national open data licence.</li></ol>
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<p><strong>[1]</strong> See: <a href="http://cis-india.org/">http://cis-india.org/</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[2]</strong> See: <a href="https://www.mygov.in/sites/default/files/mygov_1466767582190667.pdf">https://www.mygov.in/sites/default/files/mygov_1466767582190667.pdf</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[3]</strong> See: <a href="https://www.mygov.in/group-issue/public-consultation-government-open-data-use-license-india/">https://www.mygov.in/group-issue/public-consultation-government-open-data-use-license-india/</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[4]</strong> See: <a href="http://www.copyright.gov.in/Documents/CopyrightRules1957.pdf">http://www.copyright.gov.in/Documents/CopyrightRules1957.pdf</a>.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/submitted-comments-on-the-government-open-data-use-license-india'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/submitted-comments-on-the-government-open-data-use-license-india</a>
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No publishersinhaOpen Government DataOpen LicenseOpen DataNDSAPFeaturedOpennessHomepage2016-07-26T09:23:48ZBlog Entry