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Talks 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>
<hr />
<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>
<p> </p>
<p>
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>
</p>
No publishersinhaOpen Government DataOpen LicenseOpen DataNDSAPFeaturedOpennessHomepage2016-07-26T09:23:48ZBlog EntrySteps towards Integrated Open Water Data
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/steps-towards-integrated-open-water-data
<b>Multiplicity of data collection agencies, formats, and disclosure practices and conditionalities make it very difficult to access interoperable and open data about water resources and systems in India. Barriers to accessing water data impede not only academic and applied research on related topics but also public consumption of information and critical decision making. DataMeet and CIS are proud to collaborate on identifying and addressing the challenges to open up and integrate data and information in the water sector. Supported by a generous grant from Arghyam, we are undertaking an initial study of open water data resources in India and taking first steps towards developing a Free and Open Source data portal for water resources information in India. Here is an initial note about the project. The key leaders and contributors of this project are Craig Dsouza, Namita Bhatawdekar, Riddhi Munde, and Jinda Sandbhor, all of whom are members of the Pune Chapter of DataMeet.</b>
<p> </p>
<h4>Project website: <a href="https://datameet-pune.github.io/open-water-data/" target="_blank">https://datameet-pune.github.io/open-water-data/</a></h4>
<h4>Contact: <a href="mailto:pune@datameet.org">pune@datameet.org</a></h4>
<hr />
<h2>The problem statement</h2>
<p>Following devastating precipitation of more than 300mm in 24 hours in early December 2015 the city of Chennai was flooded unlike anything it had seen in recent history. A combination of bad urban planning along with heavy precipitation events had made such eventualities all the more likely. But in the case of such storms what parts of the city are likely to flood? What parts will remain unaffected by the deluge. Specific answers to these questions would help city planners plan better for such emergencies.</p>
<p>Only two months after Chennai was waist deep in water, the city of Latur in 2016 ran dry. The Manjara reservoir, on the river of the same name, the city's source of municipal water supply had not a drop left. With more than 4 months left until the rains would replenish the waters of the dam, the city was now reliant on water being transported in bulk via train tankers from more than 300 kms away, news that made daily headlines. The scale of sugarcane cultivation in the region was being called into question.. Was it possible that lowering the allocation of water to irrigation could have preserved enough water for the city's domestic water needs?</p>
<p>Each of these questions call for answers relating to the exact stock of water resources, and how fast the water flows from one part of the water cycle to another. For example, knowing current soil moisture levels and daily precipitation can we estimate groundwater recharge with a high degree of accuracy? If seasonal groundwater fluctuations and river flows in a watershed or sub-basin is known can we estimate actual quantum groundwater footprint of the crop irrigated with groundwater in that river basin? If new industries are being set up in close proximity to each other what might be the effect of these industries on groundwater stocks in the vicinity.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Towards an (integrated and open) data solution</h2>
<p>Deriving cause-effect links between the scale of use of water in a particular region and its possible effect on the status of water resources in the vicinity is an extremely difficult exercise because water stocks and flows are affected by so many causal links which need to be studied and quantified in an integrated manner. An integral part of any water resource study is developing a water balance model to estimate water availability and water demand.</p>
<p><strong>Water availability</strong></p>
<ul><li>Precipitation in the form of rainfall and snowfall,</li>
<li>Live storage capacity in reservoirs,</li>
<li>Soil moisture,</li>
<li>Groundwater levels (and fluctuation), and</li>
<li>Surface water flows in rivers.</li></ul>
<p><strong>Water use/demand</strong></p>
<ul><li><strong>Domestic water use:</strong> Human Population x estimated per capita consumption (or prescribed norm for domestic water consumption),</li>
<li><strong>Livestock water use:</strong> Livestock population x estimated per capita requirement,</li>
<li><strong>Agriculture and Forests:</strong> Evapotranspiration data (derived from temperatures (daily/monthly), wind speeds, humidity (daily/monthly), soil moisture & type, type of Agricultural land use, stage of plant growth, and</li>
<li><strong>Industry:</strong> Nature of industry and annual production x water required per unit of production.</li></ul>
<p><strong>Overcoming the data challenge</strong></p>
<p>Unknown to many, reasonably high resolution data does exist of these variables both across space and time, as described in detail below. Much of this data though hasn't been made inter-operable. We need tools to model water data, putting together real-time data for water availability and demand onto one platform that can facilitate discussions around it. However what we have are either proprietary river basin modeling software (expensive) OR free open source tools (programming/skill intensive).</p>
<p>They demand:</p>
<ul><li>knowledge of programming or know-how of technical tools and unavoidably</li>
<li>knowledge of the various data sources (to piece together the puzzle)</li></ul>
<p>What if instead, we had access to a tool, open, free, accessible to everyone through a browser (hence no need to download software) and most importantly intuitive to use and understand to someone with little technical or programming knowledge.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>What we propose and who is it for?</h2>
<p>To understand and take the first steps towards developing a completely free and open source data portal for water resources information in India.</p>
<p>Different groups would have different kinds of needs for water data. Researchers for instance tend to think of larger scales (river basins, sub-basins) whereas Gram Panchayat members may not think beyond the village or watershed scale. Hence this proposal aims at macro and micro scales, trying to determine needs at each level and enhancing our platform to meet these different needs.</p>
<p>The project will generate:</p>
<ul><li>A <strong>web app prototype</strong> that will collate secondary data,</li>
<li>A <strong>paper</strong> that outlines sources of data, type of data, level to which available (GP, village, etc.) and nature of the source (Paid/ unpaid/ format available etc.), and</li>
<li>A <strong>model WSP format</strong>, along with indications for what data already exists in secondary sources.</li></ul>
<p>The users of this work will be:</p>
<ul><li>Researchers/Journalists in the water sector, and</li>
<li>Gram Panchayat Members (to effectively develop water security plans, monitor and govern their local water resources).</li></ul>
<p> </p>
<h2>Project Team</h2>
<p>The project team is supported by Nisha Thompson (Director, DataMeet) and Sumandro Chattapadhyay.</p>
<h4>Craig Dsouza</h4>
<p>Craig is an independent researcher in the development sector with a keen interest in water resources and agriculture. He has a Master’s degree in Energy and Environmental Policy (2013) and has worked as a researcher with the Society for Promoting Participative Ecosystem Mgmt, undertaking river basin studies in central and eastern India. Craig believes that the democratization of data and tools to derive insights from it holds tremendous potential for addressing issues of inequity and environmental sustainability in India. He contributes to these efforts as co-ordinator of Datameet-Pune, a city chapter of datameet.org.</p>
<p><strong>GitHub:</strong> <a href="https://github.com/craigdsouza">https://github.com/craigdsouza</a><br />
<strong>Twitter:</strong> <a href="https://twitter.com/dsouza_craig">https://twitter.com/dsouza_craig</a><br />
<strong>Website:</strong> <a href="http://unravellingindia.in/">http://unravellingindia.in/</a></p>
<h4>Namita Bhatawdekar</h4>
<p>Namita is a web developer with 10 years of experience developing web applications and web-based data visualizations. She has worked on developing data Visuaizations for corporate businesses as well as in the research sector. She worked with Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Development (MIT's research lab in Singapore) as a Data Visualization expert where she visualized simulation outputs of autonomous vehicles to evaluate urban transport policies. Her work was showcased in many national and international conferences. She has a keen interest in solving social problems using data and is part of Datameet Pune, city chapter of datameet.org.</p>
<p><strong>GitHub:</strong> <a href="https://github.com/bnamita">https://github.com/bnamita</a><br />
LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/namitabhatawdekar/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/namitabhatawdekar/</a><br />
<strong>Website:</strong> <a href="https://bnamita.github.io/Portfolio/">https://bnamita.github.io/Portfolio/</a></p>
<h4>Riddhi Munde</h4>
<p>Riddhi is a GIS and Remote Sensing professional with 2.5 yrs of experience. She has a Master's degree in Geoinformatics and Earth Observation from ITC, University of Twente, The Netherlands. Her project experience includes implementing GIS and remote sensing solutions across a number of industries. She is interested in location and remote sensing analytics, ML, Image processing, web based visualizations and is proficient in ArcGIS, QGIS, PostGIS, Web mapping, algorithm development in Python and R and cloud computing. At Datameet she contributes with her know how of remote sensing to further improve data access in water and agriculture.</p>
<p><strong>LinkedIn:</strong> <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/riddhimunde/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/riddhimunde/</a></p>
<h4>Jinda Sandbhor</h4>
<p>Jinda Sandbhor is an action researcher associated with Manthan Adhyayan Kendra, Pune, where he works to document and analyze issues related to the water and energy sectors in India. He actively supports socio-political movements in Maharashtra, Odisha and North Karnataka. In the past he has conducted research studies on water conflicts around rivers and major dams, socio-economic impacts of droughts, impacts of coal based thermal power on water and the local environment. He has been associated with the Datameet-Pune chapter since its beginning in 2015 and here seeks to improve access to data on social and environmental subjects.</p>
<p><strong>Website:</strong> <a href="http://jinda.manthan-india.org/author/jinda/">http://jinda.manthan-india.org/author/jinda/</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/steps-towards-integrated-open-water-data'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/steps-towards-integrated-open-water-data</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroOpen Water DataOpen DataOpen Government DataEnvironmentOpenness2017-11-02T09:58:13ZBlog EntrySoI’s Open Series Maps Fails to Implement Public Sharing of Govt Data
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/survey-of-india-open-series-maps-fails-to-implement-public-sharing-of-govt-data
<b>Although it has made the topographic maps or the Open Series Maps available to general public, Survey of India’s (SoI) Nakshe portal will have to go through a variety of litmus test, as the initiative fails to implement the mandates of public sharing of government data using open standards and open license as put forward by the NMP 2005 and NDSAP 2012, says Sumandro Chattapadhyay, Research Director, The Centre for Internet and Society. This interview was published by Geospatial World on May 02, 2017.</b>
<p> </p>
<p>Cross-posted from <a href="https://www.geospatialworld.net/sois-open-series-maps-fails-implement-public-sharing-govt-data/">Geospatial World</a>.</p>
<hr />
<h4>What are your views on the Nakshe Portal initiative from Survey of India?</h4>
<p>It is a most welcome initiative by the Survey of India to realize the mandate of the National Map Policy (NMP) 2005 to publicly distribute “Open Series Maps of scales larger than 1:1 million”. The Survey of India has also drawn from and implemented the mandate of the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP) 2012 to make available the shareable and non-sensitive Open Series Maps documents without any necessary fees to access and use them.</p>
<p>The initiative, however, fails to achieve the goal of of public sharing of government data using open standards and open license as put forward by the NMP 2005 and NDSAP 2012. This substantively raises the barrier to access the Open Series Maps data and reduces its possibilities of reuse, especially for commercial innovation, in a very serious way. This undermining of the open data agenda is not only a concern for the Nakshe portal in particular, but also sets a dangerous precedent for future open government data initiatives in India.</p>
<h4>What is your view on the data provided and its usability?</h4>
<p>The Nakshe portal has created several barriers to access and use of the Open Series Maps data, all of which are in violation of the NMP 2005 and NDSAP 2012:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>NDSAP 2012 mandates that shareable and non-sensitive government data (such as Open Series Maps) are made public through the data.gov.in portal created under the guidance of the NDSAP 2012. Survey of India may of course decide to publish the Open Series Maps data on the Nakshe portal along with on the data.gov.in portal. Publishing of the data only through the Nakshe portal not only violates the mandate of NDSAP 2012, they make such data much less discoverable.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>NDSAP 2012 allows for “registered access” to open government data. That is, it allows for data to be shared only with users who have registered with the data publishing portal. Making registration only possible via Aadhaar number, however, significantly limits the number of users who can access this data. For example, non-Indian researchers form an important potential sub-section of users of Open Series Maps but they will not be able to access the data. The website neither has a privacy policy that clarifies how these submitted Aadhaar numbers will be stored, protected, and shared (if at all) by the Survey of India.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>NMP 2005 instructs Survey of India to “allow a user to add value to the maps obtained (either in analogue or digital formats) and prepare his own value-added maps”. The Government Open Data License has been recently notified under NDSAP 2012 to guide permitted uses of open government data in India.</p>
<p>The very restricted approach to permitted end-uses of Open Series Maps by the Survey of India neither follow the NMP instruction, nor adopt the Government Open Data License. Data available from Nakshe portal cannot be exported (which is technically an absurd demand due to globally distributed nature of servers), commercialized, or altered. This creates a most serious barrier to using the Open Series Maps data available via the Nakshe portal.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The Nakshe portal has published geospatial data in PDF format. This is a clear violation of open data practices globally and the NDSAP Implementation Guidelines more specifically, which states that open geospatial data standards, like GML and KML, should be used).</p>
</li></ul>
<h4>Does this fall in line with the larger government aim of having open and accessible data? If not why?</h4>
<p>In a nutshell, the Open Series Maps data being published on the Nakshe portal is neither open (as it does not use open standards to share the data and does not share the data under an open licenses) nor universally accessible (due to the requirement for registration via Aadhaar number).</p>
<h4>What improvements do you suggest in the approach of SoI about the portal?</h4>
<p>I have listed four major conflicts that the Nakshe portal has with the directives and guidelines offered by the NMP 2005 and NDSAP 2012. I sincerely hope that the Survey of India and the Department of Science and Technology will address them soon, as they significantly limit the ability of users to access and use the Open Series Maps data.</p>
<p>These changes will make the Open Series Maps data open, and ensure that the data can be accessed and innovated with by various stakeholders.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/survey-of-india-open-series-maps-fails-to-implement-public-sharing-of-govt-data'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/survey-of-india-open-series-maps-fails-to-implement-public-sharing-of-govt-data</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroOpen DataOpen Government DataGeospatial DataOpenness2017-05-04T12:19:01ZBlog EntrySeminar on Open Access in Research Area: A Strategic Approach
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/teri-seminar-on-open-access-in-research
<b>The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), Delhi, is organising a seminar on open access in research on Tuesday, December 22, 2015. The seminar will focus on: 1) wider access to scientific publications and research data, 2) access to scientific information, and 3) challenges and opportunities of research data. The Centre for Internet and Society is supporting the event as a Knowledge Partner.</b>
<p> </p>
<h2>Background</h2>
<p>Open Access has become central importance to advancing the interests of researchers, scholars, students, business, and the public as well as librarians. Increasingly, research institutions require researchers to publish articles that report research findings openly accessible in open domain.</p>
<p>Open Access pursues to yield scholarly publishing to spread knowledge and allow that knowledge to be built upon. Price barriers should not stop researchers from getting access to research data. Open Access, and the open availability and search ability of scholarly research that it entails, will have a significant positive impact on everything from education to the research practice in various fields.</p>
<p>To explore why Open Access is so important to a number of groups, TERI Library along with The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) as Knowledge Partner is organizing a half day seminar on <em>Open Access in Research Areas: a Strategic Approach</em> on December 22, 2015 at TERI Seminar Hall, IHC, Lodhi Road, New Delhi.</p>
<p>The Seminar will focus on:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>wider access to scientific publications and research data</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>access to scientific information, and</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>challenges and opportunities of research data.</p>
</li></ul>
<p> </p>
<h2>Schedule</h2>
<p>No registration is required to attend the seminar. Seats are limited, and will be provided on first-come-first-served basis.</p>
<p> </p>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>13:45 - 14:00</td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><strong>Registration and Networking</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>14:00 - 14:10</td>
<td><br /></td>
<td>Welcome Address - <strong>Mr. Prabir Sengupta</strong>, Distinguished Fellow and Director, Knowledge Management Division, TERI</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>14:10 - 14:20</td>
<td><br /></td>
<td>Special Address - <strong>Sumandro Chattapadhyay</strong>, Research Director, The Centre for Internet and Society</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>14:20 - 14:35</td>
<td><br /></td>
<td>Keynote Address - <strong>Dr. K.R. Murali Mohan</strong>, Advisor, Big Data Initiatives Division, Department of Science and Technology</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>14:35 - 14:50</td>
<td><br /></td>
<td>Inaugural Address - <strong>Dr. Chandrima Shaha</strong>, Director, National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>14:50 - 15:00</td>
<td><br /></td>
<td>Setting the Theme and Vote of Thanks - <strong>Dr. P.K. Bhattacharya</strong>, Fellow and Area Convenor, Knowledge Management Division, TERI</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>15:00 - 15:30</td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><strong>Tea and Refreshments</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>15:30 - 17:15</td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><strong>Plenary Session</strong><br />
Chair: <strong>Dr. Ramesh Sharma</strong>, Director, CEMCA<br />
<ul>
<li><strong>Puneet Kishor</strong>, Researcher and Independent Consultant - "Science, Data, and Creative Commons"</li>
<li><strong>Dr. Beth Sandore Namachchivaya</strong>, Associate Dean of Libraries and Professor University of Illinois - "Developing Services, Infrastructure, and Best Practices to Conserve and Provide Access to Research Data: Challenges and Opportunities"</li>
<li><strong>Dr. Usha Mujoo Munshi</strong>, Librarian, Indian institute of Public Administration</li></ul>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/teri-seminar-on-open-access-in-research'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/teri-seminar-on-open-access-in-research</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroOpen DataFeaturedOpen ResearchOpen AccessOpennessEvent2015-12-22T05:37:44ZEventSean McDonald - Ebola: A Big Data Disaster
http://editors.cis-india.org/papers/ebola-a-big-data-disaster
<b>We are proud to initiate the CIS Papers series with a fascinating exploration of humanitarian use of big data and its discontents by Sean McDonald, FrontlineSMS, in the context of utilisation of Call Detail Records for public health response during the Ebola crisis in Liberia. The paper highlights the absence of a dialogue around the significant legal risks posed by the collection, use, and international transfer of personally identifiable data and humanitarian information, and the grey areas around assumptions of public good. The paper calls for a critical discussion around the experimental nature of data modeling in emergency response due to mismanagement of information has been largely emphasized to protect the contours of human rights.</b>
<p> </p>
<h2>Read</h2>
<h4>Download the paper: <a href="https://github.com/cis-india/papers/raw/master/CIS_Papers_2016.01_Sean-McDonald.pdf">PDF</a>.</h4>
<p> </p>
<h2>Preface</h2>
<p>This study titled “Ebola: A Big Data Disaster” by Sean Martin McDonald, undertaken with support from the Open Society Foundation, Ford Foundation, and Media Democracy Fund, explores the use of Big Data in the form of Call Detail Record (CDR) data in humanitarian crisis.</p>
<p> It discusses the challenges of digital humanitarian coordination in health emergencies like the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, and the marked tension in the debate around experimentation with humanitarian technologies and the impact on privacy. McDonald’s research focuses on the two primary legal and human rights frameworks, privacy and property, to question the impact of unregulated use of CDR’s on human rights. It also highlights how the diffusion of data science to the realm of international development constitutes a genuine opportunity to bring powerful new tools to fight crisis and emergencies.</p>
<p>Analysing the risks of using CDRs to perform migration analysis and contact tracing without user consent, as well as the application of big data to disease surveillance is an important entry point into the debate around use of Big Data for development and humanitarian aid. The paper also raises crucial questions of legal significance about the access to information, the limitation of data sharing, and the concept of proportionality in privacy invasion in the public good. These issues hold great relevance in today's time where big data and its emerging role for development, involving its actual and potential uses as well as harms is under consideration across the world.</p>
<p>The paper highlights the absence of a dialogue around the significant legal risks posed by the collection, use, and international transfer of personally identifiable data and humanitarian information, and the grey areas around assumptions of public good. The paper calls for a critical discussion around the experimental nature of data modelling in emergency response due to mismanagement of information has been largely emphasized to protect the contours of human rights.</p>
<p>This study offers an important perspective for us at the Centre for Internet and Society, and our works on Privacy, Big Data, and Big Data for Development, and very productively articulates the risks of adopting solutions to issues important for development without taking into consideration legal implications and the larger impact on human rights. We look forward to continue to critically engage with issues raised by Big Data in the context of human rights and sustainable development, and bring together diverse perspectives on these issues.</p>
<p><em>- Elonnai Hickok, Policy Director, the Centre for Internet and Society</em></p>
<p> </p>
<h2>CIS Papers</h2>
<p>The CIS Papers series publishes open access monographs and discussion pieces that critically contribute to the debates on digital technologies and society. It includes publication of new findings and observations, of work-in-progress, and of critical review of existing materials. These may be authored by researchers at or affiliated to CIS, by external researchers and practitioners, or by a group of discussants. CIS offers editorial support to the selected monographs and discussion pieces. The views expressed, however, are of the authors' alone.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/papers/ebola-a-big-data-disaster'>http://editors.cis-india.org/papers/ebola-a-big-data-disaster</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroBig DataPrivacyOpen DataDisaster ResponseInternet GovernanceHumanitarian ResponseCIS Papers2016-04-21T09:57:26ZBlog EntryPublic Consultation for the First Draft of 'Government Open Data Use License - India' Announced
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/public-consultation-for-the-first-draft-of-government-open-data-use-license-india-announced
<b>The first public draft of the open data license to be used by Government of India was released by the Department of Legal Affairs earlier this week. Comments are invited from general public and stakeholders. These are to be submitted via the MyGov portal by July 25, 2016. CIS was a member of the committee constituted to develop the license concerned, and we contributed substantially to the drafting process.
</b>
<p> </p>
<h4>Please read the call for comments <a class="external-link" href="https://www.mygov.in/group-issue/public-consultation-government-open-data-use-license-india/">here</a>.</h4>
<h4>The PDF version of the draft license document can be accessed <a class="external-link" href="https://www.mygov.in/sites/default/files/mygov_1466767582190667.pdf">here</a>.</h4>
<h4><em>Comments are to be submitted by July 25, 2016.</em></h4>
<hr />
<h4 style="text-align: center;"><strong>Government Open Data Use License - India</strong></h4>
<h4 style="text-align: center;"><strong>National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy</strong></h4>
<h4 style="text-align: center;"><strong>Government of India</strong></h4>
<h2>1. Preamble</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Structured data available in open format and open license for public access and use, usually termed as “Open Data,” is of prime importance in the contemporary world. Data also is one of the most valuable resources of modern governance, sharing of which enables various and non-exclusive usages for both commercial and non-commercial purposes. Licenses, however, are crucial to ensure that such data is not misused or misinterpreted (for example, by insisting on proper attribution), and that all users have the same and permanent right to use the data.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The open government data initiative started in India with the notification of the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP), submitted to the Union Cabinet by the Department of Science and Technology, on 17th March 2012 <strong>[1]</strong>. The NDSAP identified the Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY) as the nodal department for the implementation of the policy through National Informatics Centre, while the Department of Science and Technology continues to be the nodal department on policy matters. In pursuance of the Policy, the Open Government Data Platform India <strong>[2]</strong> was launched in 2012.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">While, the appropriate open formats and related aspects for implementation of the Policy has been defined in the “NDSAP Implementation Guidelines” prepared by an inter- ministerial Task Force constituted by the National Informatics Centre <strong>[3]</strong>, the open license for data sets published under NDSAP and through the OGD Platform remained unspecified till now.</p>
<h2>2. Definitions</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;">a. <strong>“Data”</strong> means a representation of Information, numerical compilations and observations, documents, facts, maps, images, charts, tables and figures, concepts in digital and/or analog form, and includes metadata <strong>[4]</strong>, that is all information about data, and/or clarificatory notes provided by data provider(s), without which the data concerned cannot be interpreted or used <strong>[5]</strong>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">b. <strong>“Information”</strong> means processed data <strong>[6]</strong>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">c. <strong>“Data Provider(s)”</strong> means person(s) publishing and providing the data under this license.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">d. <strong>“License”</strong> means this document.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">e. <strong>“Licensor”</strong>means any data provider(s) that has the authority to offer the data concerned under the terms of this licence.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">f. <strong>“User”</strong> means natural or legal persons, or body of persons corporate or incorporate, acquiring rights in the data (whether the data is obtained directly from the licensor or otherwise) under this licence.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">g. <strong>“Use”</strong> includes lawful distribution, making copies, adaptation, and all modification and representation of the data, subject to the provisions of this License.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">h. <strong>“Adapt”</strong> means to transform, build upon, or to make any use of the data by itsre-arrangement or alteration <strong>[7]</strong>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">i. <strong>“Redistribute”</strong> means sharing of the data by the user, either in original or in adapted form (including a subset of the original data), accompanied by appropriate attribute statement, under the same or other suitable license.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">j. <strong>“Attribution Statement”</strong> means a standard notice to be published by all users of data published under this license, that contains the details of the provider, source, and license of the data concerned <strong>[8]</strong>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">k. <strong>“Personal Information”</strong> means 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 <strong>[9]</strong>.</p>
<h2>3. Permissible Use of Data</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Subject to the conditions listed under section 7, the user may:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">a. Access, use, adapt, and redistribute data published under this license for all lawful and non-exclusive purposes, without payment of any royalty or fee;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">b. Apply this license worldwide, and in perpetuity;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">c. Access, study, copy, share, adapt, publish, redistribute and transmit the data in any medium or format; and</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">d. Use, adapt, and redistribute the data, either in itself, or by combining it with other data, or by including it within a product/application/service, for all commercial and/or non-commercial purposes.</p>
<h2>4. Terms and Conditions of Use of Data</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;">a. <strong>Attribution:</strong> The user must acknowledge the provider, source, and license of data by explicitly publishing the attribution statement, including the DOI (Digital Object Identifier), or the URL (Uniform Resource Locator), or the URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) of the data concerned.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">b. <strong>Attribution of Multiple Data:</strong> If the user is using multiple data together and/or listing of sources of multiple data is not possible, the user may provide a link to a separate page/list that includes the attribution statements and specific URL/URI of all data used.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> c. <strong>Non-endorsement:</strong> The User must not indicate or suggest in any manner that the data provider(s) endorses their use and/or the user.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">d. <strong>No Warranty:</strong> The data provider(s) are not liable for any errors or omissions, and will not under any circumstances be liable for any direct, indirect, special, incidental, consequential, or other loss, injury or damage caused by its use or otherwise arising in connection with this license or the data, even if specifically advised of the possibility of such loss, injury or damage. Under any circumstances, the user may not hold the data provider(s) responsible for: i) any error, omission or loss of data, and/or ii) any undesirable consequences due to the use of the data as part of an application/product/service (including violation of any prevalent law).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">e. <strong>Permanent Disclosure and Versioning:</strong> The data provider(s) will ensure that a data package once published under this license will always remain publicly available for reference and use. If an already published data is updated by the provider, then the earlier appropriate version(s) must also be kept publicly available with accordance with the archival policy of the National Informatics Centre.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">f. <strong>Continuity of Provision:</strong>The data provider(s) will strive for continuously updating the data concerned, as new data regarding the same becomes available. However, the data provider(s) do not guarantee the continued supply of updated or up-to-date versions of the data, and will not be held liable in case the continued supply of updated data is not provided.</p>
<h2>5. Template for Attribution Statement</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Unless the user is citing the data using an internationally accepted data citation format <strong>[10]</strong>, an attribution notice in the following format must be explicitly included:</p>
<p>“Data has been published by [Name of Data Provider] and sourced from Open Government Data (OGD) Platform of India: [Name of Data]. ([date of Publication: dd/mm/yyyy]) .[DOI / URL / URI]. Published under Open Government Data License - India: [URL of Open Data License – India].”</p>
<p>For example, “Data has been published by Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation and sourced from Open Government Data (OGD) Platform of India: Overall Balance of Payments. (08/09/2015). <a href="https://data.gov.in/catalog/overall-balance-payments">https://data.gov.in/catalog/overall-balance-payments</a>. Published under Open Government Data License - India: [URL of Open Data License - India].”</p>
<h2>6. Exemptions</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The license does not grant the right to access, use, adapt, and redistribute the following kinds of data:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">a. Personal information;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">b. Data that the data provider(s) is not authorised to licence;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">c. Names, crests, logos and other official symbols of the data provider(s);</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">d. Data subject to other intellectual property rights, including patents, trade-marks and official marks;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">e. Military insignia;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">f. Identity documents; and</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">g. Any data publication of which may violate section 8 of the Right to Information Act, 2005 <strong>11</strong>.</p>
<h2>7. Termination</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;">a. Failure to comply with stipulated terms and conditions will cause the user’s rights under this license to end automatically.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">b. Where the user’s rights to use data have terminated under the aforementioned clauses or any other Indian law, it reinstates:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">i. automatically, as of the date the violation is cured, provided it is cured within 30 days of the discovery of the violation; or</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">ii. upon express reinstatement by the Licensor.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">c. For avoidance of doubt, this section does not affect any rights the licensor may have to seek remedies for violation of this license.</p>
<h2>8. Dispute Redressal Mechanism</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;">This license is governed by Indian law, and the copyright of any data shared under this license vests with the licensor, under the Indian Copyright Act.</p>
<h2>9. Endnotes</h2>
<p><strong>[1]</strong> Ministry of Science and Technology. 2012. National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP) 2012. Gazette of India. March 17. <a href="http://data.gov.in/sites/default/files/NDSAP.pdf">http://data.gov.in/sites/default/files/NDSAP.pdf</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[2]</strong> See: <a href="https://data.gov.in/">https://data.gov.in/</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[3]</strong> See section 3.2 of the Implementation Guidelines for National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP) Version 2.2. <a href="https://data.gov.in/sites/default/files/NDSAP_Implementation_Guidelines_2.2.pdf">https://data.gov.in/sites/default/files/NDSAP_Implementation_Guidelines_2.2.pdf</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[4]</strong> See section 2.1 of NDSAP 2012.</p>
<p><strong>[5]</strong> See section 2.6 of NDSAP 2012.</p>
<p><strong>[6]</strong> See section 2.7 of NDSAP 2012.</p>
<p><strong>[7]</strong> See section 2 (a) of Indian Copyright Act 1957. <a href="http://copyright.gov.in/Documents/CopyrightRules1957.pdf">http://copyright.gov.in/Documents/CopyrightRules1957.pdf</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[8]</strong> The template of the attribution statement is given in section 5 of the license.</p>
<p><strong>[9]</strong> See section 2 (i) of Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information) Rules, 2011. <a href="http://deity.gov.in/sites/upload_files/dit/files/GSR313E_10511%281%29.pdf">http://deity.gov.in/sites/upload_files/dit/files/GSR313E_10511%281%29.pdf</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[10]</strong>For example, those listed in the DOI Citation Formatter tool developed by DataCite, CrossRef and others: <a href="http://crosscite.org/citeproc/">http://crosscite.org/citeproc/</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[11]</strong> See: <a href="http://rti.gov.in/webactrti.htm">http://rti.gov.in/webactrti.htm</a>.</p>
<div> </div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/public-consultation-for-the-first-draft-of-government-open-data-use-license-india-announced'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/public-consultation-for-the-first-draft-of-government-open-data-use-license-india-announced</a>
</p>
No publishersinhaOpen Government DataOpen LicenseOpen DataNDSAPFeaturedOpenness2016-06-30T09:41:07ZBlog EntryProtecting the Territory, Killing the Map
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/protecting-the-territory-killing-the-map
<b>The politics of making and using maps in India has taken a sudden and complex turn with the publication of the draft Geospatial Information Regulation Bill, 2016. Contrary to the expectations arising out of several government schemes that are promoting the development of the new digital economy in India – from start-ups to the ongoing expansion of connectivity network – the Bill seems to be undoing various economic and humanitarian efforts, and other opportunities involving maps. This article by Sumandro Chattapadhyay and Adya Garg was published by The Wire on May 16, 2016.</b>
<p> </p>
<p>Published by and cross-posted from <a href="http://thewire.in/2016/05/16/before-geospatial-bill-a-long-history-of-killing-the-map-in-order-to-protect-the-territory-36453/">The Wire</a>.</p>
<hr />
<p>The global history of cartography is intimately linked with political needs and economic interests, from the public depiction of sovereign territories to navigating treacherous seas to (wrongly) ‘discover’ the land of spices. In India, the politics of making and using maps has taken a sudden and complex turn with the publication of the draft Geospatial Information Regulation Bill, 2016. Contrary to the expectations arising out of several government schemes that are promoting the development of the new digital economy in India – from start-ups to the ongoing expansion of connectivity network – the Bill seems to be undoing various economic and humanitarian efforts, and other opportunities involving maps, by imposing strict guidelines and harsh penalties on the use of maps by private actors, commercial or otherwise.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/GeospatialBill_05052016_eve.pdf">introductory note to the Bill</a> clearly states its primary objective is to ensure the protection of ‘security, sovereignty and integrity of India.’ The concern around ‘security’ is not new when it comes to regulating cartographic activities. It is prominently addressed across the current set of policies and guidelines that govern mapping in India: 1) the National Map Policy, 2005 (“NMP”) and associated guidelines issued by the Survey of India, 2) the Remote Sensing Data Policy, 2011 that regulates satellite-based mapping, and 3) the Civil Aviation Requirement, 2012, which regulates mapping and photography using flights and drones. Protection of ‘sovereignty and integrity,’ however, does not find a mention in any of these map-related policies.</p>
<p>There have of course been several incidents where the government has taken steps (including the temporary blocking of service) against companies that have represented Indian national boundaries that are not in accordance with official maps. Such companies include Google, The Economist, and Al Jazeera. Two companies that have gotten away with no consequences after publicly showing maps of India without certain border regions, interestingly, are <a href="http://www.scoopwhoop.com/news/kashmir-missing-from-india-map/">Facebook</a> and <a href="http://thewire.in/2015/05/14/chinese-state-owned-television-shows-india-map-sans-jammu-kashmir-arunachal-1698/">CCTV</a>.</p>
<p>In the absence of such provisions in the existing map-related policies, thus far, the government has pursued legal action against such ‘anti-national’ depiction of Indian territory under Section 69A of the IT Act, 2000, the Official Secrets Act, 1923 (restricting the collection and sharing of information about ‘prohibited places’), the Customs Act, 1962 (prohibiting the export and import of certain maps), and the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 1990.</p>
<p>Though this present Bill has come into public attention rather suddenly, the Indian State has been planning for a comprehensive legal framework for both enabling and restricting mapping, since the coming of the NMP itself. The first avatar of this effort was the Indian Survey Act that was heard about in 2007, but was never made public. More recently, the first report towards the National Geospatial Information Policy (now called the National Geospatial Policy) came out in 2012. Instead of waiting for this comprehensive policy to be discussed and notified, the Bill seems to have come in a hurry to propose a narrowly designed legal instrument. As is often the problem with such precise devices that also want to be exhaustive, the Bill promises much more collateral damage than actual solutions – it ends up killing the map in the name of protecting the territory.</p>
<p>A quick look at case law on map-related disputes informs us about the motivations of the state in enacting this Bill. A major controversy around ‘sovereignty’ in the field of mapping has been about the depiction of international boundaries of India by Google. After several incidents of conflicts between Google’s map makers and the Indian State regarding the depiction of India’s national boundary, the Survey of India filed a police complaint in 2014. As a result, Google presently shows different map tiles to users from India (according to the boundary specified by the Indian State) and different tiles to users from elsewhere. This geo-targeted solution to the depiction of international borders under dispute has been practiced by Google in the case of other countries too, most notably for Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Ukraine and (independent) Crimea.</p>
<p>The internal security concerns have also fuelled conflicts with mapping companies. In 2013, the ‘mapathon’ organised by Google faced a lawsuit for not asking for prior permission from the Survey of India for this exercise in user-contributed mapping. This was preceded by a petition filed by J. Mohanraj in the Madras High Court seeking a complete ban on the Google Earth and Bhuvan (run by ISRO) map applications on the ground that they were both providing information that could be used for planning acts of terror. The petitioner’s argument referred to the provisions of the NMP, and also alleged that such mapping practices violated the individual rights of a person under Article 21 of the Constitution. The court, however, held (2008) that the petitioner was unable to produce any specific “Guidelines/Rules/Law laid down by the Central/State Governments, prohibiting the private organisations or any other individuals to Interactive Mapping Program, covering vast majority of the Planet”.</p>
<p>The trouble with Google re-opened earlier this year as the Pathankot air base was attacked. Incidentally, Vishal Saini, the winner of the 2013 mapathon by Google, contributed to mapping the features of the very same city. Promptly after the attack in January, Lokesh Kumar Sharma filed a case in the Delhi High Court alleging that the availability of sensitive information (from an internal security point-of-view) on Google Maps created security vulnerabilities. In a rather curious manner, the court disposed of the case on February 24, claiming that it has learned from the Additional Solicitor General that ‘steps are in progress to regulate the publication of aerial/satellite geospatial data.’ In hindsight, we see that this was in reference to the draft Bill.</p>
<p>This Bill, evidently, is a product of the Indian State’s inefficient attempts at regulating the making and circulation of maps and geospatial data in digital times. The Bill ends up disregarding the actual features of digital geospatial data and how it forms a fundamental basis (and asset) for today’s digital economy, and, instead, decides to settle for a form of regulation that is much better suited (if at all) to a pre-digital and pre-liberalisation condition. The regulatory measures proposed by the Bill do not only cause worry but also bewilderment. Take for example Section 3 that states that ‘no person shall acquire geospatial imagery or data including value addition of any part of India’ without being expressly given permission for the same or being vetted by the nodal agency set up by the Bill. If implemented strictly, this may mean that you will have to ask for permission and/or security vetting before dropping a pin on the map and sharing your coordinates with your friend or a taxi service. Both involve creating/acquiring geospatial information, and potentially adding value to the map/taxi service as well.</p>
<p>Let’s take an even more bizarre hypothetical situation – the Security Vetting Agency being asked to go through the entire geospatial data chest of Google everyday (or as soon as it is updated) and it taking up to ‘ three months from the date of receipt’ of the data to complete this checking so that Google Maps can tell you how crowded a particular street was three months ago.</p>
<p>Further, a key term that the Bill does not talk about is ‘big data.’ The static or much-slowly-changing geospatial data such as national boundaries and which-military-institute-is-located-where are really the tiny minority of the global geospatial information. The much larger and crucial part is of course the fast-moving big geospatial data – from geo-referenced tweets, to GPS systems of cars, to mobile phones moving through the cities and regions. Addressing such networked data systems, where all data can quite easily be born-georeferenced, and the security and privacy concerns that are engendered by them, should be the ultimate purpose of, and challenge for, a future-looking Geospatial Information Regulation Act.</p>
<p>The present Bill imposes an undesirable bureaucratic structure of licenses and permits upon the GIS industry in the country in particular, and on all sections of the economy using networked devices in general. This will only end up restricting the size of the GIS industry to a few dominant players. For all creators and users of maps for non-commercial, developmental, and humanitarian interests, this Bill appears to be an imminent threat, even if it is never actually applied.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/protecting-the-territory-killing-the-map'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/protecting-the-territory-killing-the-map</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroGeospatial Information Regulation BillOpen DataOpen Government DataGeospatial DataOpenness2016-05-17T10:37:14ZBlog EntryPre-Budget Consultation 2016 - Submission to the IT Group of the Ministry of Finance
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/pre-budget-consultation-2016-submission-to-the-ministry-of-finance
<b>The Ministry of Finance has recently held pre-budget consultations with different stakeholder groups in connection with the Union Budget 2016-17. We were invited to take part in the consultation for the IT (hardware and software) group organised on January 07, 2016, and submit a suggestion note. We are sharing the note below. It was prepared and presented by Sumandro Chattapadhyay, with contributions from Rohini Lakshané, Anubha Sinha, and other members of CIS.</b>
<p> </p>
<p>It is our distinct honour to be invited to submit this note for consideration by the IT Group of the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, as part of the pre-budget consultation for 2016-17.</p>
<p>The Centre for Internet and Society is (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. We receive financial support from Kusuma Trust, Wikimedia Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, IDRC, and other donors.</p>
<p>We have divided our suggestions into the different topics that our organisation has been researching in the recent years.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) is the Basis for Digital India</h3>
<p> </p>
<p>We congratulate the policies introduced by the government to promote use of free/libre and open source software and that of open APIs for all e-governance projects and systems. This is not only crucial for the government to avoid vendor lock-in when it comes to critical software systems for governance, but also to ensure that the source code of such systems is available for public scrutiny and do not contain any security flaws.</p>
<p>We request the government to empower the implementation of these policies by making open sharing of source code a necessity for all software vendors hired by government agencies a necessary condition for awarding of tenders. The 2016-17 budget should include special support to make all government agencies aware and capable of implementing these policies, as well as to build and operate agency-level software repositories (with version controlling system) to host the source codes. These repositories may function to manage the development and maintenance of software used in e-governance projects, as well as to seek comments from the public regarding the quality of the software.</p>
<p>Use of FLOSS is not only important from the security or the cost-saving perspectives, it is also crucial to develop a robust industry of software development firms that specialise in FLOSS-based solutions, as opposed to being restricted to doing local implementation of global software vendors. A holistic support for FLOSS, especially with the government functioning as the dominant client, will immensely help creation of domestic jobs in the software industry, as well as encouraging Indian programmers to contribute to development of FLOSS projects.</p>
<p>An effective compliance monitoring and enforcement system needs to be created to ensure that all government agencies are Strong enforcement of the 2011 policy to use open source software in governance, including an enforcement task force that checks whether government departments have complied with this or not.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>Open Data is a Key Instrument for Transparent Decision Making</h3>
<p> </p>
<p>With a wider set of governance activities being carried out using information systems, the government is increasingly acquiring a substantial amount of data about governance processes and status of projects that needs to be effectively fed back into the decision making process for the same projects. Opening up such data not only allows for public transparency, but also for easier sharing of data across government agencies, which reduces process delays and possibilities of duplication of data collection efforts.</p>
<p>We request the 2016-17 budget to foreground the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy and the Open Government Data Platform of India as two key enablers of the Digital India agenda, and accordingly budget for modernisation and reconfiguration of data collection and management processes across government agencies, so that those processes are made automatic and open-by-default. Automatic data management processes minimise the possibility of data loss by directly archiving the collected data, which is increasingly becoming digital in nature. Open-by-default processes of data management means that all data collected by an agency, once pre-recognised as shareable data (that is non-sensitive and anonymised), will be proactively disclosed as a rule.</p>
<p>Implementation of the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy has been hindered, so far, by the lack of preparation of a public inventory of data assets, along with the information of their collection cycles, modes of collection and storage, etc., by each union government agency. Specific budgetary allocation to develop these inventories will be crucial not only for the implementation of the Policy, but also for the government to get an extensive sense of data collected and maintained currently by various government agencies. Decisions to proactively publish, or otherwise, such data can then be taken based on established rules.</p>
<p>Availability of such open data, as mentioned above, creates a wider possibility for the public to know, learn, and understand the activities of the government, and is a cornerstone of transparent governance in the digital era. But making this a reality requires a systemic implementation of open government data practices, and various agencies would require targeted budget to undertake the required capacity development and work process re-engineering. Expenditure of such kind should not be seen as producing government data as a product, but as producing data as an infrastructure, which will be of continuous value for the years to come.</p>
<p>As being discussed globally, open government data has the potential to kickstart a vast market of data derivatives, analytics companies, and data-driven innovation. Encouraging civic innovations, empowered by open government data - from climate data to transport data - can also be one of the unique initiatives of budget 2016-17.</p>
<p>For maximising impact of opened up government data, we request the government to publish data that either has a high demand already (such as, geospatial data, and transport data), or is related to high-net-worth activities of the government (such as, data related to monitoring of major programmes, and budget and expenditure data for union and state governments).</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>Promotion of Start-ups and MSMEs in Electronics and IT Hardware Manufacturing</h3>
<p> </p>
<p>In line with the Make in India and Digital India initiatives, to enable India to be one of the global hubs of design, manufacturing, and exporting of electronics and IT hardware, we request that the budget 2016-17 focus on increasing flow of fund to start-ups and Medium and Small-Scale Manufacturing Enterprises (MSMEs) in the form of research and development grants (ideally connected to government, especially defense-related, spending on IT hardware innovation), seed capital, and venture capital.</p>
<p>Generation of awareness and industry-specific strategies to develop intellectual property regimes and practices favourable for manufacturers of electronics and IT hardware in India is an absolutely crucial part of promotion of the same, especially in the current global scenario. Start-ups and MSMEs must be made thoroughly aware of intellectual property concerns and possibilities, including limitations and exceptions, flexibilities, and alternative models such as open innovation.</p>
<p>We request the budget 2016-17 to give special emphasis to facilitation of technology licensing and transfer, through voluntary mechanisms as well as government intervention, such as compulsory licensing and government enforced patent pools.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>Applied Mathematics Research is Fundamental for Cybersecurity</h3>
<p> </p>
<p>Recent global reports have revealed that some national governments have been actively involved in sponsoring distortion in applied mathematics research so as to introduce weaknesses in encryption standards used in for online communication. Instead of trying to regulate key-length or mandating pre-registration of devices using encryption, as suggested by the withdrawn National Encryption Policy draft, would not be able to address this core emerging problem of weak cybersecurity standards.</p>
<p>For effective and sustainable cybersecurity strategy, we must develop significant expertise in applied mathematical research, which is the very basis of cybersecurity standards development. We request the budget 2016-17 to give this topic the much-needed focus, especially in the context of the Digital India initiative and the upcoming National Encryption Policy.</p>
<p>Along with developing domestic research capacity, a more immediately important step for the government is to ensure high quality Indian participation in global standard setting organisations, and hence to contribute to global standards making processes. We humbly suggest that categorical support for such participation and contribution is provided through the budget 2016-17, perhaps by partially channeling the revenues obtained from spectrum auctions.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/pre-budget-consultation-2016-submission-to-the-ministry-of-finance'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/pre-budget-consultation-2016-submission-to-the-ministry-of-finance</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroOpen StandardsOpen SourceCybersecurityOpen DataIntellectual Property RightsOpen Government DataFeaturedPatentsOpennessOpen InnovationEncryption Policy2016-01-12T13:34:41ZBlog EntryPraja - Enhancing Democracy Through Access to Open Data: What Are the Roles of Government and Civil Society? (Delhi, Sep 08)
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/praja-enhancing-democracy-through-access-to-open-data-what-are-the-roles-of-government-and-civil-society-delhi-sep-08
<b> Open Government Data (OGD) is widely seen to be a key hallmark of contemporary democratic practice and is often linked to the passing of freedom of information legislation. OGD is a philosophy—and increasingly a set of policies—that promotes transparency, accountability and value creation by making government data available to all. Public bodies produce and commission huge quantities of data and information. By making their datasets available, public institutions become more transparent and accountable to citizens. By encouraging the use, reuse and free distribution of datasets, governments promote business creation and innovative, citizen-centric services. Praja is organising a symposium on "open data and civil society" on Friday, Sep 8, which is supported by European Union and Friedrich Naumann Stiftung fur die Freiheit. Sumandro Chattapadhyay (Research Director) will take part in this event as a speaker in the session on "data centric approach and role of stakeholders in the urban governance ecosystem."</b>
<p> </p>
<h4>Details</h4>
<p><strong>Date:</strong> Friday, September 08 2017, 9:30 am - 5:00 pm</p>
<p><strong>Venue:</strong> Juniper Hall, India Habitat Centre (Entry from Gate 1)</p>
<p><strong>Invitees:</strong> Government representatives, elected representatives, civil society organisation and media representatives.</p>
<p><strong>Event Page:</strong> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/126667714642843/?ref=br_rs">Facebook</a></p>
<h4>Objectives</h4>
<ul><li>To study the intersectionality between transparency, accountability and consumption of data by stakeholders.</li>
<li>To explore opportunities for the civil society to simplify governance through access to data, privacy of stakeholders and to address challenges faced in data collection and analysis.</li></ul>
<h4>Outcomes</h4>
<p>The takeaway from the seminar should be to develop the idea of achieving data literacy. The presenters after a detailed interaction should take away the following from the event:</p>
<ul><li>Reflections on the use of Internet and technology as tools for better governance</li>
<li>Balance the development of open data and the strategies to use this data in terms of ownership and replication of data</li>
<li>Identify data sets which should be prioritised for release in order to maximise public value</li>
<li>Data Accessibility: Capitalize on the demand for democracy and transparency by making open data more accessible to the larger public</li></ul>
<h4>Sessions</h4>
<p>Through sessions, the aim is to specifically investigate the role of civil society and media in this effort. The participants will deliberate on the above-mentioned objectives of the seminar.</p>
<p><strong>Session I:</strong> Praja Foundation Website Launch</p>
<p><strong>Session II:</strong> Data centric approach and role of stakeholders in the urban governance ecosystem</p>
<p><strong>Session III:</strong> Open data-experiences; trends, challenges and opportunities, relationship between governance and data</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/praja-enhancing-democracy-through-access-to-open-data-what-are-the-roles-of-government-and-civil-society-delhi-sep-08'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/praja-enhancing-democracy-through-access-to-open-data-what-are-the-roles-of-government-and-civil-society-delhi-sep-08</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroOpen DataOpen Government DataData RevolutionData GovernanceOpenness2017-09-05T10:57:38ZBlog EntryOpening Government: A Guide to Best Practice in Transparency, Accountability and Civic Engagement across the Public Sector
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/opening-government-best-practice-guide
<b>The Transparency & Accountability Initiative has published a book called “Opening Government: A Guide to Best Practice in Transparency, Accountability and Civic Engagement across the Public Sector”. We at the Centre for Internet & Society contributed the section on Open Government Data.</b>
<p>Cross-posted from the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.transparency-initiative.org/reports/opening-government">Transparency & Accountability Initiative blog</a>.</p>
<p>Download <a class="external-link" href="http://www.transparency-initiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Opening-Government3.pdf">the full report</a> (PDF, 440 Kb)</p>
<h3>Open Government Partnership</h3>
<p>In January 2011, a small group of government and civil society leaders from around the world gathered in Washington, DC to brainstorm on how to build upon growing global momentum around transparency, accountability and civic participation in governance. The result was the creation of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), a new multi-stakeholder coalition of governments, civil society and private sector actors working to advance open government around the world — with the goals of increasing public sector responsiveness to citizens, countering corruption, promoting economic efficiencies, harnessing innovation, and improving the delivery of services.</p>
<p>In September 2011, these founding OGP governments will gather in New York on the margins of the UN General Assembly to embrace a set of high-level open government principles, announce country-specific commitments for putting these principles into practice and invite civil society to assess their performance going forward. Also in September, a diverse coalition of governments will stand up and announce their intention to join a six-month process culminating in the announcement of their own OGP commitments and signing of the declaration of principles in January 2012.</p>
<h3>'Opening Government' report</h3>
<p>To help inform governments, civil society and the private sector in developing their OGP commitments, the Transparency and Accountability Initiative (T/A Initiative) reached out to leading experts across a wide range of open government fields to gather their input on current best practice and the practical steps that OGP participants and other governments can take to achieve it.</p>
<p>The result is the first document of its kind to compile the state of the art in transparency, accountability and citizen participation across 15 areas of governance, ranging from broad categories such as access to information, service delivery and budgeting to more specific sectors such as forestry, procurement and climate finance.</p>
<p>Each expert’s contribution is organized according to three tiers of potential commitments around open government for any given sector — minimal steps for countries starting from a relatively low baseline, more substantial steps for countries that have already made moderate progress, and most ambitious steps for countries that are advanced performers on open government.</p>
<h3>Chapters and Contributing Authors</h3>
<ol>
<li>Aid – <a href="http://www.publishwhatyoufund.org/" target="_blank" title="Publish What You Fund">Publish What You Fund</a></li>
<li>Asset disclosure - <a href="http://www.globalintegrity.org/" target="_blank" title="Global Integrity">Global Integrity</a></li>
<li>Budgets – <a href="http://www.internationalbudget.org/" target="_blank" title="IBP">The International Budget Project</a></li>
<li>Campaign finance – <a href="http://www.transparency-usa.org/" target="_blank" title="TI USA">Transparency International - USA</a></li>
<li>Climate finance – <a href="http://www.wri.org/" target="_blank" title="WRI">World Resources Institute</a></li>
<li>Fisheries – <a href="http://transparentsea.co/" target="_blank" title="TransparentSea">TransparentSea</a></li>
<li>Financial sector reform <a href="http://www.gfip.org/" target="_blank" title="Global Financial Integrity">Global Financial Integrity</a></li>
<li>Forestry – <a href="http://www.globalwitness.org/" target="_blank" title="Global Witness">Global Witness</a></li>
<li>Electricity – <a href="http://electricitygovernance.wri.org/" target="_blank" title="Electricity Governance Initiative">Electricity Governance Initiative</a></li>
<li>Environment – <a href="http://www.accessinitiative.org/" target="_blank" title="The Access Initiative">The Access Initiative</a></li>
<li>Extractive industries – <a href="http://www.revenuewatch.org/" target="_blank" title="RWI">The Revenue Watch Institute</a></li>
<li>Open government data – <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/" target="_blank" title="CIS India">The Centre for Internet and Society - India</a></li>
<li>Procurement – <a href="http://www.transparency-usa.org/" target="_blank" title="TI USA">Transparency International-USA</a></li>
<li>Right to information – <a href="http://www.access-info.org/" target="_blank" title="Access Info">Access Info</a> and the <a href="http://www.law-democracy.org/" target="_blank" title="Center for Law and Democracy">Center for Law and Democracy</a></li>
<li>Service delivery – <a href="http://www.twaweza.org/" target="_blank" title="Twaweza">Twaweza</a></li>
</ol>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/opening-government-best-practice-guide'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/opening-government-best-practice-guide</a>
</p>
No publisherpraneshDigital GovernanceOpen DataPublic AccountabilityOpennesse-governance2012-12-14T10:26:42ZBlog EntryOpenData Week in Madrid - OD4D Summit, Open Data Charter Meetings, and IODC16
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/opendata-week-in-madrid-od4d-summit-open-data-charter-meetings-and-iodc16
<b>Sumandro Chattopadhyay took part in three open data events in Madrid in the first week of October 2016. </b>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">OD4D Summit</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Sumandro Chattopadhyay has been a member of the Open Data Research Network (funded by IDRC), which is now part of the Open Data for Development (OD4D) Network. The Network completed 2 years and held its first summit on October 3, 2016. <a class="external-link" href="https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/od4d-summit-tickets-26804581224">The event</a> was organized by IDRC. Participants discussed the way forward for the Network. Among other things the need for regional cooperation in open data policies and practices in the South, South East, and East Asia was noted.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Open Data Charter Meeting</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Sumandro represented CIS in the Open Data Charter Lead Stewards' meeting held on October 5, 2016. The meeting was focused on finalising the business plan of the Charter for 2017-2020, including setting up a secretariat for coordinating and leading the work. The document was thoroughly discussed and will be revised further by the Lead Stewards during the next month, before sharing the draft version with the General Stewards in mid-November.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A meeting was held with the General Stewards and other participants on the evening of the same day. For more info, <a class="external-link" href="http://opendatacharter.net/">click here</a>.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">IODC 16</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The 4th International Open Data Conference (IODC 16) organized by red.es, IDRC, the World Bank and Open Data in Madrid on October 6 and 7, 2016 brought out a lot of real concerns, sometimes even slightly bitter and worried, about the actual state of open data across the world and the relevance/implications of open data for various stakeholders. More info on IODC <a class="external-link" href="http://opendatacon.org/iodc16/about/">here</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Sumandro spoke at the Regional Talk session focusing on Asia. He spoke on <a class="external-link" href="https://internationalopendataconfer2016.sched.org/speaker/sumandrochattapadhyay1">Opening Data for innovation: from supply-driven to demand-driven Open Data strategies</a> and moderated the <a class="external-link" href="https://internationalopendataconfer2016.sched.org/event/7PVe">session on demand-driven open data strategies</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Collected tweets from IODC can be <a class="external-link" href="https://storify.com/ajantriks/iodc16">accessed here</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/opendata-week-in-madrid-od4d-summit-open-data-charter-meetings-and-iodc16'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/opendata-week-in-madrid-od4d-summit-open-data-charter-meetings-and-iodc16</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaOpen DataOpenness2016-10-16T03:11:54ZNews Item