Open Data, Open Access and (Open) Intermediaries

Sumandro ChattapadhyayHasGeek Media LLPThe Sarai Programme, CSDSwww.ajantriks.net@ajantriks

National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy

/ Drafted by Department of Science and Technology

/ First draft version made public on May 2011

/ Gazette notification on 17th March 2013

/ A policy for internal and public sharing of(Central) government data in both human- and machine-readable forms

/ Explicit recommendation of open standards

/ No mention of open licenses

/ Mandates development of <http://data.gov.in/> portal,with National Informatics Centre, Department of Electronics and IT, as nodal agency for implementation

DataMeet

/ Bangalore, 2011

/ OpenDataCamp, 2012

/ Working with Data Workshop, Chennai, 2012

/ Meeting with NDSAP-PMU, NIC, 2013

/ OpenDataCamp, 2013

/ Dialogues towards formalisation of the network

/ More: <http://datameet.org/> [reorganisation pending]

Opening Data by Mediation – Ongoing Study by HasGeek

/ Exploring the Emerging Impacts of Open Data in Developing Countries research network managed byWorld Wide Web Foundation and supported by IDRC, Canada

/ Absence of the topic 'data intermediary organisations' in global open data policy discourse

/ Mapping and documenting the existing ecology of dataintermediary organisations in India, and challenges andopportunities thereof, are crucial for effectiveimplementation of an open government data policy

/ Study driven by interviews with organisations mediating national-scale government data in India, and with government agencies publishing data for public usage, followed by focused consultation meetings

/ More: <http://oddc.hasgeek.com/>

Open Access Dialogues

/ Online discussion facilitated by Eve Gray, in partnership with The African Commons Project, South Africa, and the Centre for Internet and Society, India, supported byInstitute of Development Studies, Sussex, UK, andhosted at WSIS Knowledge Communities discussion forum

/ Main theme: 'Is Open Access only for rich countries?'

/ Sub theme #1: 'The production, publication and consumption of scholarly knowledge and OA'

/ Sub theme #2: 'Is it time to envision a new, contemporary OA agenda? What would this look like?'

/ More: <http://www.wsis-community.org/pg/groups/forum/58145/>

Open Access Dialogues

Strategic issues emerging from comments of Indian participants:

/ Lacking OA awareness, even among scholarly communities

/ Uneven geography of OA success stories

/ Global businesses of scholarly works and complicity of Indian researchers

/ Citation Indexes as necessary evil

/ Open Access must not only be about access to journals

/ Open Access and the consumers of knowledge

Open Access Dialogues

Policy suggestions:

/ Mainstreaming the OA agenda

/ OA as the entry point to a broader 'open' agenda

/ Moving the OA discussion and knowledge organisation beyond higher education communities

/ Removing policy biases against Open Access journals in academic administration

/ Encouraging and supporting scholarly communities (often with a disciplinary and/or thematic common ground) to undertake OA knowledge production

(Open) Intermediaries?

/ The vital category of knowledge 'intermediaries'

/ Mediating creation and distribution of knowledge[or, problematising 'production']

/ Mediating consumption and use of knowledge[or, problematising 'merit']

/ Mediating archival and retrieval of knowledge[or, problematising 'accumulation']

/ Should not the intermediaries be open too? [open to being studied, modified and re-created]

/ How to make the intermediaries open?

Thank you very much.

Sumandro ChattapadhyayThe Sarai Programme, CSDSHasGeek Media LLPwww.ajantriks.net@ajantriks