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Vision
Once data holders have decided to open up their data, they usually have lots of questions about how to do it:
- How do I choose what to make available?
- How do I let reusers know they can reuse it?
- How do I make sure reusers take into account the complexities of this data?
- How do I publish it: should I provide an API or just make dumps?
- How do I get people to use it?
Even organisations who are currently publishing open data want to know whether they are doing it "right". And large organisations who want to set high standards around data publication for use internally and with their suppliers can find it hard to articulate what those standards should be.
There is a fair amount of documentation available now that provides detailed guidance on various topics:
There are also schemes that try to provide easy-to-grasp principles and checklists for publishing open data:
These are hugely valuable resources, but telling organisations who have a new interest in open data that they need to read and understand all of them is more likely to put them off than to capture and retain their interest.
Yet another guide, or set of guides, is just another thing to read. We want to provide a resource that is more helpful than that: one that congratulates organisations on what they have already done and that gives them meaningful positive steps that help them improve over time.
This was the genesis of the ODI Open Data Certificate: an interactive tool to help organisations get better at publishing open data.
There are two primary goals for the Open Data Certificate:
- to provide data holders with something they can point to and have as a badge of honour that shows how well they are doing open data
- to provide data holders with concrete ideas about how they could improve the way in which they are publishing or supporting open data
There are a few side effects that are also beneficial for the community:
- individual certificates can provide access to the information that data reusers need to help them understand how they can reuse the data
- the set of certificates that's granted can give us as a community access to metrics about not just how many datasets are being opened but how they are being released
- the process of working out what questions the certificates should ask helps to explore some of the subtle issues and trade-offs around opening up data
The vision is for us to have a site to which people can go to:
- create plans for opening up data
- create certificates for their open data
- search and browse certificates
- add information that is relevant for other data reusers
- find metrics about open data uptake
To give rewards and a feeling of progress, certificates will be awarded at different levels:
- a raw certificate is for data that meets the fundamental requirements for open data
- a pilot certificate is for initial forays into publishing open data, which provides enough to prompt experimentation with a dataset
- a standard certificate is for routinely published open data that encourages reuse
- an expert certificate is for open data that provides reliable key information infrastructure
These levels are used to make it clear that publishing open data is a journey, and that some datasets are more useful — to reusers, to the publisher, and to society in general — than others.
There will be some gradation within these levels, showing publishers' progress towards the next level, and the ability to attain different levels in the different areas of importance (legal, practical, technical and social support).
There will also be an indication of how much to trust the information that the certficates contain:
- a self-certified certificate is created by the data owner
- a community-certified certificate is one which has been checked by peers
- an ODI certified certificate is one which has been audited by ODI experts