GRADE Project Update Anne Robertson EDINA EDINA National Data Centre University of Edinburgh JISC Geospatial Working Group Water UK, 18th January 2007

JISC Digital Repositories Programme June 2005 JISC £4m programme Aim of encouraging growth of repositories in UK universities and colleges Programme consists of 25 projects exploring role and operation of repositories Focus on how repositories can assist academic researchers both to do and share work more easily Open access is key driver plus growing demand for outputs of publicly-funded research to be freely available on the web

GRADE project introduction Part of JISC Digital Repositories Programme Investigating and reporting on the technical and cultural issues around the reuse of geospatial data Investigative in nature, not building a geospatial repository Particular focus on sharing and reuse of derived geospatial data (data created as a result of research) EDINA leading GRADE with consortium partners: –AHRC Research Centre for Studies in Intellectual Property and Technology Law, School of Law, Edinburgh University –National Oceanography Centre, Southampton University –Variety of other associate partners including GI Schools at Nottingham, Kingston, Strathclyde, Edinburgh, Sheffield, UCL and HEASCs June 2005 – April 2007, 5 discrete work packages

Why focus on sharing? Research is not merely a consumer of geospatial data but is also a producer… mechanisms that help researchers share their own data sets should be more actively supported, such as is the case with source repositories across the scientific and research community. This is already tentatively evident in repositories like the AHDS, ADS and ESDS where research councils, JISC and others support complimentary archiving and access mechanisms. Greater mutual benefit could be achieved if it were possible to link JISC service provision to repositories... JISC Geospatial Working Group Draft Vision Document April 2006

Progress: WP1 User Based Evidence Searching for data –Drawing box on map –Clicking an area on a map (boundary) –Typing free text place name –Entering post-code Assessing fit for purpose –Need info on data format, quality, coord system –View extent of data on map & thumbnail view of data Demonstrator repository

Progress: WP1 User Based Evidence Data Download –Directly to desktop for use within GIS –Human readable metadata Data Upload –All respondents prepared to provide geospatial metadata (e.g. data format, coord system) –Prefer MBR auto- matically created –Help is required with licensing statement –Ability to upload packaged project data Daily search activity 120+ datasets and 70+ registered users Requests for access from many sectors

Progress: WP2 Informal data sharing survey Anonymous questionnaire survey Over 100 respondents Findings –Over 78% responses said had shared data, many qualifying that it happened on a frequent basis –Most common method of sharing was via CD/DVD and attachment –Top mechanisms for finding geospatial data: Google followed by word of mouth, internet, EDINA –Most common barrier to sharing relates to concerns over breaking licensing conditions, lack of quality metadata and protection of individuals IPR –What would make reuse and sharing of geospatial data easier? – Single portal providing data discovery and access combined with less restrictive licensing

Progress WP3: Licensing framework Work led by AHRC Research Centre Studies in Intellectual Property and Technology Law Ground-breaking report on legal findings for a licensing framework –Geospatial Data does not come under copyright but rather EU database right therefore products such as OS MasterMap are covered by database right only –a lawful user of the database (e.g. the researcher or teacher in an educational institution) may not be prevented from extracting and re-utilising an insubstantial part of the contents of a database for any purposes whatsoever –A licensed user (e.g. Digimap user) can use an insubstantial part of the database (e.g. MasterMap) as they see fit. This includes redistribution of derived data!!!! Work shared with key groups (JISC Collections, OGC geoDRM)

Progress WP4: Institutional repositories Baseline audit of existing institutional repositories Survey findings confirmed geospatial data not currently within IRs *Many IRs dealing with publication outputs only (pay lip service to inclusion of data) *IR software dont have ready made metadata schema for data *Simply havent been offered geospatial data yet *Survey suggests would be willing to consider managing geospatial data if offered but treat it in the same way as any other data SWOT analysis of geospatial data within IRs Ultimate goal is that datasets are permanently visible and available: IRs can have role along with Designated Data Centres

A significant degree of informal geospatial data sharing occurs because of the lack of any formal mechanism Community desire for a mechanism to legitimately share and reuse geospatial research data Main barriers to more formal geospatial data sharing within the community are: –perceived complexity of licensing and digital rights issues surrounding data (re)use in the UK –lack of quality metadata –concerns over the protection of depositors intellectual property –lack of community-based mechanism(s) for sharing GRADE: Summary of main findings to date

Main Findings contd. Institutional repositories do not manage any geospatial content (and would not be capable of effectively doing so currently) Geospatial community would support data reuse BUT not necessarily (at present) within an IR. More fine grained sharing mechanisms are preferred i.e. data sharing amongst peer group networks defined by the depositor Main factors that would encourage geospatial data sharing and reuse are identified as the establishment of a specific geospatial repository infrastructure as part of academic SDI plus less restrictive licensing

GRADE - Where to from here? Critical component to sharing and reuse is discovery Strategic goal of linking GRADE and Go-Geo! to give a dedicated, reliable portal for geospatial data discovery and access –Discovery portal + repository store = data access There is a lot of geospatial data out there! –Go-Geo! has conducted geospatial data audits at four institutions, so far *Strathclyde University *Edinburgh University *Kingston University *Leeds University –We estimate there are at least 900 undocumented geospatial datasets –Scaling this up to all HE institutions suggests that there are probably several thousands of geospatial datasets in academic institutions across the UK

Portals & Repositories Sharing data is perceived to be important … [Workshop on e-Research, Digital Repositories and Portals, Lancaster Sept 2006] Go-Geo! is the de facto GI Portal for academics

The Proposal – High level Leverage existing substantial JISC investment in geospatial data Build on and exploit existing repository and portal infrastructure Adopt a Junction approach – a fall back repository for orphan datasets Accept community desire for institutional/departmental/ FOAF based views onto a [virtual] national repository Cross-searching & harvesting Build on work of Go-Geo! and extend Metadata Creator to allow ingest Develop Ingest Packaging tools for Geospatial data resources Develop peer review annotation tools Promote data citation and reuse Elevate the licensing framework discussion

For GWG discussion ………. GRADE findings are based upon community feedback The proposal to enhance Go-Geo! with a supporting data repository was presented to JISC Repository and Preservation Advisory Group November 06 This proposal has not been approved Significant ramifications for geospatial community JISC has funded the development of a geospatial data metadata discovery portal since 2000 – the portal needs to meet community expectations of providing data access Research is a producer of geospatial data –e.g. Digimap users have downloaded 240,000 files of data already this academic year GRADE has made great advances in bringing data licensing discussions to the fore – this work must continue

Questions for the GWG… Do you support our approach to date? Where to from here? (Remember - the project ends in April) Thank you