Monday, December 3, 2012 15:00 UTC
Chair: Mike Linksvayer

PARTICIPANTS

• Mike Linksvayer
• Daniel Dietrich
• Peter Suber
• Luis Villa
• Herb Lainchbury
• Rufus Pollock

AGENDA

• OD [AC] process/feedback
• Leftover Action Items
  • OKD 1.2 explanation/post
  • Spreadsheet for license [non-]compliance followups?
  • UK OGL updates?
• Strategy
  • Main barriers to OKD universal acceptance and world liberation that we can actually do something about; reflect in goals below
• 2013 Goals, Volunteers
  • Document past decisions/rationales on website
  • Document/public process for 2013 decisions
  • Outreach/liaison with
    • OER?
    • OA?
    • OSI
    • Open Gov Data WG
  • licenses.opendefinition.org updates/integration
  • Other website info upgrade (eg open buttons guidance)
  • OSSD

NOTES

Admin

• Consider Herb added, Mike chair per list discussion

Process for License Conformance

Luis: will send some suggestions based on experience at OSI Rufus: +1 Rufus: Idea of using git and github … * would prefer decisions on-line/public email for documentation/transparency/legitimacy; calls for strategy/input/discussion. Maybe this has been the case anyway… * Current process is described at http://opendefinition.org/licenses/process/ * Luis will send some comments based on OSI experience * Email list about outstanding license conformance decisions + rationale; give 2 weeks for +1 or objection (non-comformant: UK OGL, Ireland, Kenya, ?)

Advisory Council participants

• Email to ask current members to see whether they wish to continue (and are able to contribute going forward)
• Those who want to step down we ask for any suggestions for replacements and add to emeritus list

Advisory Council Process

• anyone welcome to attend
• decisions made by members of council
• license discussions are sometimes best held in the channel in which they start (mailing list) until such time as there are accepted changes – at which time it can move to something more technical / thoughtful and useful for archiving, such as git and markdown

Follow-ups

• Ireland: no contact yet
• Kenya: sent notice but no response …
• Germany: Draft license for German PSI https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dk68bfuEp8eDsgIDBSZuQAr07_YWnbjvr8s5CEZ-q4o/edit Mike Linksvayer and Baden Appleyard commented on it and suggest that the default option “A” would be OD compliant if no additional limitations (as in IV. Further optional elements proposed for discussion) apply. Other options such as B, C and D are not compliant. Recommendation was given not to add any optional elements such as in IV. The German license will be published in January 2013 and used as standard license for PSI in the upcoming OGD portal.
• UK OGL: need to signal to update them re issues leading to non-conformance
  • Email – Mike + Rufus
  • May be a blog post Daniel started a List of Licenses checked for compliance with Open Definition https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0ApbQZxbNri2RdExrcDdIc2FveFVWWGdaM1ZNeW1XSFE&pli=1#gid=0

Strategy

Main barriers to OKD universal acceptance and world liberation that we can actually do something about; reflect in goals below * Highlighting / Listing major users (e.g. governments) * Recognition * Peter Suber +1 Rufus +1 Daniel +1 * Shows it would be lawful, it is permissible etc * Getting the gold-star * Point about making clear usage (from Luis) * General communications * A bit more on the updates side * Connection with other groups

Connection with other groups

• OGD WG – Mike + Daniel
  • A post which we should share about government data licenses
• OSI

Communications

• Email list draft announcement of OKD 1.2 + rationale; give 2 weeks for +1 or objection
• Blog updated AC list, conformance decisions, OKD 1.2 before end of year

Open Software Service Definition

Need to consider whether this is a focus or whether we shelve it until such time as we can give them the time they need.

Luis point

He is a lawyer but not the Open Definition’s lawyer! Acknowledged by all.

ACTIONS

• Mike: email current AC members
• DD: forward Kenya notice to the list … DONE
• Mike + Rufus: email UK National Archives re OGL issues DONE
• Herb: Archiving versions of current licenses in markdown
• Mike + Herb: Posts
  • A year in review and plans for next year
  • Licenses we have seen, what we plan …

CALL LOGISTICS

• When: Thursday, 6th September at 16:00 UTC / 17:00 BST / 18:00 CEST
• Strict limit to one hour
• Where: Skype
• Back channel: #okfn IRC channel on irc.freenode.net
• Chair: Daniel Dietrich (Skype: ddie22)

Pad for note taking: http://opengovernmentdata.okfnpad.org/call

PARTICIPANTS

• Daniel Dietrich (Skype: ddie22)
• Mike Linksvayer (Skype: mlinksva)
• Andrew Stott (Skype: dirdigeng) (ok)
• Timothy Vollmer (Skype: timothyvollmer)
• Herb Lainchbury (Skype: herblainchbury)
• Alberto Abella (Skype: alberto_rooter)
• Francesca De Chiara (Skype: j.moreau)
• Baden Appleyard – AusGOAL.gov.au (Skype:badapple71)
• Pia Waugh (Skype: piawaugh)
• Jim Wretham (National Archives)
• Helen Darbishire (Access Info Europe)
• Chris Taggart (Skype: chrismtaggart)

To participate please add your name and Skype ID to the pad!

AGENDA

• Updates
  • Introducing the Open Government Data timeline http://bit.ly/OGD-timeline as part of an wider attempt to map what is happening with release of open government data around the world (and initiatives related to it) See more at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ji2pifZYSggdgp0Pe8s_vFNrZIvrgwB1OhYz0AdkGsc/edit#
• OD license issues
  • following the debate from; http://opendefinition.okfnpad.org/conferencecall-summary
  • Possible review & comments by the OD advisory council on a DRAFT german open government license
• CC 4.0 license update (if people are interested)
  • see http://blog.okfn.org/2012/08/15/cc-license-version-4-0-helping-meet-the-needs-of-open-data-publishers-and-users/
  • http://wiki.creativecommons.org/4.0
• OKFestival last preparations
  • http://okfestival.org/onlineschedule/
  • http://okfestival.okfnpad.org/OGP-debate
• Open Government Data Dashboard
• News
• AOB

NOTES

Open Government Data Dashboard

• Agreed to disseminate spreadsheet to various civil society lists, including open data community, access to info community, including via the OGP process and the civil society around that
• Agreed that timeline important and also detailing what information is contained in any particular dataset
• Agreed to keep as spreadsheet rather than have as a Wiki
• OKF to introduce a tool / platform for the crowdsourcing of the significant events and progress made in the open data space. Events such as major government policy changes, new data catalogues being introduced, significant data release, new organizations forming, significant licenses being introduced, etc..

• OKF may announce officially at the upcoming OKFestival

• Overview of the idea (quite technical)

OGL update

Jim Wretham joined briefly. Hope was to have update re discussion of improvements to UK Open Government License but unfortunately tech issues intervened. Plan to follow up to find out how this is going

Open Definition update

Discussion of revision to Open Definition as per Mike Linksvayer’s proposal:

1. License Must Not Impose Additional Restrictions

The license must not place any additional restrictions or conditions on the access, use, reuse or redistribution of the data other than those explicitly described under this definition.

Comment: This clause is intended to clarify that presence of restrictions not specifically permitted above make a license non-open. Such restrictions are usually one or more of onerous, vague, unnecessary (for example, requiring following an unrelated law), and always harmful to compatibility among open licenses.

Agreed on this.

ACTION: Mike Linksvayer to write up a brief explanation of reason for this new clause with reference to existing licenses where this has been issue.

ACTION: Daniel document (spreadsheet?) – people we have contacted and any response.

ACTION: Daniel + Mike: blog post about update and possibly (separate) re non-conformant licenses.

RP comment: should we start recording terms and conditions / licenses in our git repo. ML question: any relationship to json license project you launched some months ago? ML: would like to merge I think!

ACTION: Who? EFF OAL move on website (from non-comformant to comformant-historical)

Open Government License in Germany

Daniel requested assistance in reviewing a Germany specific license. All agreed to assist as needed.

OKFestival

Daniel is going to introduce the Open Government Data timeline and ask for participation.

Discussion of new Indian Open Data Catalog

• Andrew Stott: very vague license
• Chris Taggart: very little data there

News and Point of Information

• Mike Linksvayer: some people using NC or ND and need to be clear not open
• RP/AS: Risk that people now rest on their laurels
• Chris Taggart: there is always variation across the “hype” cycle. Recall my somewhat pessimistic presentation from last years Open Government Data Camp
• Herb Lainchbury: seeing a lot of growing interest. Broadening out of the community. It is inevitable as we move along and as the community grows that there will be perhaps less overall velocity but more volume. We need to really consider scale when deciding how to focus our efforts as a community. The proposed dashboard is a good example of a scalable tool. E.g. focus more on webinars than hackathons. Should continue to measure. Tools like opendefinition are very important as they are very scalable and make it easy for us to provide feedback. Governments need continued feedback about how they are doing as that’s at least in part what motivates them.
• Baden: lot of the open data portals kick off a bang (e.g. with a competition) and then things can get a lot harder. Big challenge is getting open data released can be hard. Lot of development going on in Australia.

ACTION ITEMS

• contact Jim Wretham (National Archives) about UK OGD License updates (Rufus + Andrew)
• send german OGD draft license to OD advisory council for review (Daniel)
• follow up Kenya OGD license compliance (Daniel)

CALL LOGISTICS

• When: Monday, 19th March 18:00 GMT
• Please note the times in the Doodle-poll are 18:00 GMT.
• Strict limit to one hour
• Where: Skype
• Back channel: #okfn IRC channel on irc.freenode.net
• Chair: Daniel Dietrich (Skype: ddie22)

PARTICIPANTS

Confirmed:

• Rufus Pollock (rufuspollock)
• Mike Linksvayer (mlinksva)
• Herb Lainchbury (herblainchbury)
• Daniel Dietrich (Skype: ddie22)
• Andrew Stott (Skype: dirdigeng)
• Jo Ellis (UK National Archives) (Skype: jo3ellis)
• David Eaves (david_a_eaves)

AGENDA

• approval (or not) of UK OGL
  • http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/od-discuss/2011-December/000086.html may be last focused on UK OGL (subject then expands to OD clarification/update), also see previous in thread
• non-conformance of Irish PSI license — see http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/od-discuss/2011-July/000047.html
• Approval or not of Kenyan Open Data Policy (probably not conformant)
  • See http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/od-discuss/2011-November/000070.html
• updating of the OD itself, which has been done before (1.0 to 1.1)
  • See http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/od-discuss/2012-January/000096.html
• move EFF OAL from non-comformant/discontinued to conformant/deprecated as http://web.archive.org/web/20040603070029/http://www.eff.org/IP/Open_licenses/eff_oal_version1.php is clearly conformant and having it listed on non-conformant page is confusing. Or remove all mention from site.
• http://licenses.opendefinition.org/ and associated repo
  • https://github.com/okfn/licenses
• Update from David Eaves

NOTES

opendefinition@okfn.org email alias (which can then be circulated to the advisory panel) would like to see a published list of PDDL users

Actions

• [DD/MH]: contact Kenyans re decision
• [RP]: definition into version control (suggestion: use markdown)
• [DD] make sure ML has access to wordpress site
• [DD] send notes to list and set up a regular call scheme
• [AS]: draft blog post about non-open open licenses on open data sistes

OGL

Feedback on http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/ clauses:

• “ensure that you do not use the Information in a way that suggests any official status or that the Information Provider endorses you or your use of the Information;”
  • This is fine, permitted by OKD: 6. Integrity.
• “ensure that you do not mislead others or misrepresent the Information or its source;”
  • Problematic: Adds uncertainty and complexity without gaining any real benefit for the licensor (how would they enforce and can they not be addressed in some other form).
  • “ensure” sounds burdensome, “official” is unclear, and “mislead” is ripe for abuse (should a licensor prevent certain uses). It also causes interoperability issues and paves the way for a myriad of minor, but cumulatively significant, restrictions that can ultimately significantly impede reuse.
  • Additionally, introduces incompatibility with other open licenses.
• “ensure that your use of the Information does not breach the Data Protection Act 1998 or the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003.”
  • Breaking the law is breaking the law, one doesn’t need a provision in the license for this. Additionally, introduces incompatibility with other open licenses.
• “These terms have been aligned to be interoperable with any Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which covers copyright, and Open Data Commons Attribution License, which covers database rights and applicable copyrights.”
  • The problematic terms above make this statement ambiguous: though the UK OGL claims to be aligned with CC-BY and ODC-BY, it is not. The intention to be compatibile is wonderful; making the next version of UK OGL unambiguously OKD compliant is necessary (and most likely sufficient) for realizing this intent.

End of feedback

Rights Clearing: users are sometimes expected to respect the rights of third parties when in fact they are the least equipped to do so of all parties involved. i.e. if its onerous for a publisher to sort out the rights, its likely impossible for a consumer.

As the OKD draws much from the OSD, which itself is based on the DFSG, I take license to call out the http://people.debian.org/~bap/dfsg-faq.html#tentacles_of_evil test. I think analogously, if an oppressive government comes to power, the OGL provides built-in excuses for suppression of uses of “open” information it finds disagreeable. Maybe this concern is over the top, just putting it out there.

Kenyan Open Data Policy

All agreed that this was non-compliant.

• No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor – Restriction of commercial use.
  • non-conformant because of non-commercial restrictions

Version 1.2 of Open Definition

• Clearer that adding restrictions is problematics and likely non-compliant
• Integrity
  • See item 6
  • Integrity does not cover “misrepresentation or misuse” – these should not be part of an open license. When using data it can be assumed that users will comply with other relevant laws

Move EFF OAL

Unanimously agreed that:

EFF OAL moved from non-conformant/discontinued to conformant/deprecated as http://web.archive.org/web/20040603070029/http://www.eff.org/IP/Open_licenses/eff_oal_version1.php is clearly conformant and having it listed on non-conformant page is confusing.

Irish

http://psi.gov.ie/files/2010/03/PSI-Licence.pdf is unaminously decided to be non-complaint for the following reasons:

4..1.(4) conditions permissions on “not using the document” in three ways which make the license non-compliant:

(a) for the principal purpose of advertising or promoting a particular product or service;

Not compliant with OKD 8: No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor.

(b) for an illegal, immoral, fraudulent or dishonest purpose or in support of the aforementioned purposes;
(d) generally in a manner which is likely to mislead others.

These go beyond the restriction permitted by OKD 6: Integrity. Clauses such as these make permissions ambiguous, lend themselves to capriciuous enforcement, make compatibility with other open licenses problematic, and are generally superfluous in an open license, given that users generally must follow laws against fraud, etc.

Discussion of of 4(c) and Attribution re http://psi.gov.ie/files/2010/03/PSI-Licence.pdf

What if one requires attribution but at the time non-endorsement.

Andrew Stott: two examples, Met Office and New South Wales of things along these lines

Andrew: if you perform the attribution requirement it would seem very hard for a licensor to claim that you are using their endorsement.

Andrew Stott

• 72% of datasets on data.gov.nz are CC-By or better
• 41% of datasets on data.gov.nz are CC-By or better (once one excludes geodata)
• 34% …