Read Louise Lawson's account of Ingrid Dillo's key note session on FAIR and Open Data at iPRES 2017. Louise is attending iPRES 2017 with support from the DPC's Leadership Programme which is generously funded by our Commericial Supporters.
Following on from a great welcome, the conference was kicked off by Ingrid Dillo who started her keynote with a history lesson, giving us a glimpse into the longstanding relationship between the Netherlands and Japan. This relationship was initially based on trade and over time this relationship became one based on scientific discourse and research, where Ingrid put forward this continued exchange with the topic of FAIR and open data in trustworthy repositories. Ingrid put forward a range of topics such as; open data sharing, the concept of trust, certification and FAIR and open data.
Her keynote took us on a journey exploring why have open access and open data on trusted repositories, with themes of transparency, replication of research, the re-use of data, efficiency, return on investment and standing on the shoulders of others put forward as the argument for why have a trusted repository. However she noted there is still hesitancy with researchers to make their data available to others. This hesitancy was borne around issues of Intellectual Property, confidentiality, ethical concerns etc turning around the very concept of trust and trusted repositories.
Ingrid then spoke briefly about the Data Seal of Approval (DSA) and ICSU World Data System (WDS) in terms of their commonalities and complementary approaches, noting that both organisations met for the first time a few years ago. This meeting spurred the need to look at efficiencies that could be made and develop common elements across both standards. This work resulted in replacing both the DSA and WDS standard and creating just one! Launching the new Core TrustSeal Certification, Ingrid then explored the question of why invest in certification, covering issues of stakeholder confidence, raising digital preservation awareness, improving communications and workflows.
We then moved away from repository certification to FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Re-usable). Ingrid noted that is achieved with a trusted repository but the levels of FAIRness vary from data set to data set, so she asked the questions of how to operationalise FAIR? The work that is currently being undertaken is to try and set the FAIR principles as quality criteria, and to then operationalise these principles. A new badge scheme was put forward as a data set assessment tool based on - F + A + I = R:
The keynote ended with a discussion on the relation between FAIR and OPEN data as there is still confusion. Ingrid put forward work on developing levels of openness. This work has been spurred with the introduction of the new European Law - General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This new law will have implications on sharing data. Work is underway building on the work of Harvard to look at the use of Data Tags in an attempt to respond to this new Law. This work has 6 different levels of openness which can be applied to data as a way to manage personal data. Its not yet clear how GDPR will unfold and impact on repostories but this is one to watch.