[Comments-odi-datasets-metadata-11jun18] MY COMMENTS ON: Open Data Initiative Datasets and Metadata

[Wisdom Donkor]

My name is Wisdom Donkor,  i am from Ghana and an engineer by profession
with specialization in E-government Networks and Infrastructure, Internet
Governance, Open  Government Data Policies platforms and community
development, Geospatial technology, Software Engineering, Databases, Human
Resource Planning and Development and Open Source Technology. I have
organize and facilitated many workshops, forums, and main sessions within
IGF and outside of IGF. I have also facilitated many SDG data road maps
forums in Ghana and few other parts of Africa.  I work for government and
also  i also Co-Founded African Open Data and Internet Research Foundation
(AFRIODIRF). I have been an ICANN Fellow and Coach Since ICANN 49 and also
a member of  NCSG, NCUC and AFRALO and also belong to few of the working
groups within ICANN.

I am commenting in my individual capacity.

Asset and value potentials of data are widely recognized at all levels.
Data collected or developed through public investments, when made publicly
available and maintained over time, their potential value could be more
fully realized. There has been an increasing demand by the community, that
such updated data collected should be made more readily available to all,
for enabling rational debate, increase transparency better decision making
and use in meeting civil society and  needs. Efficient sharing of data
among data owners and inter-and-intra agencies along with data standards
and interoperable systems is the need of the hour. Hence, there is the
need to formulate a policy on ICANN data Sharing and Accessibility which
could provide an enabling provision and platform for proactive and open
access to the data generated through ICANN funds available with various
communities.


ICANN OPEN DATA POLICY should aims at providing an enabling provision and
platform for proactive and open access to the data generated by various
communities within ICANN. The objective of this policy is to facilitate
access to ICANN owned shareable data (along with its usage information) in
machine readable form globally in a periodically updatable manner, within
the framework of various related policies, acts and rules of open data
accepted policy, thereby permitting a wider accessibility and usage by the
public.

Different types of datasets generated both in geospatial and non-spatial
form by communities within ICANN are supposed to be classified as shareable
data and nonshareable data. Data management should encompass the systems
and processes that ensure data integrity, data storage and security,
including metadata, data security and access registers. The principles on
which ICANN data sharing and accessibility should be based should include:
Openness, Flexibility, Transparency, Quality, Security and Machinereadable.


*Identification of Resources (Datasets/Apps) and their organization under
Catalogs*

As per open data policy, I expect ICANN communities to prepare it’s
Negative List. The datasets which are confidential in nature and are in the
interest of the global security is not opening to the public would fall
into the negative list. However, all other datasets which do not fall under
this negative list would be in the Open List. These datasets would need to
be prioritized into high value datasets and non-high value datasets.

The data which are contributed to the ICANN OPEN DATA INITIATIVE Platform  have
to be in the specified open data format only. The data have to be
internally processed to ensure that the quality standard is met i.e.
accuracy, free from any sort of legal issues, privacy of an individual is
maintained and does not compromise with any national authority. While
prioritizing the release of datasets, one should try to publish as many
high value datasets. Grouping of Related Resources (Datasets/Apps) should
be planned and are to be organized under Catalogs. That way assessing
becomes more easier.

I expect that, each communities within ICANN or ICANN data controllers
sshould have its own criterion of high value and low value datasets,
generally High value data are governed by following Principles

*Completeness *

2. Primary

3. Timeliness

4. Ease of Physical and Electronic Access

5. Machine readability 6. Non-discrimination

7. Use of Commonly Owned Standards

8. Licensing

9. Permanence

10. Usage Costs


*Data Formats*

I will recommend that data has to be published in open format. It should be
machine readable. Though there are many formats suitable to different
category of data. Based on current analysis of data formats prevalent in
Government it is proposed that data should be published in any of the
following formats:

·        CSV (Comma separated Values)

·        XLS (spread sheet- Excel)

·        ODS (Open Document Formats for Spreadsheet)

·        XML (Extensive Markup Language)

·        RDF (Resources Description Framework)

·        KML (Keyhole Markup Language used for Maps)

·        GML (Geography Markup Language)

·        RSS/ATOM (Fast changing data e.g. hourly/daily)



Rate of all data sets should meet the Tim Berners-Lee 5 star data
clasification.
<https://www.google.com/search?q=tim+berners+lee+5+stars+open+data&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwibo6DI8d_bAhUJJcAKHVtBAPwQ_AUICigB&biw=1602&bih=796#imgrc=1nw1OIVHD4ZohM:>



*he ICANN open data initiative platform*

ICANN Open Data Initiative Platform should be setup with the primary
purpose to collate access to ICANN Resources (datasets/apps) under
Catalogs, published by different ICANN communities or entities in open
format. It also provides a search & discovery mechanism for instant access
to desired datasets. The Platform should also have a rich mechanism for
public engagement. Besides enabling public to express their need for
specific resource (datasets or apps) or API, it also should allow pubic
rate the quality of datasets; seek clarification or information from
respective Data Officer or data controller. The platform should have a
strong backend data management system that can be used by Communities or
entities within ICANN to publish their datasets through a predefined
workflow. The platform should be integrated with visualization engine to
allow the creation and viewing of visualization of the various datasets.
The platform should have a dashboard to see the current status on datasets,
visualizations, usage Metrics or analytics as well as feedback and queries
from the public.

ICANN should encourage the integration of  Communities component of the
platform which that will help facilitates the forming of communities around
published ICANN datasets. Example or could be app developers’ community
etc. This will give first hand input to development community for building
new components, apps for the various ICANN communities for effective ICANN
engagement. The key features to consider are listed below:

 · Open Source Driven – Developed completely using Open Source Stack,
facilitating cost saving in terms of software and licenses and also
provisioning community participation in terms of further development of
product with modules of data visualization, consumption, APIs to access
datasets etc.

· Metadata – Resources (Datasets/Apps) shoulb be published along with
standard metadata along with controlled vocabularies on various
communities, jurisdictions, dataset types, access mode etc. Besides
facilitating easy access to datasets, this should be extremely useful in
the future for integration of data catalogs.

· Social Media Connect–IT should support wider reach and dissemination of
datasets, anyone can share the information about any dataset published on
the platform with his/her social media pages on a press of a click.

· Public  Engagement – The Platform should have a strong component of
public Engagement. Public can express their views as well as rate the
datasets w.r.t three aspects (Quality, Accessibility and Usability) on the
scale of 5. They can also embed the Resources (Datasets/Apps) in their
blogs or web sites. Facility to contact the Data Officers should also be
made available on the Platform.

· Community Collaboration – Public with specific interest can build
communities and discuss online. ICANN open data policy and Platform should
facilitate  communities to open up online forums, blogs and discussions
around various datasets, apps available on the platform. It also should
provides a platform to express and discuss the kind of Datasets, APPs &
APIs they would like to have. It should also give input to communities or
entities as what kind of datasets is more useful and accordingly prioritize
the release of those datasets.



*Metadata Elements for Catalogs/Resources and their Description*

1.      *Catalog Title (Required):* The title of the dataset is very
important aspect of the dataset

*Description (Required):* Provide a detailed description of the catalog
e.g., an abstract determining the nature and purpose of the catalog.

*Keywords (Required):* It is a list of terms, separated by commas,
describing and indicating at the content of the catalog. Example: rainfall,
weather, monthly statistics.

*Group Name:* This should be an optional field to provide a Group Name to
multiple catalogs in order to show that they may be presented as a group or
a set.

*Community name (Required):* Choose the Communities/entities those most
closely appleis to your catalog.

*Asset Jurisdiction (Required):* This is a required field to identify the
exact location or area to which the catalog and resources (dataset/apps)
caters to viz. entire country, state/province, district, city, etc.

*2.  ** Resources (Datasets/Apps)*

*Category (Required):* Choose from the drop down options. Is it a Dataset
or an Application.

*Title (Required):* A unique name of the resource etc.

*Access Method (Required):* This could be “Upload a Dataset” or “Single
Click Link to Dataset”.

*Reference URLs:* This could include description to the study design,
instrumentation, implementation, limitations, and appropriate use of the
dataset or tool. In the case of multiple documents or URLs, please delimit
with commas or enter in separate lines.

* If Resource Category is Dataset

*Frequency (Required):* This should mentions the time interval over which
the dataset is published on the ICANN Open Data Platform on a regular
interval (one-time, annual, hourly, etc.).

*Granularity of Data:* This should mentions the time interval over which
the data inside the dataset is collected/ updated on a regular basis
(one-time, annual, hourly, etc.)

Access Type: This should mentions the type of access viz. Open, Priced,
Registered Access or Restricted Access.

** If Resource Category is App *

*App Type (Required):* This should mention the type of App being
contributed viz. Web App, Web Service, Mobile App, Web Map Service, RSS,
APIs etc.

*Datasets Used:* Datasets used for making this app.

*Language:* Language used for app

*Date Released:* Should mention the release date of the Dataset/App.

*Note:* Should capture any information the contributor/controller wishes to
provide to the data consumer or about the resource.

ICANN OPEN DATA Policy Compliance: This field should indicate if this
dataset is in conformity with the with the ICANN Open Data Sharing and
Access Policy.

*Capacity Building*

Finally ICANN should make it possible to build the capacity of the data
controllers with the ICANN communities.  I will recommend two types of
training modules both as offsite and onsite models should be envisaged.
Each module would be for the duration of 2-3 days and should be within
ICANN events. The modules would be:

· *Awareness and Sensitization Module* – for Data Officer or Controlers &
other senior officers of the of the Communities

· *Data Contribution Module* – hands-on training for contributing datasets
to the ICANN Open Data Initiative Platform, provide advisory on conversion
of data to digital format to Data Contributors and Members of ICANN
Communities.

I have work with the US government open data team, world bank open data
team, Africa Open data collaborative, Open Data Institute, Open Data
Canada, Global Open Data in Agriculture and Nutrition, India Open Data
team, World Wide Web Foundation. I will be more than happy to contribute my
time to this laudable initiative anytime any day.

Thank you,


*WISDOM DONKOR (S/N Eng.)*
*Africa Open Data and Internet Research Foundation (Co-Founder)*
E-government, Internet Governance & Open Government Data and platforms
Specialist
ICANN Fellow / UN IGF MAG Member, ISOC Member,
Freedom Online Coalition (FOC) Member, Diplo Foundation Member,
OGP Open Data WG Member, GODAN Member.
National SDG's data Roadmaps Advisory Board Member, Ghana
Ghana Energy Data Task-force Member
Ghana OGP Advisory Committee Member
Email: wisdom.dk at gmail.com
Skype: wisdom_dk
facebook: Kwasi Wisdom
Linkdin: Kwasi Wisdom
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