This is the second of my introductory pieces about the new tracks in
the upcoming XTech 2005 conference, to be held
in 24-27 May in Amsterdam.
The call for
participation is still
open until January 7th, and I hope that this preview of the track will
provoke more submissions. I've seen a lot of good stuff so far, and
am hoping for more!
Along with browser
technologies
the open data
track is new
for the conference this year.
The first thing to say about this track is that it's not just for
developers. In fact, many of the really interesting issues in
open data are of concern to policy makers and managers as much as
techies.
So what is the open data movement? I've identified several strands
that I see coming together.
- Open government. The provision of data by government allows
citizens to empower themselves, make connections in order to keep
governments accountable, and to enable them to use the data in
original ways to get more value from their tax payments. There are
lots of examples in which this data is being used already by
citizens, including most prominently mapping and electoral
monitoring. For government organisations, there are many policy and
technical decisions to be made around releasing data. Issues at
stake for citizens include campaigning for the freedom of the data
and the ways it which can be used.
- Public web services. Companies like Amazon and Google are
proof that web services can enhance commerce and create meaningful
new markets. For everyone deploying public web services there are
issues of business model and technology choice to face.
- Grassroots data. Technologies such as RSS, geocoding,
FOAF and annotation are giving rise
to an increasing web of data, created by individuals. Is there a
trend, or is the development random? What technologies should we be
watching? What privacy issues are created?
- Scientific and academic publishing. There is an increasing
movement to ensure scientific data and other scholarly works is
widely available, to take advantage of the connected worldwide
academic communities in order to foster progress. Projects at the
forefront of this include Science
Commons, Open Archives
Initiative and
the Open Access
Movement. There
are issues on both sides of the divide. How can publishers who rely
on expensive journals respond to the demand for access to
information? How can academics successfully disseminate their work?
- Intellectual Property. The hottest topic on the internet
this year. Digital rights management. How can artists be paid for
their work without removing steadily more rights from the consumer?
The erosion of fair use. The rise of Creative
Commons.
- Blogging and personal content. As blogs turn from personal
journals to effective means of communication in corporate and
non-profit use, what are the issues? How controlled should blogs
be? Are they sustainable? Which software should we use?
- Semantic web. Tim Berners-Lee's vision of the semantic web
encompasses all of the above topics, but has a hard edge too in the
technologies and standards being developed to underpin the emergent
web of data. Technical aspects of the semantic web will be dealt
with in the Core Technologies and Applications track, but the Open
Data track is the home for policy issues relating to semantic web
development.
These are the main subject areas we're interested in, but it is not an
exclusive list.
If you're working or thinking in any of these areas, don't hesitate to
zip over and submit a
proposal. There's
still a few days left before the end of the CFP. If you want to know
more before you submit then do send me
email. Don't let that stop you
submitting a proposal though. I've had several people worried that
their ideas weren't technical enough: for the Open Data track
especially we want a good mix between technical and higher level
issues, so go for it!
We'll be announcing keynotes for the conference soon, so I won't spoil
the news by leaking it here, but suffice to say we've major players
from the content, browser and software industries. Oh, and they're
interesting too!