(Veröffentlicht am 23.06.2022) The European Commission has presented a draft implementing regulation regarding the availability of public datasets. [1] As part of a feedback process, the sections Ethical, Legal & Social Aspects (ELSA), Common Infrastructures (infra) and (Meta)data, Terminologies and Provenance (meta) commented on the EU draft. The statement is the first that several sections have jointly drafted.
The Open Data Implementing Regulation aims to make publicly funded information more discoverable in order to promote innovation and new technical possibilities, e.g. in the field of artificial intelligence. Accordingly, the Open Data draft includes a list of high-quality datasets that are in the public domain and offer many opportunities for knowledge generation for society, business and academia. NFDI welcomes the Open Data draft, although some aspects of the proposal need further clarification from NFDI’s point of view, e.g.- The design of the definition around open data, machine readability or data structure, because machine readability in particular is an insufficient criterion for demarcation, as both structured and unstructured data can be machine readable.
- Accordingly, “high-value” data should be provided in structured form if possible and distinguished from unstructured data. Indispensable for the re-use and context creation of open data are linked data from multiple actors, so that they create traceability, transparency and interoperability of different data sets.
- The Annex clarifies the list of specific high-value datasets, with NFDI proposing further criteria for the publication of certain datasets, e.g. for meteorological, statistical and business datasets.
- Responsibilities for effective data access and provision need to be clarified so that there are contact points to ensure a smooth process. Here, the author team of NFDI has added a proposal for Art. 3 IV.
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NFDI would like to thank the Council for the numerous valuable impulses that emerged from the report and very much welcomes the recommendation for the further funding and organisation of the network.
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