Blog post from Chris Keene on the "The Data Imperative: Libraries and Research Data" event held at Oxford in June.

Interesting summaries and comments on speakers - Paul Jeffries, Luis Martinez, Sally Rumsey, Alma Swan, Simon Hodson, Martin Lewis.

MIXED is a project of DANS, Data Archiving and Networked Services. MIXED is to contribute to digital preservation, by dealing with the problem of file formats. Over time, file formats become obsolete. When that happens, the information in such file types is no longer accessible. MIXED follows the strategy of converting files to XML as soon as possible, preferably when data is ingested into the archive. MIXED also converts these XML files to formats of choice by the archive user.

Interesting article about the curation of workflow and the embedded data pipelines - implications for intractable issues surrounding the intractable research data/instrumentation/algorithm conundrum

A succinct summary of the outcome of the UKRDS (UK Research Data Service feasibility study) meeting on 26 February on Neil Beagrie's blog, with links to the executive summary report and presentations from the international set of speakers.

The full event was also blogged extensively by Chris Rusbridge at http://digitalcuration.blogspot.com/2009/02/ukrds-conference-1.html, (see also continuation posts 2, 3, and 4).

Andy Powell's blog, http://efoundations.typepad.com/efoundations/2009/03/a-national-research-data-service-for-the-uk.html, summarises his critical live twittering of the event and includes a number of comments by others.

The Guardian have compiled a Data Store whose aim

“is to make important data more accessible to people.”

It consists of a set of links to data and statistics pertaining to a range of contemporary subjects including: Migration, Education, Health (UK and beyond), Military, Politics, Unemployment, Finance.

Within each data page there’s a link to a Google spreadsheet where you can see, download and manipulate the data.

The accompanying Datablog provides an avenue through which such statistics and data can be discussed.

A fascinating debate has emerged regarding open data licenses. Rufus Pollock from the Open Knowledge Foundation has called into question the stance promoted by John Wilbanks from Open Science Commons and others that a dedication to the public domain is the best way to make your data open. This is a summary of a recent debate that threaded across the Open Knowledge Foundation's mailing list.

Australian Bureau of Statistics is now releasing data and statistical publications with a creative commons license (Attribution 2.5 Australia). The first national statistical agency to do so? Thanks to Kylie Pappalardo from the OAK Law project for sharing this news.

This government document (2007) guides institutions and researchers in responsible research practices, endorsed by both national research funders: National Health and Medical Research Council and the Australian Research Council.

Significantly, it says that INSTITUTIONS MUST: "... have a policy on the retention of materials and research data; ... provide facilities for the safe and secure storage of research data and for maintaining records of where research data is stored; ... have a policy on the ownership of research materials and data during and following the research project; ... have a policy on the ownership of, and access to, databases and archives that is consistent with confidentiality requirements, legislation, privacy rules and other guidelines."

The UK Data Archive have launched a new suite of web pages providing guidance on Data Management and Sharing. The pages aim to provide data creators, data managers and data curators with best practice strategies and methods for creating, preparing and storing shareable datasets. Advice has been divided into a number of key areas or modules providing detailed information on each topic.