David Kernohan: Open data is about more than a licence | Wonkhe | Comment

"The release of the “Higher Education Student Statistics: UK, 2016/2017” (Statistical First Release 247) by HESA was accompanied around the sector by a series of sudden sharp intakes of breath in institutional data offices. It represents a brave and bold move into new ways of presenting and sharing data, and showed off a new format that will delight some and disappoint others. In this article I look at what has changed, and why.

The dash for designation. In applying for Designated Data Body status in England, HESA has made a move towards offering “open data”, suggesting that “From 2021 all of our publications will be available in open data format, allowing additional access to the information we enrich.” The Open Data Institute defines open data as “data that anyone can access, use or share,” which sounds like a pretty good thing. In many cases, though, open data has simply meant data that is available under an open (usually Creative Commons) licence – good to have legal clarity, but not at all the same as providing easily usable data.. HESA should be lauded for making this move for SFR248, but it is only a starting point...."