YCC recommends open data | Yale Daily News

"In response to the administration’s recent blocking of course browsing sites like Yale Bluebook Plus and Class Roulette, the Yale College Council recommended Monday that the administration loosen restrictions governing University data and increase transparency concerning Yale’s data policies. The recommendation for open data regulations was featured in one of three separate reports the YCC released Monday. In addition to arguing for clarified open data regulations, the YCC recommended that Yale College implement academic minors based on the results of a fall 2013 YCC academics survey and also suggested extending the deadline for term papers. Students interviewed were largely enthusiastic about the open data recommendations, which they said had a higher chance of making headway with the administration than either academic minors or postponed paper deadlines. While the report commended developers Peter Xu ’14 and Harry Yu ’14 for aspiring to innovate and improve the shopping experience, it added that both the developers and administrators made mistakes — the former in violating data protection regulations established by the University, and the latter in unnecessarily shutting down the site. 'While the concerns raised by the administration were justified, we fault administrators for neglecting to communicate with YCC or other students to better understand the impact of their actions before the sudden shutdown,' the report said. The report suggests that the administration revise its Information Technology Appropriate Use Policy to encourage open data while protecting the University’s copyrights and preventing students from negatively affecting the University. In the event that students violate these regulations, the report advised that planned procedures be followed. In addition, the report recommends the administration refrain from blocking any nonmalware sites. YCC President Danny Avraham ’15 said much of the tension between administrators and students stemmed from a lack of transparency and from divergent perspectives on the issue. Thus, he said, the YCC report also recommends that the University better communicate with developers by appointing an administrative liaison to students, creating a website listing relevant guidelines and outlining which data sets are and are not restricted or prohibited ..."