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Project Status
Work Package 2 - Informal repositories
Last updated 10 December 2007
Description
Increasing user expectations and personal information management capabilities has meant that there has been a rapid growth in the extent to which 'informal' repositories (such as peer-to-peer, wikis, blogs, ePortfolios) have become implicated in routine workflows. There is a requirement to understand how these repositories function, the role which they play in the wider information landscape and the extent to which such repositories may (or may not) be honouring digital rights. These trends also represent an opportunity to evaluate received wisdom with regard to formal repositories and to experiment with emergent technologies prior to /de facto/ entrenchment of informal practices within the community. This work package will therefore focus on evaluating the extent to which informal repositories are currently used to share geospatial data and also how they might potentially be used to further the goals of geospatial asset repurposing. The overall aim is to ensure that geospatial data is exchanged within a context that permits end user activities to /legitimately/ exploit rights asserted assets. The more popular mechanisms identified will be appraised through experiment by the development of a pilot demonstrator – potential mechanisms range from simple file sharing practices and protocols to peer-to-peer (p2p) solutions.
Work items
- Geospatial Data Sharing in UK Higher Education:
informal repositories and users' perspectives (PDF document, 3.4 MB)
- Findings on survey into Informal data sharing (pdf November 2007)
