By Stefania Merlo
MAEASaM Project Manager
McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge
“Knowledge is open if anyone is free to access, use, modify, and
share it — subject, at most, to measures that preserve provenance and openness.”
In the past two decades terms such as Open Data, Open and Free Software and OpenTools have become increasingly popular. They are linked to the paradigm of open knowledge and are seen as the foundation of democratisation of information. They offer opportunities to promote transparency of government and institutions, participation and efficiency as well as to provide a sustainable ecosystem to accelerate innovation and generation of new knowledge. It is this innovation and knowledge that can help solve societal challenges, from climate mitigation to sustainable development. But what do these terms really mean?
As we reflect on what open data and technologies are and in particular on how open geospatial tools and data for heritage documentation and preservation are used in the MAEASaM project, we take an opportunity to share some of the core concepts of the Open Knowledge Foundation and Open Movement.
Open Data
“Open data and content can be freely used, modified, and shared by anyone for any purpose.”
The full Open Definition offers precise details as to what ‘open’ means with respect to knowledge. In summary, in order for data to be classified as being ‘open data’, the data should be:
- Available: under an open (data) licence that permits anyone freely to access data as a whole and in a convenient and modifiable form for all users.
- Affordable: price should not be a barrier to entry and should only be used as a means to subsidise the cost of the data reproduction and dissemination channels.
- Usable and re-usable: data should be in a format that enables even non-technical users to make effective use of the data.
The FAIR guiding principles for scientific data management and stewardship – Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability, published in 2016 and cited by Daniel Löwenborg in his article in this newsletter, have been inspired by Open Science, although they explicitly and deliberately do not address moral and ethical issues pertaining to the openness of data.
Free and Open Source Software
Some software has source code that only the person, team, or organisation who created it and maintains exclusive control over – it can modify. People call this kind of software “proprietary” or “closed source” software. Examples are Microsoft Office, Google Earth Pro, ESRI ArcGIS.
Free and open source software (FOSS) is an umbrella term for software that is simultaneously considered both free software and open source software. In a broad sense FOSS allows the user to access and inspect the source code, which is openly shared and provides high levels of control of the software’s function. Examples of FOSS are Open Office, QGIS and GRASS. Although the terms ‘open source’ and ‘free software’ stand for almost the same range of programs and licences, there are strong philosophical disagreements between the advocates of the two positions.
The term Open Source refers to software for which the source code is available under an open licence. The full definition, which extends beyond access to the source code, is published by the Open Source Initiative and contains ten criteria that regulate the compliance of the software. These include free redistribution; the requirement of the program to include source code; the guarantee of the integrity of the author’s source code; and non discrimination against persons, groups or fields of endeavour, amongst others. Whilst the terms ‘open source’ and ‘free software’ stand for almost the same range of programs, Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation in 1985, and other authors have argued that the open source idea is mainly practical, whilst the free software movement campaigns for freedom of the users of computing. This is to be distinguished from the idea of free as free of charge. ‘Free software’ means software that respects users’ freedom and community. Roughly, it means that the users have the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. Thus, ‘free software’ is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of ‘free’ as in ‘free speech,’ not as in ‘free beer.’ (https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html).
Contributions to this issue
We open the third issue of our newsletter with a contribution that summarises our first journal article published in January 2022 in the Open Access journal ‘Remote Sensing’. In this research the Google Earth Engine platform (free of charge but not FOSS) and free remote sensing imagery from the Landsat series were used to assess Land Use Land Cover changes in an Eastern African semi-arid region and demonstrate how they have impacted pastoralist bio-cultural heritage preservation. The interview with Serena Coetzee and the article by Daniel Löwenborg offer respectively some reflections on the growth of spatial data accessibility. Both highlight the impacts of this availability in understanding near-real time phenomena in almost any area of application. The article by Daniel Löwenborg also provides an insight into cultural heritage informatics via a detailed description of the GeoPackage format. Security is an important aspect of sharing information and one of the main challenges of opening data. Our database developer Mahmoud Abdelrazek reflects on the technology behind our website www.maeasam.org. Lastly, two contributions are made by the MAEASaM social media team and by the Arches database development working group. All these contributions reflect the project’s commitment to the dissemination of information on our project and on the diverse archaeological heritage of Africa, as openly as possible.