It is not that often that members of the CKAN community have the opportunity to get together in person. Which is why Link Digital was thrilled to be able to lead a special in-person workshop as part of the pre-conference events around the csv,conf,v9 conference, in mid-September, in Bologna, Italy.
The workshop welcomed participants from diverse backgrounds — not just developers, but also policymakers, librarians, researchers, and civic leaders — reflecting the spirit of csv,conf as a community-driven event focused on real-world impact
According to Ian Ward , who, along with Adrià Mercader represented Link Digital at the gathering, csv.conf is different to a lot of ‘big data’ conferences that are dominated by vendors and sales people.
So much important work is done at a smaller scale: spreadsheets and data that can fit on a laptop. People attending csv,conf appreciate simple, accessible technologies like csv for interoperable data sharing and make up a great community.
This year’s conference theme, ‘Data for Communities’, resonates deeply with Link Digital’s mission: building digital infrastructure that empowers governments, researchers, and communities to make data truly useful and usable.
Which made it a perfect forum for Link Digital to talk about the Comprehensive Knowledge Archive Network – CKAN.
In addition to a general overview of CKAN, the workshop included:
- A roadmap and vision for CKAN’s future evolution, leading to the software’s next major release, CKAN 3.0.
- Short presentations into features, deployments, and community initiatives.
- An update on phase two of the Pathways to Enable Open-Source Ecosystems or POSE project. This is focused on how the CKAN’s effectiveness as an open data platform could be strengthened, and the steps necessary to adequately support CKAN’s maintenance and ensure the needs of all users are integrated into technical modifications going forward.
- A Q&A and breakout sessions with CKAN maintainers and contributors
The in-person workshop will be soon available to watch in full on Link Digital’s YouTube channel.
CKAN had a high profile elsewhere throughout the conference.
CKAN was mentioned multiple times in talks at the conferences, it was great to see the understanding of the importance of good metadata and data publishing tools,” Ian says. “CKAN has an opportunity to help deliver data interoperability and reusability especially in the growing areas of data use like machine learning.
CKAN’s profile shows it is
a well-established and a critical part of the data ecosystem,
Adrià commented.
During conversations throughout the conference the topic of having good quality data easily available came up time and time again, and I think that CKAN needs to be the reference tool to make that happen.
Want to talk about CKAN? Get in touch with the Link Digital team today.
