Open Access 2017: Making Use of Public Data

Open Access Symposium 2017 #UNTOA17

About

UNT's Open Acccess Symposium 2017 was held the May 18–19 at the University of North Texas New College at Frisco.

The 2017 theme was Making Use of Public Data. It's easier than ever to gather datasets, documents, analytics, and other types of data and use these for academic research, competitive intelligence, and advocacy. While the government provides data of great value to citizens, companies, and organizations, currently much of the web and social media is also publicly available, providing additional sources of data that have been used, sometimes contrary to the intentions of content creators. This year's symposium will examine issues arising from the creation, harvesting, and analysis of public data—and decision-making based on the data—taking a broad view of what kinds of data are “public.”

Attendees were also invited to attend #DataRescueDenton, held Saturday, May 20, in nearby Denton.

News and Announcements

Slides and videos of presentations at UNT's Open Access Symposium 2017 are now available. Click on the title of a session in the program to find the links.

#DataRescueDenton will be held on Saturday, May 20, in Denton, just after the Open Access Symposium 2017 in Frisco. #DataRescueDenton is an opportunity for programmers, scientists, archivists, activists, and volunteers of all kinds to identify, back-up, and help preserve publicly accessible federal data resources in the public interest, in the event they are removed from public view and use. We will hear from experts on the challenges of preserving born-digital at-risk data and related issues followed by breakout sessions for the hack-a-thon.

If you'll be traveling to North Texas for the symposium, please consider attending the DataRescue event as well!  We'll help arrange for people to get from Frisco to Denton.

Registration is now open for the UNT Open Access Symposium 2017, to be held May 18-19 in Frisco, Texas.  We have a nearly final program online, plus information on travel and accommodation and on child care.

Early registration closes April 30.  We hope to see you next month!

We are still finalizing the program for this year's Open Access Symposium.  The symposium will begin on Thursday, May 18, with a workshop on OpenRefine from 12 to 1:30 p.m. and then a workshop on using US Census data from 2 to 5 p.m. Friday features presentations and panel discussions from approximately 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. A single registration fee will cover attendance on both days.

The full schedule, plus information on hotels and registering, will be available shortly!

Plans are coming together for Making Use of Public Data, this year's UNT Open Access Symposium, to be held May 18–19, 2017, at the UNT New College at Frisco.

We are pleased to announce Bernard F. Reilly, president of the Center for Research Libraries, as the keynote speaker and Safiya U. Noble, a faculty member in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA, as this year's featured speaker. The symposium will also include a number of panel discussions with representatives of government agencies that provide data, libraries that preserve and provide access to it, and users of state and local data.

Early-bird registration of $80 per person and will include participation in workshops on Thursday, May 18, and the main day of symposium presentations on Friday, May 19.

Participants are also invited to join DataRescue Denton on Saturday, May 20.

A full program and information about registration are coming soon!