On Tuesday 26 June, I was invited to participate in the CASRAI UK Reconnect 2018 conference, at the Grosvenor Hilton Hotel, Glasgow. The breakout session, ‘Dataset Licensing’, offered participants an opportunity to discuss this increasingly challenging issue, which has particular relevance to those working in the area of Research Administration. Alongside Valerie McCutcheon, Research Information Manager (University of Glasgow), I led discussion around terminology, selected from the CASRAI dictionary and identified as potentially problematic, and offered expertise where issues touched on law and copyright.
Among these, the term ‘dataset’ predominated, with participants noting that the term was often misunderstood and that datasets themselves were hugely complex to manage. There was also discussion around the subject of the term ‘personal data’, with participants noting the impact of recent GDPR legislation and questioning the different legal and ethical treatment of ‘personal data’ within a research environment.
This event provided a welcome and timely introduction to the third in the series of Data Licensing workshops: ‘Choose the Right Rights, Use the Data Right’ which took place on Friday 29 June 2018, in the Grosvenor Hilton Hotel. That event was the third in a series of workshops, run in collaboration between CREATe and the Research Information Management team at University of Glasgow, and supported by JISC. An update from the event will follow soon.