Data, software and interoperability
Open data licences
Attribution and share-alike licences that govern reuse of open products.
We design and operate.
Creative Commons BY 4.0 · ODbL 1.0 · Open Government Licence – Canada 2.0
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Data & licensing/
ResidencyWhere data lives, fixed by contract.
Residency, inside Data & licensing: open data licences, data and code licence identifiers, FAIR data practice, indigenous data governance and more. Every item is traced to its specification, from Creative Commons BY 4.0 to ODbL 1.0, and runs on the open Observatory Protocol.
Plan with usArchitectureThe protocol- Technologies
- 9
- At the frontier
- 1
- Protocol functions
- 3 of 8
- Industries served
- 19
Reference design, drawn to scale · drag to turn · hover a part
01What it is
Licensing, residency and governance.
How observations move from the edge into stores, catalogues and APIs with their provenance, licence and residency attached, and how they interoperate through open standards and the open Observatory Protocol. Each technology below carries what it is, what we do with it, and the standard it is drawn against.
Data, software and interoperability
Data and code licence identifiers
Standard identifiers so every dataset and package states its licence unambiguously.
We design and operate.
SPDX License List · CDLA-Permissive-2.0
Data, software and interoperability
FAIR data practice
Making data findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable.
We design and operate.
FAIR Guiding Principles (Wilkinson et al., 2016)
Data, software and interoperability
Indigenous data governance
Respecting Indigenous rights to own, control, access and possess data about their lands and communities.
We design, operate and support.
OCAP principles (First Nations Information Governance Centre) · CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance
Data, software and interoperability
Data residency by contract
Storing and processing data in contracted jurisdictions with recorded locations and key custody.
We design and operate.
Treasury Board of Canada Policy on Service and Digital · ISO/IEC 27018 (PII in public clouds)
Data, software and interoperability
Cross-border transfer rules
Conditions under which personal and regulated data may leave a jurisdiction.
We design and support.
Regulation (EU) 2016/679, Chapter V · Regulation (EU) 2023/2854 (Data Act)
Data, software and interoperability
Data sharing agreements
Agreements that set purpose, access, retention and onward sharing between parties.
We design and support.
ISO/IEC 38505-1 (governance of data)
Frontier · Data, software and interoperability
Data spaces
Federated sharing where each party keeps control and usage policies travel with the data.
We design and integrate.
Eclipse Dataspace Protocol · IDSA Rulebook
Data, software and interoperability
Time-series stores
Stores optimised for high-rate, append-mostly observations with downsampling and retention.
We design, integrate and operate.
OGC TimeseriesML 1.0 · OGC WaterML 2.0 Part 1
02Architecture
Where it sits, and what it speaks.
Residency draws on 1 domain and 8 layers of the spectrum; the highlighted layers carry this area. It speaks 3 of the protocol’s 8 core functions.
Ingest and streaming
8
Storage and data lakes
6
Metadata, provenance and catalogues
8
Open standards and interoperability
7
APIs and SDKs
7
Licensing, residency and governance
8
Digital twins and observability
7
Open protocol interfaces and federation
8
01JoinIdentity, attestation quote, signed policy.
02AdmitAdmitted for a stated scope, nothing wider.
03DescribeWhat, where, how and by whom, with calibration.
04TimeOne clock across the grid, with its error bound.
05ObserveEvery value with quality and provenance.
06QualifyTested against the specification, state on record.
07FederateSigned exchange across grids and trust domains.
08OrchestrateSoftware and configuration by signed plan.
03On the grid
Every site joins one observing grid.
The open networks on the grid today, over real relief and the geodesic cells we count them into. A site built here enrols into the same grid.
04In the field
Where this runs, sector by sector.
5 deployment scenarios from the sector research that rely on residency.
Government and public safetyUrban street-flood sensor network
Open-hardware depth sensors with open data and alerts to emergency management.Communities and ruralIndigenous-owned community cellular
Unused 800 MHz and 1900 MHz spectrum through an access-licensing framework with a priority window for Indigenous applicants.ScientificCitizen seismology and school seismographs
Compact seismographs feeding open data networks.Environment and climateBiodiversity measurement with acoustics and camera traps
Acoustic baselines as a biodiversity data source; no registry methodology accepting acoustic data was found.EnergyBankable solar and wind measurement campaigns
Accepted standards, traceable calibration and transparent data handling.05Open and enterprise
Open by default. Enterprise by contract.
The open counterpart lives on the main site for anyone to read and run. The enterprise service is designed, deployed and operated with you, under contract.
Open, on the main site
- Open tier
- Dataset cards
Enterprise, on this site
- Paid tiers
- Residency by contract
06The rest of the line
Data & licensing, area by area.
Data & licensingProducts
Observations, derived layers and evidence.Data & licensingTiers
Research, commercial, enterprise, government.Data & licensingAPI
One interface for every product.Data & licensingPublication
Routes from licensed to open release.Bring us the site.
Survey, design, deployment and operation for residency. The form names who receives your details.
Talk to uscontact@observatory.global