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Weekly News Digest
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March 22, 2016 — In addition to this week's NewsBreaks article and the monthly NewsLink Spotlight, Information Today, Inc. (ITI) offers Weekly News Digests that feature recent product news and company announcements. Watch for additional coverage to appear in the next print issue of Information Today. For other up-to-the-minute news, check out ITI’s Twitter account: @ITINewsBreaks.
CLICK HERE to view more Weekly News Digest items.
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SPECIAL REPORT: Open Data Day
This year’s Sunshine Week (March 13–19) was preceded by celebrations on Open Data Day (March 5). A wiki promoted worldwide events (e.g., workshops and hackathons) that showcased in-progress projects and datasets. For example:- GovEx presented a series of challenges to create guides that might help the international open data community determine “what works.” It also offered links to local events around the nation.
- Open Data Day DC occurred over 2 days (March 4–5) and featured workshops, projects, and an opportunity to post ideas for future work (“Somebody ought to …”).
- California officials celebrated California Data Demo Day (March 1) by showcasing state data transparency projects while identifying open data challenges that remain: “funding, infrastructure and culture change,” according to Government Technology.
On March 7, the Obama administration introduced the Opportunity Project, a new open data portal that combines data from a variety of federal agencies, not-for-profit organizations, companies, and online tools to give communities insights into jobs, transportation, housing, and school districts. “Officials are also using the White House announcement event as a call to action for communities to build upon the tools released [March 7]. All of the data sets and services have been posted on open source code management platform GitHub,” FedScoop notes. Building on the Open Access Button, the Open Data Button (initially only for Chrome) helps “people find, release, and share the data behind papers. … When you need the data supporting a paper (even if it’s behind a paywall), push the Button. If the data has already been made available through the Open Data Button,” you’ll get a link to it. If not, you’ll be able to start a request for the data. “Authors can respond to requests via email simply by attaching files or sharing a URL.” Look for coverage of Sunshine Week in next week’s NewsBreak. —Barbie E. Keiser
Send correspondence concerning the Weekly News Digest to NewsBreaks Editor
Brandi Scardilli
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