Initial thoughts on discussing FAIR

For discussion & comment regarding #1290

proposals/SDWBP FAIR thoughts.asciidoc

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+= Spatial Data on the Web Best Practice:  2021/2022 revision
+
+Thoughts on including mention of FAIR Principles
+
+Peter Parslow, December 2021
+
+Some resources, linked at
+https://github.com/w3c/sdw/issues/1290#issuecomment-993701139[[SDW Best
+Practices Update: Add FAIR principles to the document · Issue #1290 ·
+w3c/sdw (github.com)]
+
+Idea: scatter references through the Best Practice, as well as having a
+section that draws bits together
+
+== BP 1 Introduction 
+
+https://w3c.github.io/sdw/bp/#intro[Spatial Data on the Web Best
+Practices (w3c.github.io)]
+
+Add
+
+“Following these guidelines should result in your data fitting more with
+the FAIR Principles.”
+
+== BP 3 Scope
+
+https://w3c.github.io/sdw/bp/#scope[Spatial Data on the Web Best
+Practices (w3c.github.io)]
+
+Add new sub-section
+
+=== 3.x FAIR Principles
+
+The FAIR Principles are described at
+https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/[FAIR Principles - GO FAIR
+(go-fair.org)]; they are widely adopted (or at least aimed for) when
+publishing scientific data including environmental and earth observation
+data. Although the FAIR principles concentrate on machine readable data,
+whilst these best practices also cover “data for humans”, there is a lot
+of overlap between the FAIR Principles and the best practices described
+in this paper. However, there have also been some suggestions for
+improvement on the FAIR principles, and these are also discussed in this
+section.
+
+==== Findable
+
+https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/fair-data-principles-explained/f1-meta-data-assigned-globally-unique-persistent-identifiers/[F1.
+(Meta)data are assigned a globally unique and persistent identifier] is
+partially fulfilled by Best Practice 1
+
+https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/fair-data-principles-explained/f2-data-described-rich-metadata/[F2.
+Data are described with rich metadata] is a close match to Best Practice
+13
+
+https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/f3-metadata-clearly-explicitly-include-identifier-data-describe/[F3.
+Metadata clearly and explicitly include the identifier of the data they
+describe] is fulfilled by using the standard described in Best Practice
+13
+
+https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/f4-metadata-registered-indexed-searchable-resource/[F4.
+(Meta)data are registered or indexed in a searchable resource] – the
+context of these best practices is publication on the web, which is by
+definition a searchable resource – which is acknowledged in F4! It is
+also supported by Best Practice 2.
+
+Taken together, following these best practice guidelines covers the F in
+the FAIR Principles. It should result in it being easier for potential
+users to find your data.
+
+==== Accessible
+
+“Once the user finds the required data, she/he/they need to know how can
+they be accessed, possibly including authentication and authorisation.”
+
+https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/542-2/[A1. (Meta)data are
+retrievable by their identifier using a standardised communications
+protocol] is satisfied by publishing the data and metadata on the web.
+
+https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/a2-metadata-accessible-even-data-no-longer-available/[A2.
+Metadata are accessible, even when the data are no longer available] –
+this is not covered in this best practice (because once the data is not
+available on the web, this BP no longer applies?)
+
+==== Interoperable
+
+https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/i1-metadata-use-formal-accessible-shared-broadly-applicable-language-knowledge-representation/[*I1*.
+(Meta)data use a formal, accessible, shared, and broadly applicable
+language for knowledge representation.]
+
+This covers (minimally) data formats, for which see Best Practice 4
+(DWBP 14), but also commonly used controlled vocabularies and “a good
+data model”. (_Is there a SDWBP/DWBP for this? There is a little bit
+about vocabs for the geometry, and some of the metadata standards allow
+reference to vocab & data model)_
+
+https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/i2-metadata-use-vocabularies-follow-fair-principles/[*I2*.
+(Meta)data use vocabularies that follow FAIR principles]
+
+https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/i3-metadata-include-qualified-references-metadata/[*I3*.
+(Meta)data include qualified references to other (meta)data] is similar
+to Best Practice 3 and Best Practice 10.
+
+==== Reusable
+
+https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/r1-metadata-richly-described-plurality-accurate-relevant-attributes/[R1.
+(Meta)data are richly described with a plurality of accurate and
+relevant attributes]
+
+https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/r1-1-metadata-released-clear-accessible-data-usage-license/[R1.1.
+(Meta)data are released with a clear and accessible data usage license]
+
+https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/r1-2-metadata-associated-detailed-provenance/[R1.2.
+(Meta)data are associated with detailed provenance]
+
+https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/r1-3-metadata-meet-domain-relevant-community-standards/[R1.3.
+(Meta)data meet domain-relevant community standards]
+
+_I’m not so sure of the match(es) here_
+
+==== FAIR Challenges/extensions
+
+A – human accessibility
+
+The crawlers that search engine providers use to index the web are
+trained to look for human readable information. So the more “human
+readable” your metadata is, the more likely you are to be found in web
+searches – whether by humans or machines.
+
+When publishing data on the web, take account of web accessibility
+guidelines. It is currently challenging to make web visualisations of
+geospatial data accessible to assistive technology. _“Maps on the Web”
+is looking at this?_
+
+Q – quality
+
+No matter how easy it is to find, access, and even use your data, it is
+of little use unless it is of sufficient quality for the user’s task.
+However, what is “good” for one task is not necessarily “good” for
+another.
+
+There are a variety of approaches in use to try to match users with data
+that will be useful to them. These range from telling the user a lot
+about the quality of the data to telling them what you (& others) have
+successfully used it for.
+
+_Do we need a whole new section on (reporting) data quality?_