This course will become read-only in the near future. Tell us at community.p2pu.org if that is a problem.
Understand the difference between closed and open data, and know how to identify each one in the wild.
Before we start searching for or playing with data, it helps to understand the copyright and licensing rules that apply to data and databases.
The following two resources will give a useful introduction to copyright and licensing for data. Review each one, and then ask questions or make comments.
1) The Guide to Open Data Licensing provides an overview of the different rules on copyright in data and databases by region. Different countries have different laws about data. http://opendefinition.org/guide/data/
2) The Creative Commons and Data FAQ introduces Creative Commons licenses for data, and explains how to determine what uses you can make of a particular database. http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Data.
I'm not sure these are the right two resources to use, I just wanted to throw this together to see what it looks like. Other suggestions for which resources we should have people read as introductions to data licensing would be most welcome.
