Sharing of Urban Dataset Meta-data Series

Currently urban data is created and generated from wide range of sources including physical, digital, environmental, social, and civic. This has led to the creation of disparate urban datasets that are not linked in any way. This has resulted in an ‘awareness problem as vast majority of these datasets “lie fallow” as researchers and practitioners are unaware of its existence let alone its possible relevance. The challenge is how to enable dataset consumers to become aware of the relevant datasets created by dataset producers. Conversely, how can dataset producers make their existence known? To address the urban data awareness problem, many government and non-government organizations have or are working towards the creation of city data repositories. Many cities offer open data portals that make municipal data available for a variety of commercial, social,civic and academic purposes. Some countries have national repositories of urban data, such as the UK’s Urban Big Data Centre, and Australia’s Urban Research Infrastructure Network. The proposed series of Standards will address the following strategic needs: 1. Data Consumers will have the ability to search and discover relevant urban datasets for a variety of academic, government, commercial, social and civic purposes 2. Data Producers will have the capability to communicate the existence and relevance of their content dataset 3. Data Aggregators will have the ability to foster a network of dataset catalogues and will serve as a hub for dataset consumers and producers. The proposed series of Standards will also foster a set of online tools that dataset creators, whether they be in academe, industry, NGOs or government, will use to document and communicate their datasets.