The standard 'Getting to know CKAN' deck used to give people interested in the CKAN project an overview of what it is and how they might like to get involved.

1. STEVEN DE COSTA
Steering Group Member
@STARL3N
CKAN SYDNEY MEETUP
4 SEPTEMBER 2015

2. Introduction 2
Link Digital
Executive Director
CKAN Association
Steering Group Member
Open Knowledge Australia
Co-Secretary & Treasurer
Data Shades
Founder
GovHack
National Organiser
AWS User Group
CBR Organiser

3. Data portal software:
1. Open Source
2. Large and expanding installation base
within Government worldwide
3. Expanding use cases in the wider data
ecosystem
4. Python web app, PostgreSQL DB
5. Built for machines,
custodians and end users
WHAT IS CKAN?

4. LEARN MORE AT CKAN.org

5. DOWNLOAD FROM github.com/ckan/ckan

6. 1. >> Organisations (optionally with sub-organisations)
2. >> >> Datasets
3. >> >> >> Resources
4. >> Platform Custodian
5. >> >> Organisation Custodian, Editor or Member
6. >> Published or Private datasets
CKAN STRUCTURE

7. 1. >> Constitution
2. >> >> Parliamentary Legislation and Acts (Jurisdiction = Platform)
3. >> >> >> Ministries (Organisation)
4. >> >> >> >> Programs (Sub-Organisations)
5. >> >> >> >> >> Projects (Datasets)
6. >> >> >> >> >> >> Outcomes (Resources)
CKAN USE CASE PARADIGM

8. 1. User registration
2. User management
3. Custodian workflows (manage datasets and data resources)
4. Directory Browse by organisation or group
5. Faceted search for multiple fields (supporting end user discovery)
6. Resource views to preview data (a recently improved feature)
7. Metadata view
CKAN UI

9. 1. Create an organistation (usually done by platform owner)
2. Login as member of organisation
3. Click ‘add dataset’
4. Step 1: Add a title, description and other metadata
5. Step 2: Add resources (links to data or upload data files for hosting)
6. Step 3: Add any additional info
CKAN CUSTODIAN WORKFLOW

10. 1. Title
2. Description: Using markdown as required
3. Keywords: some keywords (or tags) that describe your data.
4. License (required): a dropdown of available licenses for data.gov.au (the default is Creative
Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia)
5. Organisation: a dropdown of organisations you can publish to. Most users can only publish to a
single organisation. This will be automatically filled in.
6. Visibility: whether the dataset will be viewable to all users once complete. The default is private.
7. Geospatial Coverage (required): inherited from organisation metadata this is the area which the
data covers. It can be; a point/polygon (Well-known text); an administrative boundary API; or, a
reference URL (website address) from the National Gazatteer. Gazetteer reference URLs can be
found by searching for a place at http://www.ga.gov.au/place-names/ then clicking through to the
most appropriate location "Reference ID", and then copying and pasting the URL from the page into
the Geospatial field in data.gov.au.
CKAN METADATA FOR DATA.GOV.AU

11. 8. Temporal Coverage From / To (required): the span of time from/to which the data is applicable. If
the data applies only to a single point in time you should only fill in the Temporal Coverage From
field.
9. Language: the language in which the dataset is published. The default is English.
10. Data Status (required): the status of the data with regard to whether it is kept updated (active, yes)
or historic (inactive, no).
11. Update Frequency (required): how often the dataset is updated. Eg: Daily, Weekly, Never. (for
remote machine readable files this field will be used to fetch new versions of this data)
12. Expose User Contact Information: display additional contact information for the dataset.
13. AGIFT Function/Theme: the AGIFT top level government function to which the dataset relates.
14. Publisher: name of Agency/publishing organisation. The default is set to the organisation’s name.
15. Jurisdiction: name of the jurisdiction in which the dataset belongs. The default is set to the
organisation’s jurisdiction.
CKAN METADATA FOR DATA.GOV.AU

12. 1. Join the dev mailing list (monitored by tech team):
https://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/ckan-dev
2. Search Stack overflow under CKAN:
http://stackoverflow.com/search?q=CKAN
3. Check the roadmap on waffle.io:
https://waffle.io/ckan/ideas-and-roadmap
4. Join a tech team meeting:
http://ckan.org/about/technical-team/
WHERE TO GET HELP

13. CKAN API DOCUMENTATION

14. 1. Get JSON-formatted lists of a site’s datasets, groups or other CKAN objects
2. Get a full JSON representation of a dataset, resource or other object
3. Search for packages or resources matching a query
4. Create, update and delete datasets, resources and other objects
5. Get an activity stream of recently changed datasets on a site
CKAN API

15. 1. CKAN as an Information Asset Register
2. FileStore – For hosting of data and resources
3. DataStore - provides a database for structured storage of data together with a powerful Web-
accessible Data API
4. License Selection (machine ready?)
5. Harvesting
A FEW MORE POINTS

16. Delivering the world’s best open
data management system
The purpose of the CKAN Association
is to support sustainable growth and
development of CKAN while also
protecting the interests of the CKAN
community.
The Association values a healthy and
thriving community which continues
to deliver the best open data
management system in the world.
CKAN ASSOCIATION: STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

17. Community interests, or needs, can be generalised as:
1. Users need an enterprise level open data management system tailored to meet their needs
now and into the future.
2. Individual contributors need a project that is rewarding to work for, inclusive and active.
COMMUNITY INTERESTS

18. Who owns or directly manages the CKAN project?
The project, its releases and future direction are cooperatively managed by its community of
users and contributors. Association delegates, staff and office holders may be active within the
project but will exercise no more or less influence than any other contributor or user.
More information about CKAN and how to contribute can be found at CKAN.org.
DELEGATION TO SERVE AND PROTECT

19. What is the current structure of
the CKAN Association?
See http://ckan.org
The steering group carries on a
number of business activities.
This includes raising revenue,
managing resources and directing
projects or programs of activity
relevant to the CKAN Association’s
statement of purpose.
COMPLETENESS OF PURPOSE

20. FORMAL MEMBERSHIPS

21. It's easy to find people willing to fund or work on the flashier parts of CKAN, and there is some funding for
core work such as meetings and preparing releases. But there are a few important things that aren't getting
addressed.
Fix Security Issues
There are a small number of known issues that high profile sites work around by implementing workflows and
tight controls over users and data published. Everyone else would benefit from a more-secure-by-default
CKAN.
Clear Technical Debt
CKAN, has some parts that should be replaced or removed. This work doesn't add any new features and
worse, threatens to break upgrades for existing sites and extensions. It is necessary work though. Unless
performance and technical limitations are addressed they will grow and start turning users away from CKAN.
Ref: https://github.com/ckan/ideas-and-roadmap/issues/152 - Raised by Ian Ward, Tech Team Lead
HOW MEMBERSHIPS BENEFIT CKAN

22. 1. Large installation base of significant platforms
2. Open Source projects favoured by technical influencers, driving adoption
3. Historical association with Open Knowledge adds significant ‘open’ credibility
4. Support via Open Knowledge opens direct and indirect funding support
5. Global awareness of CKAN due to many years in the market
6. CKAN Association is established with strong representatives from three continents
7. Established, experienced and professional technical team
8. Extension model allows for customisations
9. CKAN can be integrated with WordPress or Drupal
10. Free to use
11. A number of private companies now specialise in CKAN services
12. Public roadmap for future features
OUR STRENGTHS

23. 1. Current reliance on Open Knowledge funded contributors
2. Technical debt (python framework needs replacement)
3. Relatively* low activity on roadmap feature development
4. Community and Communications Team lacks resources
5. Technical team is relatively* small
6. Relatively* small number of private companies specialise in CKAN services
* Compare with projects with such significant adoption in enterprises
OUR WEAKNESSES

24. 1. Partnerships within data and civic app sector
2. Many markets where CKAN is being considered
3. Markets are growing
4. CKAN is a technically interesting project for potential contributors
5. Attractive to internal technical teams within Government
6. Use case ‘distributions’ to meet new verticals
7. Use case extensions can increase the value of current installations
8. Regular update releases supporting a vendor community
9. Vendor community can grow awareness, demand and installations of CKAN
OUR OPPORTUNITIES

25. 10. An effective communications effort can grow awareness of the project
11. A modified license would allow CKAN to be integrated with commercial applications
12. Revenue from formal membership tiers can fund business activities
13. In-kind contributions from formal membership can advance business activities
14. Domain specific working groups can align the project with various global activities and
market segments
15. Ensuring broad interoperability to widen use cases and adoption within various solution
16. Direct alignment with OK initiatives, such as OpenSpending, for increasing the value of CKAN
OUR OPPORTUNITIES

26. 1. Alternatives to CKAN could gain in popularity, degrading contributor interest
2. Project is overly reliant on support from Open Knowledge
3. Possibility of user churn out, degrading the user base
4. Supply of enterprise services fails to meet demand for services, killing adoption
5. Project could fork in too many directions if doesn’t evolve to meet user needs over the long
term.
6. Contributors churn out, leaving the community without new contributors entering
OUR THREATS

27. STEVEN DE COSTA
Steering Group Member
@STARL3N
CKAN SYDNEY MEETUP
4 SEPTEMBER 2015