About the Data Sharing Guidelines forum

[Peter Matthews]

One of the core aims of UIS is to promote the responsible sharing of cave and karst data for the advancement of speleology. However caves are a vulnerable resource where their scientific, cultural or aesthetic values, and landowner relations, can easily be compromised or lost by insensitive visitation. There may also be legal aspects. So there is therefore an issue about just how much data about a cave should be published in the public domain, particularly a cave's exact location, and in some cases also the reason for the cave's importance.

Particularly with data sharing now coming more to the fore with the promotion of the GrottoCenter web database and the development of the Karstlink Linked Data protocols, UIS intends publishing a new document, UIS guidelines for responsible cave data sharing. This document will include the issues, methods to help the sharing of data, and methods to allow this sharing without compromising the safety of the caves and their contents or other values. This project's intent is to cover all kinds of cave and karst data, but not the technical details of how to share this data - this can be found in other sub-commissions or projects. It is hoped that by having definite agreed protection methods available, countries will feel safer about sharing their data, and so will be more willing to do so, for the advancement of speleology.

This forum is for discussions and progress on preparing this document. The Project Leader is Jill Rowling of Australia.

Everyone interested is invited and encouraged to participate in the discussions. As the discussion proceeds we will update a draft of the Guidelines in its own Topic space. Hopefully the document can be developed by general consensus among all participants, but if we are forced to have an actual vote on any item in it, then voting will be by one representative from each interested country in order to ensure a fair representation. Everyone is able to lobby their representative of course. The name of a country's representative needs to be advised to the Project Leader by the country's UIS Delegate. The forum will include a Topic for displaying who is the formal representative for each country.

It is important that each country contributes to the Guidelines so that their requirements and perspectives are included. Government agencies who manage caves and hold cave data should also contribute.

Once we have completed the Guidelines document it will be submitted to the UIS Bureau for formal adoption.