To Open or Not to Open? A Technical, Legal, or Philosophical Question (Webcast) Friday 22nd November 3:30pm to 5:00pm Grand Salon C, Live Webcast Maarten Heerlien @MaartenHeerlien Project Manager Research & Development, Naturalis Biodiversity Center Trilce Navarrete @TrilceNavarrete Researcher, University of Amsterdam Geertje Jacobs @geertje_jacobs Collection Information Manager, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam Maarten Zeinstra @mzeinstra Kennisland Anouk Janssen Team Manager Collections Department, National Library of the Netherlands This session will be live webcast at https://new.livestream.com/accou... Open data promises to reposition collections information in new ways. Museums are slowly learning about the relevant techniques and standards. Developing best practice, and agreeing on standards, has been an international effort. A greater challenge is changing our practice at the institutional level to adopt an open attitude towards information exchange, including its makers, distributors and (re)users. Some institutions have gained visibility by opening up; but is that replicable in lesser-known institutions with less popular objects? What are the benefits of opening up and how can the effort be measured? Most heritage open data comes from art collections, but what does open data mean for (natural) science collections? And collections of modern art face what seem like impossible battles for rights clearance; so is open data relevant for institutions with collections made after ca. 1850? This panel will present the experience of four institutions regarding the benefits, process of adopting, and meaning of working with open data. Their varied perspectives will offer evidence of the impact of open data as a rich contextual platform for discussing such issues as: What is the meaning of quantitative data on the use of open data (what does it mean to have millions of people seeing an image in Wikipedia)? What data do we have regarding increased access after opening up? How can management be convinced of the benefits of opening up? What is the validity, and what are the underlying issues, of perceiving CC0 as a threatening policy? What is the difference between metadata and scientific data, and is that distinction relevant? What has been done with open data and modern collections? What intellectual property rights do heritage institutions hold in collections information, and how does that relate to the social roles of museums?