See below for a summary of key points from the WG meeting on Feb 16 2011, followed by a list of interesting events that are coming up. If you’d like more detailed updates on projects or to view the full minutes, visit the meeting Etherpad.

The next meeting will be Wednesday 13th April, 17:30 GMT. You can sign up and add agenda items here.

UPDATES:

LODD hack session (Mon 7th March):
This was very productive, with 12 datasets reviewed and three Is It Open Data? requests drafted. Please see the notes here and here and sign the Is It Open Data? request if you wish.

OKF Science home page:
Amrapali distributed some brilliant word cloud ‘Wordle’ images, one of which will be replacing the picture at the top of this page very soon. We will also be embedding a calendar listing meeting dates and open data in science relevant talks and events. More details on contributing events to follow!

If you haven’t done so already, please register on the OKFN WordPress site and join the Science group. Then, if you’d like to be able to post stuff on http://science.okfn.org/, such as event announces, blog posts on open data in science related issues or other updates then email/message me to be added to the list of blog authors. It would be brilliant to get some more content up that really reflects the great work members of the group are doing and flags up things others might be interested in.

Panton Principles:
Writing of the Panton Papers remains underway. There was a suggestion in the 12th Jan meeting of having a list of best practice case studies; people, projects or papers which are putting the Panton Principles into action. Please contribute to suggestions or compose a short paragraph on your favourite example here.

Is It Open Data?
Many requests have now been made, and it would be great to improve the site and add extra features for users. If you have some Python. HTML, CSS or similar coding skills, we need your assistance!
Please get in touch if you would be interested in helping out, there may be a discussion happening on Friday about what could be improved.

Also, if you have made an enquiry, please make sure you revisit to flag up it’s status as resolved or not (or one of the other options available).

EVENTS:

Ongoing discussion, FriendFeed
Open and Shut?: PLoS ONE, Open Access, and the Future of Scholarly Publishing – Richard Poynder

10-11 March, Washington DC – Scientific Knowledge Discovery in Open Networked Environments
Free public symposium and concurent closed workshop. Both will be recorded and posted online.

12-13 March, Cambridge, UK – Scholarly HTML Hackfest (with free geek food)
Organised by working group member Peter Murray Rust
The goal? Running code ready for early adopter researchers, with an emphasis on chemistry implementing and defining “Scholarly HTML”. More details and sign up link here.

14 April, Seattle, Washington – Law and the GeoWeb, 1 PM-5 PM. Free lunch!!
Organised by working group member Puneet Kishor.
Join the live webcast (or, come in person). Check out the questions from the attendees to the speakers.

19 April, Oxford, UK – The role of open access in maximizing the impact of biomedical research, 12.30pm
SIR MARK WALPORT, Director of the Wellcome Trust. More info here .
Appears to be limited to Oxford University members only but I’m attending and will find out if it’s being webcast.

30 Jun/1 Jul, Kalkscheune, Berlin – OKCon 2011
See the website for more details and to register.