As promised, here is the second part of the blog.  At the event, held in St. Petersburg, Russia as part of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Plenary XIII, where I represented RDA, we spent all day discussing the value and best practices around data sharing.  From the draft notes, here are the recommendations from that event:

"GEO Members and POs should:

• Promote the benefits of data sharing within territories or organizations. Share with the entire GEO community best practices or lessons learned about transition from restricted data policies to Open Data policies.
• Develop national or organizational data policies and implementation plans that are in accordance with the GEOSS Data Sharing Principles, making use of relevant resources from GEO, CODATA, RDA and other organizations;
• Develop frameworks of business models for data generation and distribution in the public sector. At the same time, raise awareness of the technical, organizational, and resource implications of implementing the GEOSS Data Sharing Principles;
• Identify target data sets in high demand. Maximize the number of datasets which are in accordance with Data Management Principles.
• Exert leadership to establish necessary coordinating mechanisms to implement the GEOSS Data Sharing Principles, monitor at national level data sharing progress and provide feedback to GEO. Use regional and national coordination mechanisms to pass messages to all EO institutes within a country.

For GEO collectively should:

• Develop cases articulating economic and other benefits of data sharing, as well as identifying gaps and opportunities. Stories in specific organization contexts preferred. Could use open government data policy as a stake – Open Data Institute (ODI) explores broad business values of open government data.
• Publish the National Data Sharing Progress Report which monitors data sharing activities, maps the landscape of Earth observation data policies and analyzes the change over time.
• Build capacities of data sharing: hold training workshops; identify opportunities for mentoring relationship between GEO and low-middle income countries"

While these may not be the final wording, the meaning is clear.  GEO, as a player in the intergovernmental policy arena, has the power to increase data sharing through its efforts, and through making use of expertise and tools such as those provided by RDA.  Our mission is clear - with the scope of GEO and other organizations in mind, use the power of connections to keep building those bridges that help share data, keep working with other organizations to publicize those bridges, and keep spreading the word about RDA!