Posted by Zach Beauvais on Read Write Web.

Talis is a bit different than most web 2.0 startups we hear about. It is a 40 year-old technology company with a significant presence in the UK - nearly a quarter of British academic and public libraries make use of its software. Although the Web is a prominent feature of the organization, their primary focus is on data management.

Talis was recently featured as part of ReadWriteWeb's 10 semantic apps to watch out for, and its tech evangelist Dr Paul Miller was interviewed by us. In this post we will review Talis' technology and how it fits into the current era of the Web.

Following web 2.0 trends, Talis has made an open technology platform that encourages collaboration and the use of large stores of Semantic data. They espouse the principle of the perpetual Beta, stating that: "Notions such as 'finished' or 'complete' have little meaning in this context." They even have a glassy, 2.0-style logo.

But, there is something different about the Talis ethos. From its faintly philosophical blog and an academic approach to 'evangelism', you get the sense that the folks behind Talis really understand the semantics they preach. Talis' idea of marketing is to promote the semantic web itself, rather than just trumping its own brand. They host podcasts with eminent figures in the blogosphere, and discuss with confidence the bleeding edge of Semantic Web technology. Read the full entry.

Talis and Creative Commons are delighted to announce the release of the Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and Licence, the first output of a successful partnership with the Science Commons project of Creative Commons. Creative Commons is well known for its advocacy and licensing work in the arena of 'creative works' such as songs, images, and copyrightable text.

In developing the Public Domain Dedication and Licence, Talis secured the efforts of Jordan Hatcher and Dr. Charlotte Waelde, asking them to build upon the principles of the earlier Talis Community Licence in ways that ensured its fitness for international purpose whilst aligning it more closely to the phrasing of Creative Commons' overarching protocol.

Talis’ Technology Evangelist Dr. Paul Miller commented, "At Talis we've been arguing for a more permissive culture around use and reuse of data for a very long time. Working with our partners at Creative Commons and elsewhere we now have a clear framework upon which to build, and in our Public Domain Dedication and Licence we have the very first licence to conform to that new Science Commons Open Access Data Protocol. With this announcement we provide a tool to those who already understand the value of unlocking their data. We can also use discussion of this first tool to carry a wider set of messages to those who remain unaware of the importance of data licensing to their own activities."

The legal environment within which data exist is radically different to that for creative works, and although there have been attempts to apply existing Creative Commons licences to data, the legal validity of those efforts is questionable. In Europe we have Directive 96/9/EC of the European Parliament, and its various expressions in the laws of member states to define the so-called Database Right. These protections do not apply in jurisdictions such as the United States. A different approach is therefore required if we are to facilitate the widespread availability of data upon which the emerging Semantic Web will depend.

John Wilbanks, Creative Commons' Vice President responsible for the Science Commons project, commented "For a commercial organisation such as Talis, with a heritage in the business of creating and managing data, to recognise the importance of the 'freedom to integrate' says much about changing attitudes to the ownership and use of data. That they went beyond this recognition and did something about it with their licensing and advocacy work says much about them and the team with which they collaborated. The Open Data Commons Licence (ODCL) is the fruit of that collaboration. Both CC0 and the ODCL offer a sound legal basis upon which creators can follow Talis' example and recognise that there is far more to be gained by enabling access to data than by continuing to lock it away. Uniquely built for data, the Open Data Commons Licence approach furthermore implements the norms of data sharing for scientific data, providing the guidance for scientists to act as good citizens without exposing them to lawsuits and lawyers."

Jordan Hatcher, who completed the redrafting effort, commented, "Building an open data licence for the community is very much a collaborative process and we need everyone's input to make the licence be the best it can be -- including meeting everyone's needs for open data. The project's goal is to produce an easy to understand licence and that means having it user tested just like software. In the end, the Open Data Commons Licence will provide a workable and easy to use solution for data integration that will take care of the relevant rights over data and databases."

The Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and Licence is available for use from today. We are working with the Cambridge-based Open Knowledge Foundation in the expectation that they can take on the support and development of this and related licences in the future, ensuring true community ownership of the licensing cornerstone upon which so much data will come to rely.

The Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and Licence is available for download from www.opendatacommons.org, along with the first set of documented Community Norms.

For further information contact Ceri McCall on ceri.mccall@talis.com or by telephone on +44 870 400 5029.

The vast majority of today’s enterprise applications owe their genesis to a period very different from today. Even the most apparently innovative share perhaps unnecessary heritage with their ancestors, preventing them from fully exploiting the potential of an ever-more connected world.

Read the full paper written by Talis Technology Evangelist, Paul Miller.