ABSTRACT
The argument so far has covered some of the general issues and trends in the mobilisation of open data. Chapters Three and Four show that there are a set of requirements including technological and governance ones that need to be addressed and implemented to support open data. To understand how these requirements can be realised, Chapters Five and Six explored the issues facing institutions and how making data open interacts with, and may shape, existing research practices across a range of disciplines. To address issues about data, technology and governance in making data open in detail, this chapter focuses on one context where open data is being mobilised: the environmental sector. This area of research has engaged with making data open and continues to do so; in so doing, it has revealed the issues of developing open access to data. It is also an area of research that has many characteristics of Mode 2 Knowledge production and thus it is an example of late modern science. The fact that it has gained experience about knowing how to make data open from core aspects of open data, namely the technical, governance and data aspects, and how these are related to each other, makes it a useful case to discuss. When this is combined with its Mode 2 Knowledge production characteristics, the environmental or earth sciences are an exemplar of the issues in making data open. Further, its work links closely with many of the challenges that society is facing and it therefore brings out the role of data in society to address contemporary societal grand challenges.
