1 Topic by Darwyn Sumner

  • Darwyn Sumner
  • Darwyn Sumner
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  • From: Dipterists Forum
  • Registered: 10-05-2006
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Topic: Branding and Recording Schemes' uploaded datasets

Back in the early days of the Gateway I'd a lot of uploaded datasets to manage. Many from my LERC work, several for Dipterists Forum and one for my Recording Scheme.
To reduce the administrative burden I set up an "Organisation" on the Gateway and bunged all the datasets from the last two in there - and set someone else up as co-administrator to spread the load. Then I persuaded DF members to join the "Organisation" so that they would get enhanced access to everything at once. A means perhaps of encouraging people to join Dipterists Forum - though I cannot recall that ever happening.
All made sense and has worked fine for many years until recently.
I followed the instructions for uploading/replacing my Recording Scheme dataset and I included a bit of branding for my scheme, a logo.
Chaos and confusion ensued, ending up with my being told my Recording Scheme cannot have a logo:

Any organisations and datasets within that organisation cannot add additional logos

The solution, just to get the branding I require for my Recording Scheme, seems to be to dismantle the "Organisation". I'm loth to do this since other Schemes have joined it and are happy with the benefits as I'm happy with the reduced administration.
Presumably there are other similar umbrella organisations operating in the same way as Dipterists Forum who upload datasets to the Gateway, I'm guessing Coleopterists and Riverflies. It can only be a guess as it's hard to know what NBNt know about Recording Schemes (see http://forums.nbn.org.uk/viewtopic.php?id=6712)
I'm told that this might be fixable in the Atlas, I do hope so.
In the meantime confusion continues to reign, once I can figure out which datasets or Recording Schemes NBNt are referring to when they ask for "Absolute deadline for return of Data Partner Agreements" I'll be able to complete however many of them are required - eventually.

2 Reply by Darwyn Sumner (edited by Darwyn Sumner 20-01-2017 17:12:29)

  • Darwyn Sumner
  • Darwyn Sumner
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Re: Branding and Recording Schemes' uploaded datasets

And as if to illustrate the ways in which these access and permissions systems are causing confusion across the board, the same afternoon as the above posting I received the following in my personal email regarding a Recording Scheme which I neither manage nor have access to iRecords of:

Dear Mr. Sumner,



North & East Yorkshire Ecological Data Centre (NEYEDC) is the Local Environmental Records Centre serving North Yorkshire, East Riding of Yorkshire and the cities of York and Hull. This centre provides a local facility for the storage, validation, verification and usage of biological information on a not-for-profit basis as a local node of the National Biodiversity Network. NEYEDC is an operating function of the Yorkshire & Humber Ecological Data Trust, a registered charity (charity No. 1075999)



The aim of NEYEDC is to improve and inform environmental planning and stewardship in North and East Yorkshire through the collation, management and dissemination of biodiversity information.  More information is available on request or through our website: www.neyedc.org.uk



This email relates to your dataset ‘Sepsidae Recording Scheme - records verified via iRecord (191 records)’ held on the National Biodiversity Network Gateway under a CC-BY-NC (non-commercial) licence.

      We are requesting permission to use your data to help inform decision making at a local level. Although NEYEDC is not a conservation organisation, per se, the information we make available to local partners plays a vital role in species and habitat conservation. It is important to NEYEDC, as it is with all Local Environmental Records Centres, to provide as comprehensive a picture of the local biodiversity as possible. Delivery of a comprehensive service, incorporating local knowledge and expertise, through a single point of contact will help ensure the right decisions are made using the best information available.

      Subject to agreement, NEYEDC would like to incorporate your data into its ‘core’ services to provide further context to the existing NEYEDC dataset. NEYEDC core services include:

·         Development control

·         Forward planning

·         Educational/research work

·         Support for the Local Wildlife System

·         Land management decisions

·         Supporting local recorders in targeting recording effort

·         Supporting the verification process by contextualising NEYEDC data

·         Raising public awareness of recording and conservation

NEYEDC would like to use your data in our enquiry services (an example of our standard output is available on request). The NEYEDC enquiries service makes up the major part of our data output and is used to support most of the services outlined above.

Any of your data shared with NEYEDC would be appropriately referenced and only supplied to third parties subject to NEYEDC’s standard terms and conditions. These T&Cs prohibit the onward incorporation of the records into any other database and limit its use to a single purpose for a period of twelve months unless otherwise agreed. A copy of NEYEDC’s standard terms and conditions is available on request or from our website.

Please respond to this email confirming your agreement to us using your dataset for the purposes outlined above.



Please do contact us if you would like to discuss any part of this request or our operation (info@neyedc.co.uk Tel: 01904 641631)

And since the organiser of that scheme lives in the Isle of Man, the request has gone to the wrong country too.

3 Reply by Matt Smith

  • Matt Smith
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  • Registered: 21-11-2007
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Re: Branding and Recording Schemes' uploaded datasets

A follow up to the e-mail message Darwyn received.  I too had the same e-mail to my personal e-mail.  When i asked NEYEDC why they were not going through the Gateway request system for this, I was told "we are not asking for enhanced access".  I have e-mailed a query to the NBN as to how to respond to this as I thought the new data partner agreements we have just completed took care of all of this sort of thing.

4 Reply by Syrphus3

  • Syrphus3
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Re: Branding and Recording Schemes' uploaded datasets

Oddly as the organiser of the sepsid scheme I have not received one of these requests.

5 Reply by charliebarnes

  • charliebarnes
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Re: Branding and Recording Schemes' uploaded datasets

Technically NEYDC are correct - it is neither an enhanced access request or within (I assume, I haven't checked) the licence applied to the dataset on the Gateway. I.e. there is no mechanism within the Gateway to ask for permission to use data outside of the terms and conditions; this necessitates direct with the data provider.

It remains to be seen whether the Atlas and data partner agreements will take care of this - if you choose CC0, CC-BY or OGL then yes my understanding is that those licences negate the need for requesting permission; if you choose CC-BY-NC, then, I believe, the answer is "it depends".

Charlie Barnes
Information Officer
Greater Lincolnshire Nature Partnership

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