Overview of the Service
=======================

The Open Data Service exists to make available :term:`linked data` about the
`University of Oxford <http://www.ox.ac.uk/>`_. These data can then be re-used
by consumers both within and without the University to integrate into services
that require institutional data, and aggregated to provide cross-institutional
services.

The Open Data Service does not own or maintain datasets; it is a platform for
(re-)publishing data that already exist in other systems. The value comes in
providing links between datasets and providing standardised APIs for querying
the data within them.


Scope
-----

We're primarily concerned with *public or university-internal* *institutional data*;

* data to which the public can be granted access (it is non-sensitive, e.g. which is already published on University websites), or
* which may may be accessed without restriction by members of the University

and which:

* is relevant to planning, managing, operating, or auditing a major administrative function of the university, or
* is required for use by more than one organizational unit.

For now we're excluding research data, and metadata about research outputs. If
you're interested in such things, have a look at the `Oxford University
Research Archive <http://ora.ox.ac.uk/>`_ and the University's `DataBank
<https://databank.ora.ox.ac.uk/>`_ service.

Service status
--------------

The Open Data Service is offered as a beta service, and is currently undergoing
active development as we add new datasets and functionality.