Open Password – Monday, May 3, 2021
#917
ISI 2021 – Information Infrastructure – Open Data Portals – Cornelia Veja – Julian Hocker – DIPF – Reuse – Accountability – Educational Data – GovData.de – Hamburg – DCAT – Research Data Management – Universities in Brandenburg – Janine Straka – Heike Neuroth – Potsdam University of Applied Sciences – Ina Radtke – University of Oldenburg – Niklas Hartmann – Ulrike Wuttke – Networking – Hosting solutions for IT services – Awareness – Bottom-up initiatives – Coordination – Sylvia Kullmann – Johannes Hiebl – Tamara Heck – Marc Rittberger – Open Educational Resources – Teaching information science – Legally secure award – Weak OER – Accessibility – Games – Karina Sturm – The new norm – Association of the German game industry – PBS – Children’s series – People with disabilities – Gaming without borders – Specialist office for youth media culture NRW – Hearing – Understanding – Seeing – Taxes – Melanie Eilert – The Last of US – xBox Adaptive Controller – Spencer Allen – Spider-Man – Life is Strange – Saskia Moes – Amazon – Brand Registry – Equifax – Compliance Center Advanced – Informa – Daily Mail – MailOnline Newspaper – Google – Experian – Community Development Finance Institutions – Springer Nature – BookSubMarine – Outsell – Health Report – Digitalization – Data Protection – Health Rise – Reducing Bureaucracy – Doctors – Hospitals – Health Insurance Companies – Patients – Birgit Kleen-Schiffhauser – Chip Card – Smartphone – Health Portal
Cover story: Open data portals in the education sector can be improved, especially at the local level – By Theresia Woltermann
Outside the box: accessibility for games!
3.
International News
Health report 2021
ISI 2021:
Information Infrastructure
Open data portals in the education sector
can be improved, especially at the local level
By Theresia Woltermann
Theresia Woltermann
Dr. Cornelia Veja and Julian Hocker (both DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Educational Research and Educational Information) presented “Educational Open Government Data in Germany” at the ISI “Information Infrastructure” meeting. Also involved in the paper were Dr. Christoph Schindler (DIPF) and Prof. Dr. Marc Rittberger (DIPF, Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences) contributed. The aim of her research project is to determine the current status and quality of open data portals in Germany at both national and local levels, with particular attention to educational data. Another question is whether these portals provide open data in a way that facilitates their reuse and public accountability.
There are now more and more cities providing their citizens with information via open data portals, including sociological, environmental and educational data. The researchers analyzed 25 open data portals (direct providers), some of which are operated at the city level and some at the state level. There are also three portals at national level, which act as aggregators and take over the data from the other portals. The research focus on educational data is new.
The authors came to the central conclusion that none of the portals delivers full performance according to all measured characteristics. Although a solid framework has been provided at the national level, some work still needs to be done at the local level. The largest provider of educational data is Hamburg and the largest aggregator is GovData.de. The open data portals use different standards for metadata. However, 22 of the 28 portals examined use the German DCAT standard. Information about the use of the data was only found on a few portals. An important research question is to determine Germany’s positioning in an international comparison.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Research data management at all Brandenburg universities and beyond.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Dr. Janine Straka (Potsdam University of Applied Sciences) presented the project “Research data management in Brandenburg (FDM-BB): Building a state initiative”. Co-authors of their paper are also Prof. Dr. Heike Neuroth (Potsdam University of Applied Sciences), Dr. Ina Radtke (University of Oldenburg), Niklas Hartmann (University of Potsdam) and Ulrike Wuttke (Potsdam University of Applied Sciences). The researchers develop recommendations for action and implementation of a needs-oriented research data strategy and encourage networking of corresponding initiatives within and outside of Brandenburg. A kick-off workshop in Potsdam in February already yielded valuable insights, some of which resulted in recommendations for action. Both cross-institutional collaborations and the establishment of new positions for research data management should be sought. Inadequate or missing research data management is often due to a lack of human resources. In addition, hosting solutions for IT services should be considered early on, as small facilities in particular often do not have a suitable infrastructure. Team and awareness building is necessary and should be introduced at several levels of an institution. Research data management initiatives are often bottom-up initiatives, which for this reason can only be advanced with limited human and financial resources.
The researchers are in the process of identifying the needs of Brandenburg’s universities and drawing up a comparison with research data management initiatives in other federal states. You would like to set up joint training and qualification measures for various research target groups. In addition, the development of a common strategy for research data management is desirable. This should then be implemented, which would require some coordination effort. We are currently working on recommendations for action and implementation. For this purpose, interviews are carried out, on the one hand at the Brandenburg universities, and on the other hand with members of research management initiatives that carry out coordinating tasks in Baden-Württemberg, Hamburg, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia and Thuringia. The addressees of the recommendations for action developed are the own ministry, individual universities and all universities in the network. The implementation recommendations can be summarized in three clusters:
- Local competence building at universities in Brandenburg
- cooperative provision of nationally relevant IT services and services as well
- Coordination of research data management initiatives in Brandenburg.
The researchers would like to extend the project until 2022/2023 in order to be able to involve all Brandenburg universities, implement the research data strategy developed and promote the sustainable institutionalization of research data management in the research institutions.
__________________________________________________________________________________
A common pool for open educational resources in information science teaching !
__________________________________________________________________________________
Sylvia Kullmann (DIPF) gave her topic “Potential of Open Educational Resources in Information Science?” a question mark. Co-authors of their paper are Johannes Hiebl (DIPF), Dr. Tamara Heck (DIPF) and Prof. Dr. Marc Rittberger (DIPF, Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences). Her research project aims to identify the potential of Open Educational Resources (OER) in teaching information science. The aim is to determine the assessments of teachers working in information science and their requirements for OER systems.
The creation of a common OER pool for information science was clearly welcomed by those surveyed. A central solution was preferred. The benefit of OER was seen primarily in strengthening the subject internally, for example by creating freedom through collaboration or the possibility of excellent teaching through cross-university events. The majority also viewed the strengthening of the subject externally as positive. The main hurdles mentioned were the existing uncertainty regarding the legally secure labeling of one’s own OER, as well as the increased effort involved and insufficient recognition of teaching at universities for such an initiative. Respondents preferred so-called “ weak OER” and low-granular teaching and learning materials. There were no preferences for the formats.
Further steps in the research project include the completion of the interviews, their transcription and content analysis, the publication of the results of the qualitative survey, the preparation and implementation of the quantitative survey and the evaluation of the results of the complete study with subsequent publication.
On average, 65 people attended the “Information Infrastructure” part of the conference virtually.
Outside the box (44)
Accessibility for games!
Karina Sturm, Gaming for All: Accessible Games, in: The New Norm, April 2021. The German Game Industry Association states in its annual report that almost every second German is a gamer. Every age group is represented and almost every second player is female. In 2018, 4.4 billion euros were generated with gaming products.
The international pioneer in accessibility is the US public broadcaster PBS. He has been working for decades to make all offers as diverse and barrier-free as possible. «With children’s series that feature characters with all kinds of disabilities – from autism to anxiety disorders to physical disabilities – and online games that offer a variety of settings to reduce barriers.»
To evaluate games, the “Gaming without Borders” initiative of the North Rhine-Westphalia Department for Youth Media Culture has developed four criteria for the 12 to 27 age group:
- “When it comes to hearing , it’s about whether you can play the game even if you can’t hear well. That means: Are subtitles available and are these titles easy to read? Is there visual feedback when sounds come from a certain side?…
- How understandable a game is depends on whether, for example, you can set difficulty levels and how complex the story is. For example, can I set in the game what should be difficult and what shouldn’t? Can I choose not to have such tricky puzzles?
- The criterion of vision is about whether contrasts can be adjusted and things can be resized and whether colors have to be differentiated (e.g. red and green).
- control criterion pays attention to whether the sensitivity can be adjusted in the game. Can I stop a button from having to be pressed for a long time or can the button assignment be changed?”
A game for adults that offers a particularly large number of accessibility options is The Last of US Part II. Gaming tester Melanie Eilert, who is herself disabled, said: “The developers worked with people with disabilities for three years to make the game this way to get it done. This is playable even by people who are completely blind, although it has shooter elements.» One of the most useful inventions in the gaming world is the Xbox Adaptive Controller, «a kind of central interface to which all kinds of switches, buttons and joysticks can be connected “can be connected to make the respective games playable for different users with limited mobility”. The device was developed by Spencer Allen, a paraplegic engineer.
Playing along is one thing, but gamers with disabilities also want to “feel represented by the characters in the games and there is a lack in this area in particular.” A positive example is Spider-Man: Miles Morales with a deaf character in a supporting role, a negative example is Life is Strange, where the protagonist’s girlfriend is paralyzed after an accident and asks her boyfriend to help her commit suicide. “A classic and frightening stereotype that portrays life with a disability as if it were not worth living.”
Saskia Moes from Gaming without Borders: “I would like accessibility to become a matter of course and we no longer have to talk about the fact that everyone has access to digital games and can play and have fun together.”
International News
Amazon Lets Advertisers Send Targeted Messages for First Time
Amazon is piloting a service to let sellers on its e-commerce site contact shoppers directly by email, a shift from the company’s strict oversight of consumer data. US companies that belong to Amazon’s Brand Registry can ask shoppers to follow them to receive emailed notifications about new products or promotions.
Equifax Workforce Solutions Offers Compliance Center Advanced to Help Employers with Remote Hiring and Rehires
Equifax offers Compliance Center Advanced, designed to assist employers with many of the nuances involved in rehiring and remote hiring. The Compliance Center platform from Equifax Workforce Solutions packages and helps deliver a more streamlined service for onboarding paperwork.
Information from £2.89 billion £1.66 billion
Informa posted profit of £267.8 million down from £933.1 million in 2019 on revenues of £1.66 billion, down from £2.89 billion. Its minimum commitment for 2021 is to deliver baseline revenues of £1.7 billion and remain cashflow positive.
Daily Mail Owner Sues Google for Monopoly Over Ad Business
The Daily Mail, owner of the MailOnline newspaper, sued Google on Tuesday April 20th, alleging that the search and advertising giant’s power over selling online ad space means newspapers see little of the revenue their content produces . The federal lawsuit against Google and its parent, Alphabet Inc., alleges that Google controls the tools used to sell ad inventory as well as the space on publishers’ pages where ads can be placed and the exchange that decides where ads will be placed.
Experian Launches Loans from Credit Unions and Other Non-Profits
Consumer credit company Experian has added three UK credit unions to its comparison services in a bid to widen access to affordable and ethical credit. The move, which also includes community development finance institutions (CDFIs), comes after the company found that around 25% of people using its loan comparison services are not currently eligible for mainstream lenders – leaving them vulnerable to high-cost payday lenders.
Springer Nature Launches New Publication Portal for Dissertations Researchers wishing to publish their dissertation or postdoctoral thesis with Springer Nature can now benefit from a new streamlined and author-friendly publication portal. BookSubMarine supports authors of theses in Science Technology Medicine and Humanities Social Sciences throughout the entire publication process.
Source: Outsell
“Health Report 2021”
Added value for patients and doctors
is more important than data protection
“Unique opportunity to push back
excessive bureaucracy”
(Health Rise) As the healthcare system digitizes, added value for patients and doctors is more important than data protection. This is a key result in the new “Health Rise Health Report 2021” presented by Health Rise GmbH. The report is based on a survey of 100 healthcare professionals in Germany.
62 percent of the experts surveyed are convinced that a digital healthcare system can only be successful if it creates “real added value” for patients. 56 percent (multiple answers were welcome) only consider digitalization of the industry to be useful if it offers concrete benefits for doctors, hospitals and other medical facilities. 58 percent of experts believe: Digitalization must significantly simplify processes for patients, doctors and facilities. For half of those surveyed, it is important that data protection is strictly maintained. 28 percent are of the opinion that data protection should not be neglected, but should not stand in the way of the benefits of digitalization. 43 percent would agree to restrictions on data protection if they resulted in demonstrable benefits.
__________________________________________________________________________________
More efficiency, less bureaucracy, lower costs
__________________________________________________________________________________
57 percent believe that digitalization can make the healthcare system more efficient for doctors, hospitals and other medical facilities. 46 percent are confident that digitalization will reduce the amount of bureaucracy for these groups. 54 percent are of the opinion that this will make things better and easier for patients. 45 percent assume that simplified digital processes will reduce costs for health insurance companies.
“The excessive bureaucracy in the healthcare system, as in many other areas in Germany, is a major nuisance for almost everyone involved,” says project manager Birgit Kleen-Schiffhauer. “Digitalization represents a unique opportunity to push back excessive bureaucracy. It is up to all players in the German healthcare system to seize this opportunity and use the change to simplify, streamline and automate processes as much as possible. Data protection must be maintained, but it does not have to hang like a sword of Damocles over every improvement and every automation and ultimately prevent them. In particular, the transition to smartphones and smartwatches as a link to the patient offers real opportunities that the industry should seize.”
__________________________________________________________________________________
Chip card best access to the electronic patient file
__________________________________________________________________________________
71 percent of experts consider the chip card to be the best means of identifying patients. This applies to both billing and access to medical reports. 45 percent (multiple answers possible) rate the smartphone as the first choice for accessing the electronic patient file. Another 37 percent believe that the smartphone should be used alongside the chip card. 16 percent are of the opinion that the smartwatch would be well suited for this.
65 percent of experts would generally welcome it if “the attending physician could read a patient’s vital signs from their smartwatch.” 11 percent of those surveyed fundamentally reject the doctor’s access to this data.
Health Rise ( www.health-rise.de ) is an independent health portal with four focuses that reaches over ten million consumers. The “Guide” offers scientifically tested articles and podcasts on all important health topics. Consumers can use “Find an Expert” to find qualified doctors, medical facilities, products and services. The “Shop” offers a wide range of products relating to fitness, nutrition, wellness & beauty, alternative medicine, mental coaching and seminars. An extensive management system for everything related to your own health is available under “My Apps” . There are apps for all important aspects such as preventive checks, blood counts, vaccination certificates, medication plans, sick notes, self-tests, video consultations. Health Rise offers partners from the healthcare sector (established doctors, clinics, health insurance companies and other healthcare providers and product providers) a connection to the healthcare portal upon request. to gain access to a daily growing community of health-conscious people.
OpenPassword
Forum and news
for the information industry
in German-speaking countries
New editions of Open Password appear four times a week.
If you would like to subscribe to the email service free of charge, please register at www.password-online.de.
The current edition of Open Password can be accessed immediately after it appears on the web. www.password-online.de/archiv. This also applies to all previously published editions.
International Cooperation Partner:
Outsell (London)
Business Industry Information Association/BIIA (Hong Kong)
Open Password Archive – Publications
OPEN PASSWORD ARCHIVE
DATA JOURNALISM
Handelsblatt’s Digital Reach