LIBER, Europe’s largest network of research libraries, is organizing a webinar on the Fair Principles of Data Management, established by the H2020 Programme. The webinar will address how libraries can help their research communities implement the FAIR principles and write better Data Management Plans (DMPs). Register at http://libereurope.eu/blog/2017/03/09/fair-data-webinar-join-us-16-march/.

W3C published a report from the Smart Descriptions & Smarter Vocabularies Workshop, held in Amsterdam, 30 November – 1 December 2016. The report summarizes the presentations given on, among others, data models, metadata standards and vocabularies for describing datasets in virtual research environments.

W3C Spatial Data on the Web Working Group has released a best practice document on how to how to publish spatial data on the internet. The document gives advice on publication and use of spatial data, and on use of Web technologies “as they may be applied to location”, and offers 17 best practices shifting focus from a traditional Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) model to a Linked Data approach. Read the document at https://www.w3.org/TR/2017/NOTE-sdw-bp-20170216/.

The international CODATA 2017 Conference, “Global Challenges and Data-Driven Science” will take place 8-13 October 2017, in Saint-Petersburg, Russia. The conference will address “fundamental issues relating to the availability, (re-)use and scientific analysis of data that relate to the most significant contemporary global challenges”. Read  more at http://codata2017.gcras.ru/.