The Comprehensive Knowledge Archive Network (CKAN)

In knowledge development, we stand where software developers stood almost 30 years ago. Tools and techniques are crude, and methodologies are limited. If one freely distributes one work - whether it is a database, a learning module or a scientific paper - it is often done in a manner which impedes re-use. Significant effort must be expended to extract and re-format material so that it is useful for the purposes of others.

In software, similar problems were encountered, and a major way they were addressed was by an increased focus on 'componentization'. Initially, most programmers would concentrate solely on writing a piece of code that would fulfil the purpose at hand - with little regard for its readability, documentation, and future reusability.

Gradually programmers increasingly showed an interest in developing discrete 'packages' (or libraries) of code that could be easily re-combined in a multiplicity of different contexts for a multitude of different purposes. Unwieldly "all-in-one" solutions were replaced by flexible and recyclable components and patterns. Today, tools such as the 'apt-get' and 'yum' package managers facilitate the recombination of this multiplicity of packages into usable Linux 'distributions' (Debian and Fedora/Redhat respectively). In so doing, they demonstrate the enormous potential of componentization: thousands of interdependent packages can be easily located, acquired and installed.

The Comprehensive Knowledge Archive Network (CKAN) is a key part of a strategy to provide support for 'componentization' in knowledge development. Named after several free/open source software archives - such as CPAN, CTAN and CRAN - it aims to provide a fully open, registry of knowledge 'packages' that others are free to access, distribute, modify and build upon. While good knowledge APIs will be developed discipline by discipline, CKAN focuses on automated discovery, indexing and 'installation' of open knowledge packages ? a 'package' in this context denotes any collection of material (datasets, documents, images etc) substantial enough, and with sufficient structure, to warrant distribution together (for example a large collection of photos, a database, a complete set of Shakespeare's works).

CKAN will be useful to those across the community of knowledge users and producers - including scholars, educators, librarians and information professionals. For example, climate scientists and environmental information providers alike will be able to explore and automatically acquire journal articles, datasets, and graphical representations pertaining to atmospheric thermodynamics - based on detailed domain specific metadata.

A combination of liberal licensing policies and new technologies is creating an unprecedented opportunity for the growth of a rich and vibrant knowledge society. Componentization is crucial to realising this potential and CKAN is the first step on the road to making such componentization a reality.