How to become an assured data publisher

Getting your organisation and its data assured under the IB1 Assurance programme, as implemented within the relevant Scheme, is a straightforward three-step process: Join, Prepare, Publish.

1. Join

Become an IB1 Member. Unless otherwise agreed, this involves paying a fee (based on the size of your organisation). Once you are a member, and depending on which sector you operate in, you will join one of our Trust Frameworks and within it, a scheme that incorporates assurance levels. See Joining a Scheme for more information.

2. Prepare 

1. Review the requirements set out in the assurance levels for the scheme
   • For schemes adopting the generic assurance levels, use the published specifications for organisations and datasets
2. Decide which organisational level you wish to assert
   • Check Scheme requirements, as some Schemes may specify a minimum organisational assurance level.
3. For each dataset:
   • Assign a data sensitivity class designating whether the data is Open, Shared or Closed. Only Open or Shared data may be assured.
   • Review the legal, practical and technical requirements and decide the assurance level you wish to assert for the dataset
   • If you are not ready to assure the dataset, you can still have it in the catalog. Just skip the next step and omit the ib1: metadata.
4. Generate a DCAT v3 or ISO19139 (including INSPIRE and GEMINI) format data catalog describing the datasets
   • Use the ib1:trustFramework field to define the Trust Framework(s) the dataset is assured under.
     • Core: https://registry.core.trust.ib1.org/trust-framework
     • Water: https://registry.wstf.trust.ib1.org/trust-framework
     • Energy: https://registry.estf.trust.ib1.org/trust-framework
   • Use the ib1:scheme field to define which scheme
     • Energy: https://registry.estf.trust.ib1.org/scheme/assured-open-data
   • Use the ib1:sensitivityClass field to define the sensitivity class 
   • Use the ib1:datasetAssurance field to define the assurance level for each

Example DCAT JSON-LD snippet:

…

“ib1:trustFramework”: “https://registry.estf.trust.ib1.org/trust-framework”,

“ib1:scheme”: “https://registry.estf.trust.ib1.org/scheme/assured-open-data”

“ib1:sensitivityClass”: “https://registry.trust.ib1.org/sensitivity-class/IB1-O”

“ib1:datasetAssurance”:  “https://registry.trust.ib1.org/assurance-level/Level1”

…

}

3. Publish

On joining the trust framework, you will be given access to a member portal to manage your organisation and the data services it provides within the trust framework. For assured data publication this is the process:

1. Notify IB1 of your organisational assurance level – we will set this in your directory entry for the trust framework
2. Publish the data catalog openly on the web
3. Add an app within the appropriate scheme
4. Add the URL of your data catalog to the app configuration
   • This will be listed under your organisation in the trust framework directory
5. Open Net Zero will automatically index the directory and display your organisation and dataset assurance badges
6. (optional, but recommended) Use the assurance badges on your website/data portal when describing the datasets. Icons and the URLs they should link to may be found here