CKAN is an open source data portal platform, which was developed by the Open Knowledge Foundation as part of a comprehensive tool suite to promote open data utilization. CKAN makes data accessible by providing tools for publishing, sharing, finding and using data. Additional features and improvements are developed by a strong open source community.
Currently The Hyve is hosting a customized CKAN instance as Central Information Repository for a large European consortium, which consists of several organizations including academic partners, pharmaceutical and biotechnical industry.
The consortium choose CKAN as a generic file repository solution. CKAN is widely used by governments and other user groups as data hub for sharing and publishing of datasets, references and other documents. It has a web-based user interface that allows users to upload and download files, search and filter through the uploaded files and some limited visualisation. Visibility of the documents can be set to public or organization specific.
Besides hosting of the CKAN instance, The Hyve further customizes the search and filtering functionality and security aspects by:
- Enhancing the self registration with a request option to join an organization.
- Separating the features of metadata from the actual data files, enabling users to discover data files, even if they do not have access rights to the data.
- Extending option for search and filtering to not only search on metadata tags but also on free text.
- Enhancing consortium specific metadata tags.
Please contact us to learn how The Hyve can customize CKAN as data management application specific to your organization or get advice on hosting and maintenance of a CKAN instance.
