Open Repair Data Standard – version 0.1

We are pleased to announce that the first version of the Open Repair Data Standard (ORDS) is now ready, following the initial meeting of the Alliance’s founding members on 6th October during Fixfest.

The standard captures initial steps by Open Repair Alliance founding members in creating a shared approach towards collecting and openly sharing repair data about small electricals and electronics. This will allow us to identify trends and patterns globally, but also within countries and regions, by combining data from local events. For example, when we combine our data, we could identify the most recurrent failures and fixes of blenders brought to community repair events in the UK, across Europe and even globally.

For this version 0.1 we concentrated on standardising elements already captured by most members, prioritising areas where there is already convergence on, while leaving out other areas where more work is needed.

Here is a summary of what we agreed:

  • The standard focuses on repairs of small electrical and electronic products
  • It focuses on collecting information about 3 primary “modules”: Product Related; Repair Related; Session Related
  • For each primary module, it explains what they are and identifies required fields/questions
  • For each required field, the standard explains how to collect data in ways that make it easy to aggregate and compare
  • The standard also identifies 4 additional modules for future work: Impact related; Repairer related; Participant related; Feedback related
  • For these additional modules, there is no agreed question or requirements as of November 2017
  • Data collected will be shared with an open Creative Commons license.

Here is the information on primary modules

  • Product related: Information about the product/device that someone has attempted to fix. Required fields: Product category; Brand; Model; Year of Manufacture
  • Repair related: Information about the attempted fix and its outcome. Required fields: Problem; Repair Status
  • Session related: Information about when the repair took place and through which community repair group. Required fields: Group Indentifier; Date

Organisations and community groups willing to comply with the standard will be adopting it to collect data at the events they run, then publish it with monthly updates. The standard document also provides an example reference data file.

The Open Repair Alliance will be keeping a record of all datasets complying with the standard, published on the Open Repair Alliance’s website, allowing interested parties to access them.

The standard document also explains the current governance and membership structure of the Open Repair Alliance, which will be valid until October 2018.

We look forward to seeing founding members and other interested parties start to adopt the standard and contribute to its further development

Read and download the full Open Repair Data Standard version 0.1 document

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