Sharing data and building information
With this issue (volume 35-3, 2011) of the IASSIST Quarterly (IQ) we
return to the regular format of a collection of articles not within the
same specialist subject area as we have seen in recent special issues of
IQ. Naturally the three articles presented here are related to the IQ
subject area in general, as in: assisting research with data, acquiring
data from research, and making good use of the user community. This last
topic could also be spelled “involvement”. The hope is that these
articles will carry involvement to the IASSIST community, so that the
gained knowledge can be shared and practised widely.
“Mind the
gap” is a caveat to passengers on the London Underground. The authors
of this article are Susan Noble, Celia Russell and Richard Wiseman, all
affiliated with ESDS-International hosted by Mimas at the University of
Manchester in the UK. The ESDS, standing for “Economic and Social Data
Service”, are extending their reach beyond the UK. In the article “Mind
the Gap: Global Data Sharing” they are looking into how today’s research
on the important topics of climate change, economic crises, migration
and health requires cross-national data sharing. Clearly these topics
are international (e.g. the weather or air pollution does not stop at
national borders), but the article discusses how existing barriers
prevent global data sharing. The paper is based on a presentation in a
session on “Sharing data: High Rewards, Formidable Barriers” at the
IASSIST 2009 conference. It is demonstrated how even international data
produced by intergovernmental organizations like the International
Monetary Fund, the International Energy Agency, OECD, the United Nations
and the World Bank are often only available with an expensive
subscription, presented in complex incomprehensible tables, through
special interfaces; such barriers are making the international use of
the data difficult. Because of missing metadata standards it is
difficult to evaluate the quality of the dataset and to search for and
locate the data resources required. The paper highlights the development
of e-learning materials that can raise awareness and ease access to
international data. In this case the example is e-learning for the
“United Nations Millennium Development Goals”.
The second
paper is also related to the sharing of data with an introduction to the
international level. “The Research-Data-Centre in Research-Data-Centre
Approach: A First Step Towards Decentralised International Data Sharing”
is written by Stefan Bender and Jörg Heining from the Institute for
Employment Research (IAB) in Nuremberg, Germany. In order to preserve
the confidentiality of single entities, access to complete datasets is
often restricted to monitored on-site analysis. Although off-site access
is facilitated in other countries, Germany has relied on on-site
security. However, an opportunity has been presented where Research Data
Centre sites are placed at Statistical Offices around Germany, and also
at a Michigan centre for demography. The article contains historical
information on approaches and developments in other countries and has a
special focus on the German solution. The project will gain experience
in the complex balance between confidentiality and analysis, and the
differences between national laws.
The paper by Stuart
Macdonald from EDINA in Scotland originated as a poster session at the
IASSIST 2010 conference. The name of the paper is “AddressingHistory: a
Web2.0 community engagement tool and API”. The community consists of
members within and outside academia, as local history groups and
genealogists are using the software to enhance and combine data from
historical Scottish Post Office Directories with large-scale historical
maps. The background and technical issues are presented in the paper,
which also looks into issues and perspectives of user generated content.
The “crowdsourcing” tool did successfully generate engagement and there
are plans for further development, such as upload and attachment of
photos of people, buildings, and landmarks to enrich the collection.
Articles
for the IQ are always very welcome. They can be papers from IASSIST
conferences or other conferences and workshops, from local presentations
or papers especially written for the IQ. If you don’t have anything to
offer right now, then please prepare yourself for the next IASSIST
conference and start planning for participation in a session there.
Chairing a conference session with the purpose of aggregating and
integrating papers for a special issue IQ is much appreciated as the
information in the form of an IQ issue reaches many more people than the
session participants and will be readily available on the IASSIST
website at http://www.iassistdata.org.
Authors are very welcome to take a look at the instructions and layout:
http://iassistdata.org/iq/instructions-authors
Authors
can also contact me via e-mail: kbr@sam.sdu.dk. Should you be
interested in compiling a special issue for the IQ as guest editor(s) I
will also be delighted to hear from you.
Karsten Boye Rasmussen
December 2011
