Date and time

Thursday 2 October 2008, 9:00 - 12:30

Description

Registration fees for this workshop are being met by the ANDS Establishment Project. There is no cost to attend; however space is limited.

To ensure that the Australian National Data Service (ANDS) provides a useful resource for researchers, it will need to be able to provide access to valued data sets and collections from the inception of its services. One of the four key ANDS Programs is that of “Seeding the Commons”. The goal of the program is to make as much content available through ANDS as possible, as early as possible. The intent is to improve the capture of data across the research sector to create a critical mass of baseline data through the Commons such that the value of the NCRIS investment in the Commons can be realised by researchers almost immediately. The strategy is that the most valued research data be captured first.

This workshop will seek input from participants to inform this critical process. Through participation, attendees will gain access to the opportunity to influence the implementation of this important national strategy. A number of challenging and controversial topics will be tabled at this workshop including:

• What comprises a “valued” data set?
• What research repositories with existing content are already out there that ANDS might reference? 
• How do we determine which of these provides the most “valued” data with which to seed the Commons?
• Does data quality come into the definition of data value?
• Does there need to be some kind of format for data to be discoverable and accessible and usable?
• What responsibility do institutions have for data repository infrastructure to provide data to ANDS, versus what will ANDS do?
• What barriers are there to institutions currently that might prevent them from providing content to ANDS through managed repositories?
• On what basis should ANDS engage with the managers of existing repositories to get the content into ANDS?

Participants will be invited to voice their own positions and to provide suggestions as to how ANDS should proceed in relation to “Seeding the Commons”.

Who should attend

This workshop is targeted at researchers, research repository managers, research data managers, research institution IT Managers and any others who are interested in the creation of an Australian Data Commons whose long-term future is assured through the value of the content available to the research community in the short-term.

About the presenters

The workshop will be led by members of ANDS-ON, the ANDS Establishment Project Working Group.