Teaching Secondary Analysis of Qualitative Data

If you're going to be in the vicinity of Essex, UK in September, the Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS) is hosting a free half-day workshop at the UK Data Archive "aimed at best practices in teaching qualitative analysis of secondary data."

For more information, check out their webpage: http://www.esds.ac.uk/qualidata/news/eventdetail.asp?id=3306

Symposium on Global Scientific Data Infrastructure

If you plan to be in the Washington, DC area on August 29th, the National Academy of Sciences is hosting a symposium on Global Scientific Data Infrastructure.  For those of us for whom that would be too far a jaunt for a meeting that would be less than 3 hours (3p-5:45p Eastern), there is the option to participate in a real-time audio-only webcast of the proceedings.  They will also archive that version and make it available on the Board on Research Data and Information's website afterward.

From the announcement:

The Forum will examine potential near-term actions and outcomes that can serve as a focus for community efforts toward a global organization for the exchange of scientific data, initially referred to as the Data Web Forum (DWF). The BRDI Forum will facilitate discussion of the following questions:

1. What useful short-term efforts and deliverables could a global scientific community organization take on that would facilitate data-driven interoperability? Are there any low-hanging fruits or some common elements or approaches that should be addressed early in the process?

2. What stakeholder communities are essential to success or to the implementation of the deliverables raised in #1? (see [1] below) What could be done in the near term by such an organization to promote effective participation by these communities?

On the day of the event, a link will be posted on the National Academies website (www.nationalacademies.org). Webcast listeners will be able to listen either through Windows Media Player or through RealPlayer. 

For more information including a detailed agenda: www.nas.edu/brdi

Big Data Got A Mighty Voice

I've made no secret that I'm not overly fond of the term "Big Data" but like it or not, it's a term that has stuck and seems to be making folks aware of the issues surrounding data management.

A large part of my annoyance at the term is because it is so vague.  Thankfully a colleague sent me the following article and it's the best I've read yet describing "Big Data".

How Big Data Became So Big - New York Times (August 11, 2012)

NISO Forum on Managing & Citing Research Data

Early bird registration is now open for the upcoming NISO Forum: Tracking it Back to the Source: Managing and Citing Research Data being held in Denver, CO on September 24, 2012.

There's a great lineup of presenters including Joan Starr from CDL, Jim Mullins from Purdue, Mark Parsons from NSIDC and a keynote from Allen Renear from U Ill-UC.  That's just looking at the first few sessions.

Early registration is available until Sept 10 with discounts for NISO members and students.  Check out the website for more information: http://www.niso.org/news/events/2012/tracking_it_back_to_the_source/

New CLIR Report: The Problem of Data

The Council on Library and Information Resources has released a new report on data titled "The Problem of Data".

From the abstract:

Jahnke and Asher explore workflows and methodologies at a variety of academic data curation sites, and Keralis delves into the academic milieu of library and information schools that offer instruction in data curation. Their conclusions point to the urgent need for a reliable and increasingly sophisticated professional cohort to support data-intensive research in our colleges, universities, and research centers.

For more info: http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub154

If you want to go straight to reading it, here's the PDF download link (1.3 MB): http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub154/pub154.pdf

2nd Draft of Creative Commons License 4.0

The 2nd draft of the latest Creative Commons license version (4.0) is now available for public comment.

Here's a blog post about it: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/33632
You can view the license text and a comparison chart between the first draft and this one here: Drafts and related documentation
And you can find a summary of changes and explanations here: Draft 2 Public Discussion Page