1 data preservation imperatives: the role of the us national science foundation lucy nowell, ph.d....
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Data Preservation Imperatives: The Role of the US National Science Foundation
Lucy Nowell, Ph.D.
Office of Cyberinfrastructure
Conference on Permanent Access to the Records of Science
Brussels, Belgium
15 November 2007
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Outline
• NSF Office of Cyberinfrastructure
• Motivation for Data Preservation
• Role of Universities and Academic Libraries
• Characteristics of the Digital Age
• NSF OCI Data Strategic Vision and Goals
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NSF Act of 1950
• “To promote the progress of science…”
• Encourage & develop a national policy for the promotion of basic research and education in the math, physical, medical, biological, engineering and other sciences
• Initiate & support basic scientific research in the sciences
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NationalAeronautic and Space
Administration
EnvironmentalProtection
Agency
Smithsonian Institution
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Other agencies
Commerce
Science Advisor
Other boards, councils, etc.
U.S. President
Independent Agencies
Major Departments
Science AdvisorOffice of Science and
Technology Policy
Office of Management and Budget
Agriculture Health and Human Services
Interior Homeland Security
Defense Energy
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Research Directorates
• Biological Sciences• Computer & Info. Science & Eng.• Education & Human Resources• Engineering• Geosciences• Mathematical & Physical Sciences• Social, Behaviorial & Econ. Sciences
Offices
• CyberInfrastructure
• Integrative Activities
• Polar Programs
• International Science and Engineering
National Science Foundation Director
Deputy Director
NationalScience Board
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New Modes of Investigation
The conduct of science and The conduct of science and engineering is changing and evolving. engineering is changing and evolving. This is due, in large part, to the This is due, in large part, to the expansion of networked expansion of networked cyberinfrastructure …cyberinfrastructure …
NSF Strategic Plan 2006-2011NSF Strategic Plan 2006-2011
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TerryLangendoen
Office of CyberInfrastructure (OCI)
Dan AtkinsOffice Director
José MuñozDep. Office Dir.
Lucy Nowell
Diana Rhoten
KevinThompson
Judy Hayden
Mary Daley Irene Lombardo Deborah White
Steve Meacham, Abani Patra
Data Learning &Workforce
VirtualOrganizations
Software/Middleware
High PerformanceComputing
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… is the organized aggregate of technologies that
enable us to access and integrate today’s
information technology resources—data and
storage, computation, communication,
visualization, networking, scientific instruments,
expertise—to facilitate science and engineering
goals.
- Fran Berman, Director, SDSC
Cyberinfrastructure …
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CI Vision :4 Interrelated Perspectives
Data, Data Analysis &
Visualization
High PerformanceComputing
Collaboratories, Collaboratories, Observatories &Observatories &Virtual Virtual OrganizationsOrganizations
Learning &Learning &Workforce Workforce
DevelopmentDevelopment
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The Fragility of Memory in a Digital Age
Report of the Task Force on Archiving of Digital InformationCommission on Preservation and Access and the Research Libraries Group
“In 1964, the first electronic mail message was sent from either MIT, the Carnegie Institute, or Cambridge University. The message does not survive, however, and so there is no documentary record to determine which group sent the pathbreaking message.”
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NASA plans new search for missing moon tapes
Aug. 15, 2006, 5:13PM
Seth Borenstein, Associated Press
WASHINGTON —NASA said today it was launching an official search for more than 13,000 original tapes of the historic Apollo moon missions.
Study Resource typeResource half-life
Koehler (1999 and 2002)
Random Web pages
2.0 years
Nelson and Allen (2002)
Digital Library Object
24.5 years
Harter and Kim (1996)
Scholarly Article Citations
1.5 years
Rumsey (2002) Legal Citations 1.4 years
Markwell and Brooks (2002)
Biological Science
Education Resources
4.6 years
Spinellis (2003) Computer
Science Citations 4.0 years
Source: Koehler W. (2004) Information Research, 9 (2), 174
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Replication of Results: A Cornerstone of Science
“…the results of one scientist's experiment are not considered reliable until another scientist has replicated them. The reproducibility of results plays several different, crucial roles in science…[but] in many circumstances, considerations of time and money often make reproducibility impractical.”
The Key Role of Replication in Science, Nancy S. Hall, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 10 November 2000
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Replication of Results
• First and foremost, scientists attempt to reproduce someone else's experiment if they doubt that the results are accurate, or if the results contradict a view that is widely accepted in the field.
• An experiment is so reproducible that replicating it becomes a test of the student; if the student cannot replicate the experiment, it is the student who is at fault.
• As a training exercise, a new person [in a group] might be asked to repeat experiments that others have already performed, both to familiarize the newcomer with the work of the group and to give the older members a sense of the newcomer's expertise.
The Key Role of Replication in Science, Nancy S. Hall, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 10 November 2000
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Replication of Data Collection Not Always Feasible
• Medical experiments carried out over years or decades, involving hundreds or even thousands of human subjects.
• Events that are singular and beyond the experimenter's control, like comets, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.
The Key Role of Replication in Science, Nancy S. Hall, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 10 November 2000
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A Global Response
“Ensuring research data are easily accessible, so that they can be used as often and as widely as possible, is a matter of sound stewardship of public resources.”
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD); “Promoting Access to Public Research Data for Scientific, Economic,
and Social Development”
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“If we are effectively to preserve for future generations the …. corpus of information in digital form that represents our cultural record, we need … to commit ourselves technically, legally, economically, and organizationally to the full dimensions of the task.”
Report of the Task Force on Archiving of Digital Information, 1996Commission on Preservation and Access and the Research Libraries Group
A Challenge for Society
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The Universities
“Ever since their inception, universities have been occupied with the fundamental elements of what we now call 'knowledge management', i.e. the creation, collection, preservation and dissemination of knowledge.”
Andre Oesterlinck, Knowledge Management in
Post-Secondary Education: Universities
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The distinctive mission of the University is to serve society as a center of higher learning, providing long-term societal benefits through transmitting advanced knowledge, discovering new knowledge, and functioning as an active working repository of organized knowledge.
Mission Statement of the University of California
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The Academic Libraries
“It is to the research library community that others will look for the preservation of … digital assets, as they have looked to us in the past for reliable, long-term access to the ‘traditional’ resources and products of research and scholarship.”
Association of Research Libraries (ARL)Strategic Plan 2005-2009
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Information is the currency of the
digital age and information
integration is the means for
mobilizing that currency for
discovery, innovation, learning, and
progress.
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x
yz
x
yz
Time t
x
yz
t
x
yz
x
yz
t
t
Before the Digital Age: A World Constrained to 4 Dimensions
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Opening a 5th dimension
through cyberinfrastructure
is the revolutionary force of
the digital age …
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Characteristics of a 5D World:(in priority order)
1. Time and place are no longer barriers to participation and interaction
2. Access is open to specialists and non-specialists alike
3. Information is the primary driver for progress
4. The realm of the possible is expanded through new capabilities, resources, and mechanisms
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Individuals, groups,
organizations, and
nations that don’t
embrace the 5th
dimension will fall
behind in the digital age
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The World Is Flat- Thomas Friedman
• More room for innovation• New spaces for learning and discovery• Expanded opportunities for collaboration
and interaction• Greater capabilities for research and
education
The flat world is expanding-Anonymous OCI program director
33http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2007/nsf0728/index.jsp
NSF Draft Strategic Plan for Data, Data Analysis, and
Visualization
Chapter 3
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Vision
• “Science and engineering digital data are routinely deposited in a well-documented form, are regularly and easily consulted and analyzed by specialists and non-specialists alike, are openly accessible while suitably protected, and are reliably preserved.”• NSF Cyberinfrastructure Vision for 21st
Century Discovery, Chapter 3
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Goals
• To catalyze the development of a system of science and engineering data collections that is open, extensible and evolvable.
• To support development of a new generation of tools and services facilitating data acquisition, mining, integration, analysis, and visualization.
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Principles
• Data generated with NSF funding will be accessible and reliably preserved
• Research/education opportunities determine investment priorities
• Broad community engagement is necessary in reviewing and prioritizing data activities
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Principles (cont’d)
• Data is only useful if it can be found, understood, and analyzed
• Legitimate privacy, confidentiality, and intellectual property rights must be protected
• International, interagency, and public-private partnerships are essential
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Digital Data Preservation and Access Framework
Federal
State
LocalInternational
Non-profit
College
University
USER
Commercial
Multi-Sector
Nimble
Sustainable
Reliable
User-centric
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DataNet• A robust and resilient national and global digital data
framework for preservation and access to the resources and products of the digital age• Provide reliable digital preservation, access, integration and
analysis capabilities for science and/or engineering over a decades-long timeline: sustainability
• Continuously anticipate and adapt to changes in technologies & user needs and expectations
• Engage at the frontiers of science & engineering research & education, with research & development to drive the leading edge forward
• Serve as component elements of an interoperable data preservation and access network, spanning national and international boundaries: shared governance and standards
• Creation of new types of organizations that fully integrate all of these capabilities
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DataNet Partners
• Combine expertise in library and archival sciences; computer, computational and information sciences; cyberinfrastructure; and domain sciences and engineering
• Develop models for economic and technological sustainability over multiple decades
• Engage at the frontiers of science and engineering research and education
• Work cooperatively and in coordination to to create a functional data network with revolutionary new capabilities for information access, use, and integration without regard to conventional barriers such as data type and format, discipline or subject area, and time and place/institution.
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DataNet Partner Responsibilities
• Provide for full data management life cycle• Data deposition/acquisition/ingest• Data curation & metadata management• Data protection, including privacy• Data discovery, access, use, & dissemination• Data interoperability, standard, & integration• Data evaluation, analysis, & visualization
• Engage in research central to DataNet responsibilities• Education & training• Community & user input assessment• International engagement – collaborate & coordinate closely
with preservation & access organizations to catalyze formation of a global data network
• Foreign collaborators are expected to secure support from their own national sources.
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Summary Strategic Plan
• Promote a change in culture
• Catalyze development of a national digital data framework
• Support new generations of tools, services, and capabilities
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The Whole Is Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts
• Climate Change• Pandemic• Drought and Starvation• Sustainable Energy• Aging Populations• Human Behavior under Stress• Etc.