Towards curating data for sharing, access and preservation ... · PDF fileaccess and...
-
Upload
nguyenlien -
Category
Documents
-
view
220 -
download
5
Transcript of Towards curating data for sharing, access and preservation ... · PDF fileaccess and...
2/26/2014
1
Towards curating data for sharing, access and preservation with environmental voluntary groups
Faculty of Education, School of Information Studies
Mary Anne Kennan, Charles Sturt University (CSU) Kirsty Williamson, CSU & Monash UniversityGraeme Johanson, Monash University
Background
•Data created and held outside of formal ‘academic’ science, often not generated by professional work, e.g., by environmental voluntary groups (EVGs)environmental voluntary groups (EVGs)
•Data largely inaccessible outside those often-small EVGs
•Potential value of this “wild” data for:
• science, research and participative decision-making (Callon, Lascoumes & Barthe 2009)
• academic and other professional researchers
Faculty of Education, School of Information Studies
p
•Management of data by EVGs may be:
• poor or non-existent
• haphazard and spasmodic regarding quality control
2/26/2014
2
Volunteers, amateurs, professionals & citizen scientists
• “Volunteer” freely does something useful
• “Amateur” common usage problematic
• “Citizen science”
• Our project – harnessing the data of “amateur
Faculty of Education, School of Information Studies
the data of amateur experts” – Volunteers
• (Bell et al 2008; Grove-White et al 2007; Kennan et all 2011)
Photo: Ken Walker, Museum Victoria/Bowerbird
Harnessing data
outside formal CS programs?Focussing on biodiversity databiodiversity data
• Observations and collections e.g. Species, location, date, time etc.
For use in:• Tracking location and
status of endangered or
Faculty of Education, School of Information Studies
status of endangered or invasive species
• Development of policy; informing decisions
• Combining with other (e.g. weather & climate) data
Photo: Russel Best, APSV/NatureShareNodding Greenhood Orchid
2/26/2014
3
Why share?• Data are expensive to collect
• May be unique, snap shot
Data sharing• Integral to data intensive
science, collaboration
• Can be reused e.g.• Reproduce or validate
• Advance original research
• Open new line of enquiry
• Contribute to inter-disciplinary problem solving and answering large scale questions
• Component of current scientific method
• Requires:• Description, accessibility, find-
ability
• Preservation, persistence, sustainability
• Maintenance of quality
Faculty of Education, School of Information Studies
• Reasons not to share?• Social
• Technical
Maintenance of quality
(Borgman, 2006; Cragin et al, 2010; Henty et al, 2008; Kowalczyk & Shankar, 2011; Markauskaite et al, 2012; Tenopir et al, 2011; Witt, 2009)
Information sharingHIB
• Some research on
Information systems & KM• Emphasis on how systems
Some research on information sharing but still emerging (Fisher & Julien 2009; Pilerot 2012; Wilson 2010)
• A form of collaborative information behaviour (Talja & Hansen 2006)
can be designed & implemented to enhance collaborative information sharing (c.f. Widen-Wulff & Ginman 2004; Lave & Wenger 1991)
Sharing data and information
Faculty of Education, School of Information Studies
)
• Multifaceted: trust, risk, reward, benefit, reciprocity (Savolainen 2007; Wilson 2010)
through formal systems requires understanding of user communities and practices (Talja 2002)
2/26/2014
4
Research problem and questions1. What are the present data
storage and management practices of APSV members?p
2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of these practices for the sharing of research data?
3. What are APSV members’ present attitudes to sharing research data?
To understand how data management and approaches to data sharing could be improved to enhance EVG member
Photo: Ken Walker, Museum Victoria/Bowerbird
Faculty of Education, School of Information Studies
4. What can be done to encourage APSV members to share their data and to empower them with skills and technology to contribute to major data repositories?
improved to enhance EVG member contributions to formal science while also continuing to meet individual and group needs
Background of site•APS Branches in every state
•1,700 Victorian members
•APSV begun in Melbourne in 1957
•Name change in the late 1990s:• from ‘Society for Growing Australian Plants’ (SGAP)
• to ‘Australian Plants Society’ – reflecting broader approach to include, e.g., researching, observing, and conserving
Emphasis of members varies e g
Faculty of Education, School of Information Studies
•Emphasis of members varies, e.g.,• Cultivation of Australian plants (priority of gardens)
• Broader ‘field naturalist’ approaches
• Strong scientific interest
• Social engagement with like-minded people
2/26/2014
5
Summary of method
•Interpretivist/constructivist h hil hresearch philosophy
•Ethnographic method and interview technique
•Purposive sample to reflect membership of APSV
•15 interviews of 1-2 hours, semi-structured, audio-taped
Faculty of Education, School of Information Studies
& transcribed
•Analysis through identification of categories and themes Image: APSV Project, Bowerbird
Participant Analysis
Gender Age Length APSV MembershipMembership
7 male8 female
40-49 150-59 460-69 570-79 380-89 2
1-5 years 1 6-10 years 311-15 years 321-25 years 330+ years 5
Faculty of Education, School of Information Studies
Sample ages closely reflect age profile of ASPV: 88% of membership was aged over 50 in 2007 (Phil Hempel, 2007 survey of APSV members)
2/26/2014
6
Motivations to join EVG
• Love of Australian plants, nature and p ,conservation
• Work and socialize with like-minded people
• Increase own knowledge & understanding
Faculty of Education, School of Information Studies
understanding
• Make a contributionPhoto: Ken Walker, Museum Victoria/Bowerbird
Current positionObservations
•In field •historical
Current modes of sharing/dissemination
• MeetingsSurveys of habitats
Data types• Photographs• Specimens• Notes e.g.
• Location
• Meetings
• Newsletters and magazines
• Guided walks
• Group collecting trips
• Individual and group
Faculty of Education, School of Information Studies
• Time/Date/Season• Flowering• Habitat• Pollinators• Growth patterns
g pwebsites
2/26/2014
7
Current practices • Handwritten notes
• Personal computers (PC)(PC)
• Personal websites & DBs
• Group websites & DBs
• CDs e.g. Photo galleries
Faculty of Education, School of Information Studies
• Writing up notes –transferring to articles and books
• Emerging shared repositories/databases
Image: APSV Website
Current practices
Advantages• Computers great
Disadvantages• Small distributed collections
advantage over handwritten and print
• Shared websites great advantage over personal computers
• Managed repositories?
• Data loss – backups, multi systems, death
• Technical obsolescence
• Long term preservation
• Dated print materials
• L IT kill b
Faculty of Education, School of Information Studies
g pOnly one using • Low IT skills base
2/26/2014
8
Attitudes to data sharing
Most “willing to share in a useful way, but can’t”• Trust – e.g. Sensitive data - conserving rare species
• Loss of control (e.g. FIS)
• Need for acknowledgement, attribution, community
• Lack of reciprocity – datum or small collections into larger ones
• Di i t t/l k f bilit i t h l
Faculty of Education, School of Information Studies
• Disinterest/lack of ability in technology
• Time and knowledge requirements
• Data quality control
Repositories for sharingCurrent examples:
•Atlas of Living Australia http://www.ala.org.au/ national – not geared to individuals/volunteers
•NatureShare http://natureshare org au/ Developed by APSVNatureShare http://natureshare.org.au/ Developed by APSV Research officer, just completed at project end
•Bowerbird http://bowerbird.org.au completed after project end
Advantages•Automatically updating and referencing taxonomic changes
•Manage data and metadata quality
•Offer curation and preservation - sustainability
Faculty of Education, School of Information Studies
Offer curation and preservation - sustainability
•Different purposes – into one central “mother” repository
•Disadvantages•New, hard, unfamiliar
•Not always developed with volunteers practices and needs in mind
2/26/2014
9
Next stepsThis understanding of needs and practices
can inform repository developersp y p• Action research in collaboration with
NatureShare and BowerBird
• In-field (smart phones, tablets, apps) data collection and contribution
• At home data contribution (computers and
Faculty of Education, School of Information Studies
At home data contribution (computers and laptops, tablets)
• Training (and TTT) packages developed and evaluated
Training
Technology• Hardware (iPads, iPhones,
Requirements• NatureShare
computer etc)
• Software (databases deposit, databases search, in field collection apps)
Data requirements• Minimum metadata for an
observation
• Species name, location date/time,
• Bowerbird• Date/time, location,
evidence (the social network can provide the species name)
Faculty of Education, School of Information Studies
observation
• Minimum for a survey
• Image standards & apps to achieve (e.g. GIMP, Picasso, Photodshop)
species name)
• Atlas of Living Australia• Species name, date/time,
location, evidence
2/26/2014
10
NatureShare• free, web-based tool for individuals,
groups & communities to use as a reference, or upload sightings, photos & species information about their plocal environment
• currently includes in its database all the plants & major animal groups known to occur in Victoria (over 8,500 species names). 10,000 more to be added.
Faculty of Education, School of Information Studies
• anyone, or any group, can set up species 'collections' for their own property, for parks/reserves, for areas/towns, for anything, anywhere
(currently for Victoria only)
BowerBird• Biodiversity/national
focus – live May 2013
• T k i i ti• Track species in time and space
• Aims to be a 24/7 field naturalist club
• BowerBird development funded to bring data to
Faculty of Education, School of Information Studies
ALA from volunteers
2/26/2014
11
BowerBird SNW - community• Valda took a picture of an
“unknown sea creature” and posted it to BowerBird.
• Dr Jan Carey from MU posed questions and suggested identification
• Once Jan suggested “sponge” KW contacted a friend at the Queensland Museum who is the Australian sponge expert – Dr John Hooper who identified it.
Faculty of Education, School of Information Studies
p
• ALA could not have accepted this initially.
• But, once it was identified on BowerBird, it was then uploaded to ALA where it is now as a record
Metadata (DarwinCore)ALA :
• Data resource
• Observer
• Record URL
• Date Recorded
• Record Comments
• Scientific Name
• Common Names
• Full Classification
Faculty of Education, School of Information Studies
• State
• Decimal Latitude
• Decimal Longitude
• GPS Datum Format
2/26/2014
12
NatureShare to ALA
Faculty of Education, School of Information Studies
Community -> Science
• Data picked up from NatureShare and B Bi d hBowerBird when “complete”.
• Added to other data
• Used by scientists and policy makers
• Suite of analytical tools
Faculty of Education, School of Information Studies
yand ability to download native data
2/26/2014
13
Thank you! Questions and comments?
Photo: Bowerbird
Faculty of Education, School of Information Studies
Thank you! Questions and comments?
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors acknowledge, with thanks, the support of the APSV, especially the assistance of Cathy Powers, President, and Dr Russell Best, Research Officer, and the interviewees who gave us their time and their views. Also thanks to Dr Ken Walker of Museum Victoria and developer of BowerBird. Photos: Title slide photograph from Cathy Powers. Other photos as attributed. The Small Grant funding received by Kennan and Williamson from the Faculty of Education, Charles Sturt University, is also acknowledged with thanks.