News & Articles

Best Wishes for the December Solstice and Related Holidays

The December solstice was 22:23 UTC on Friday 21 December, so this comes a ‘little’ late.  Nevertheless, I would like to send the warmest best wishes to everyone involved in CODATA activities and to the wider global research data community.  2018 has been a significant year for CODATA and you may find some of the following interesting:

‘A milestone in the history of science’: the redefinition of the International System of Units was based on the work of CODATA and the Task Group for Fundamental Constants.

International Data Week, held in Gaborone, Botswana was an enormous success with 850 participants.  Selected paper will be published in the CODATA Data Science Journal.

The vision and strategy for the African Open Science Platform was launched at Science Forum South Africa, in a presentation by co-chair Khotso Mokhele.  A founding members’ meeting will be hosted at the Biblioteca Alexandrina later in 2019.

The ISC CODATA initiative on Data Interoperability Integration for Interdisciplinary Research made progress, notably through a very successful Dagstuhl Workshop co-organised with the DDI Alliance: this will result in a series of articles on data integration challenges in cross-disciplinary research areas.

Other notable activities include the work of the Data Policy Committee, a major contribution to the European Commission report on Turning FAIR into Reality and the ongoing series of CODATA-RDA Data Schools.

Finally, we are grateful for the enormous contribution that Past President Geoffrey Boulton has made to CODATA.  The CODATA General Assembly at the University of Botswana 9-10 November elected a new President, Barend Mons, and a new Executive Committee. We look forward to further increasing CODATA’s impact and to promoting international collaboration for Open Science and FAIR data.


Read the full Disaster Risk Reduction and Open Data Newsletter

Big Data in Europe: Strategies to address social needs
Big Data can make important contributions towards technical progress, but what's needed are innovative technologies, strategies and competencies to address societal needs.

UN Forum to bring 'big space data' benefits to disaster response in Africa
Outer space and disaster response experts recently gathered in Bonn, Germany to discuss how "big data" can reduce the risk of natural disasters in Africa and support response efforts.

Read the full Disaster Risk Reduction and Open Data Newsletter


RDA 13th Plenary Meeting Call for Sessions: Don't miss the 5 January 2019 deadline

The 13th RDA Plenary meeting will take place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 2 - 4 April 2019. Don't miss out on the opportunity to apply for:

  1. Working Group meetings: further the development of the working group recommendations
  2. Interest Group meetings: continue discussions and the creation of outputs, etc.
  3. Joint RDA group meetings: submit joint meeting applications to explore potential synergies with other groups
  4. Birds of a Feather (BoF) meetings: Is there a topic that you think RDA should address? Make sure you submit an application for a Birds of a Feather session aimed at exploring new potential Working or Interest group topics.  It will help you identify an audience, build support and start the work on your Case statement or Charter for an RDA Working or Interest group.

The deadline for submission is 5 January 2019 at 23:59 UTC

We encourage all submissions, the breakout sessions are designed to provide an opportunity for discussion, sharing experiences and best practices, laying down concrete action plans.

All Working and Interest groups are free to choose the format and workplan for their sessions while we strongly encourage the organisation of working meetings.

Details on the 13th Plenary Call for Sessions page. Please address any queries to enquiries[at]rd-alliance.org


IDCC19 full programme announced

The 14th International Digital Curation Conference is going to Melbourne in February 2019 and we have an exciting programme packed with workshops, papers, posters and demos. The theme of the conference is Collaborations and Partnerships: addressing the big digital challenges together. This is a topic close to DCC’s heart and modus operandi, and is particularly fitting to the Australian context where links with the wider international research data community are key.
 
The conference theme has inspired a dynamic mix of papers and sessions. As usual we have strands on metadata, digital curation, skills, models and tools. This year also sees particularly strong clusters of papers on digital humanities, creative arts curation and disciplinary challenges. We’re also delighted to see that the theme and conference location have generated sessions on curating indigenous data and building diverse and inclusive communities. 
 
The conference will see two keynotes and a plenary discussion. Christine Kenneally, an independent journalist, will open the conference with a keynote on “Data, the creation of history and its impact on real lives.” She will present a case study of information security and information entropy in the history of childcare institutions in Australia and the United States, illuminating the critical role that data curators have to play, not just in the creation of history, but in its impact on individual lives.
 
Day two will start with a plenary discussion between Nancy McGovern and Clifford Lynch on digital practice and collaboration. This will build on a discussion between Nancy and Cliff following her closing keynote at IDCC18, which made an impassioned call for collaboration across communities and inclusivity. It is an opportunity to explore the issues, elaborating on key challenges we face in the digital age and proposing methods to overcome these.
 
The conference will close with a keynote from Dr Patricia Brennan, the Director of the US National Library of Medicine (NLM), on “Jumping into the stream of data curation.” As the largest collection of biomedical research and data in the world, the NLM plays key roles in supporting data-driven discovery and promoting health data standards. Hearing about the NLM activities and strategy will provide inspiration on how we can all better locate, reuse, and enrich data resources. 
 
The conference will open on Monday 4th February with a day of workshops and will close with an unconference on Thursday 7th February. Workshop registration is open and includes opportunities to learn about supporting data management in academic institutions, digital preservation carpentry, software curation and peer-to-peer training. See the full programme and price details here. The unconference is a new angle to IDCC. We’re very conscious that the papers and discussions over coffee often lead to new ideas and collaborations, and there is not always enough time and space to explore these at the event. We introduced Birds of a Feather sessions a few years ago and these have been incredibly popular and productive.
 
The unconference is a way for us to give emerging ideas more dedicated time and space – a whole day in fact! As you’ll see, the programme is blank and will remain so until the event. We’ll invite people to contribute ideas and to pitch these at the outset. The agenda will be set on the day by people voting with their feet and deciding what they want to work on. For my own part, I’m interested to try and map across the different FAIR data activities internationally - how similar are the recommendations that are emerging and what disciplinary differences and needs are being uncovered through use cases. Anyone can attend the unconference, so if you’re local and are just interested in brainstorming and working on data issues with an international community for a day, please sign up. I’m really excited to see how we can take ideas that emerge from the conference though and generate them into some practical action while the enthusiasm and creativity is there. Strike while the iron is hot!
 
As always, IDCC will have a number of social events. There will be pre-conference drinks at the Woodward Conference Centre. Located on the 10th floor of the Melbourne Law School, the building offers stunning views to the west of the city. Continuing the trend of socialising with good views, the tapas-style conference dinner will take place at General Assembly with waterfront views, the city skyline and a band to entertain us. Delegates will also have access to the University of Melbourne private staff club which has many informal indoor and outdoor spaces for quiet work or social networking. International attendees are likely to want to enjoy some holiday time in the sunshine too and Melbourne has a lot to offer. There are some links and ideas shared by the University of Melbourne on the website to help in your planning.
 
So, what are you waiting for? Make the case to attend, register and get your flights and hotels booked before they fill up. This is one conference you don’t want to miss!


Call for Contributions open for iPRES2019

Be inclusive. Be creative. Be inspiring. And put your eyes on the horizon.

This is the full Call for Contributions for the 16th International Conference on Digital Preservation,  iPRES 2019. Deadline for all submissions is 18 March 2019. All submissions and presentations should be in English.

The theme for iPRES 2019 –  Eye on the Horizon – aims to broaden the voices and approaches participating in the conference. In keeping with the theme, we will embrace creative proposals that demonstrate how research and theory directly impact and influence practice at all levels. iPRES brings together a wide range of practitioners, researchers, educators, providers, students, and others to share lessons learned from engaging in digital preservation, including recent practice, research, developments, and innovations.

The iPRES 2019 Programme Committee seeks contributions that tell stories about building bridges between organizations in different domains and bridging knowledge gaps. These contributions enable individuals from all backgrounds and agencies of all sizes to participate in the global preservation conversation. Contributions serve the community and help implement solutions and overcome barriers to the effective curation of digital assets, works and collections. iPRES aims to be an inclusive global forum and seeks proposals from all sectors, specialisms, geographies and communities.  

More information

Instructions for each peer-reviewed submission type (papers, panels, posters, demonstrations, workshops, tutorials and hackathon sessions) are to be found in the Submission Instructions section.

For questions with regards to the conference organization, please contact: info@ipres2019.org

For questions with regards to the conference programme, please contact: programmecommittee@ipres2019.org

For questions with regards to submissions, please contact: submissions@ipres2019.org


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