News & Articles

IST-Africa 2020 Call for Full Papers - Extended Deadline 16 December

Hosted by the Government of Uganda through the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Supported by the European Commission and African Union Commission, IEEE Africa Council, IEEE Uganda Section, IST-Africa Week 2020 (Kampala, Uganda, May) is the fifteenth in an annual series of Ministerial Level Technology Research Conferences.

 

IST-Africa provides a platform in Africa to strengthen ICT-enabled Innovation, Science and Technology related policy dialogues within Africa and between Africa and Europe, Global Development, Research and Innovation Cooperation and Community Building. It also provides an opportunity to identify potential partners for future research cooperation under Horizon 2020. IST-Africa is a unique community that brings together cross-disciplinary stakeholders from public, private, education and research, societal sector with end user communities focused on ICT and STI Research and Innovation.

 

IST-Africa 2020 Call for Papers invites full papers (8 pages in length) using the paper guidelines and IST-Africa template provided at http://www.ist-africa.org/Conference2020/default.asp?page=paperguidelines to be submitted online for blind peer review by the extended deadline of 16 December.

 

Thematic areas include: eHealth/mHealth; Technology-enhanced Learning; eAgriculture/mAgriculture; eInfrastructures and NRENs; Energy; Next Generation Computing (Big data, Cloud computing, Future Internet, Internet of Things); eGovernment; Content Technologies (Languages, Digital Preservation); Cyber Security; Collaborative Open Innovation and ICT-enabled Entrepreneurship; Global Development including ICT4D and Societal Implications of Technology.

Please download the Call for Papers for more information.

 

Papers must present analysis of initial or final research results or a case study. General project descriptions are not appropriate. It is important to highlight actual or expected impact as well as the level of innovation.

 

It is necessary for the paper submitted to include a unique element that has not previously been published and any previous published materials to be clearly referenced (including material previously published by the authors).

 

Each presenter can present ONE paper in the Programme. It is necessary for papers to be physically presented during the event to ensure inclusion in the Proceedings. Click here for more details.

Disaster Risk Reduction and Open Data Newsletter: December 2019/January 2020 Edition

UNDRR SRSG Mami Mizutori speaks in Auckland
The Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General (SRSG) for Disaster Risk Reduction and the head of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, Mami Mizutori, recently spoke on resiliency and sustainable development at Tonkin + Taylor’s Auckland office. Click above for a link to the livestream video.

Fiji: Cyclone Early Warning System for Pacific goes live
An operational system has been developed and implemented for the Fiji Islands to produce and disseminate new early warning information on coastal flooding, which will help save lives and protect property in low-lying, populated coastal areas. For more on the CIFDP click the link above, and to listen to an interview with Bapon Fakhruddin on the development of the system, click here.

Countdown starts for Sendai 2020 deadline
Target (e) of the Sendai Framework's seven targets, sets a 2020 deadline for developing national and local strategies for disaster risk reduction. The same deadline applies to UN member states finalising National Adaptation Plans under the Paris Agreement on climate.

Data For Now Inception Workshop in Rwanda
SDSN TReNDS recently joined the World Bank, the UN Statistics Division, The Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data and representatives from eight very diverse countries (Bangladesh, Columbia, Ghana, Mongolia, Nepal, Paraguay, Rwanda, and Senegal) in Kigali, Rwanda to discuss priority data needs as part of the new Data For Now initiative.

Bangladeshi farmers reap the benefits of new weather forecasts
Customised weather forecasts delivered to smartphones and rural meeting halls are helping farmers in Bangladesh better manage crops in the field as rain becomes more erratic.

Asia and the Pacific set priorities for accelerated disaster risk reduction
In the face of growing disaster losses and risk in the Asia-Pacific region, government disaster risk management agencies, international organizations, and civil society groups met in Brisbane to agree on priorities for accelerating action for reducing the risk of disasters.

NASA Space Data Can Cut Disaster Response Times, Costs
According to a new study, emergency responders could cut costs and save time by using near-real-time satellite data along with other decision-making tools after a flooding disaster.

November 2019: Publications in the Data Science Journal

	Title: Reviving an Old and Valuable Collection of Microscope Slides Through the Use of Citizen Science Author: John Pring, Lesley Wyborn, Neal Evans URL: http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2019-057
	Title: Efficient Stratified Sampling Graphing Method for Mass Data Author: Jianjun Wang, Yingang Zhao, Jun Chen, Suqing Zhang, Xudong Zhao, Yufei He URL: http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2019-056
	Title: A Comprehensive Video Dataset for Multi-Modal Recognition Systems  Author: Anand Handa, Rashi Agarwal, Narendra Kohli  URL: http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2019-055
	Title: Proper Attribution for Curation and Maintenance of Research Collections: Metadata Recommendations of the RDA/TDWG Working Group Author: Anne E. Thessen , Matt Woodburn, Dimitrios Koureas, Deborah Paul, Michael Conlon, David P. Shorthouse, Sarah Ramdeen URL: http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2019-054
	Title: Intelligent Electronic Management of Library by Radio Frequency Identification Technology Author: Qinglan Huang, Hongyi Huang URL: http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2019-053
	Title: The History and Future of Data Citation in Practice Author: Mark A. Parsons, Ruth E. Duerr, Matthew B. Jones URL: http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2019-052

 

Summary Report: "Interoperability of Metadata Standards in Cross-Domain Science, Health, and Social Science Applications II

Schloss Dagstuhl Event 19413

A week-long workshop was held on the subject of standards in cross-domain data use for science, health, and social science at Schloss Dagstuhl - the Leibniz Center for Informatics in Wadern, Germany, 6-11 October 2019. The meeting was sponsored by CODATA, the data-focused arm of the International Science Council (ISC), and the DDI Alliance, an international member-driven consortium which provides technical standards for research data in the social, behavioral, economic, and health sciences. CODATA is currently working towards a launch of a decadal programme on cross-disciplinary data as part of the ISC’s Science Action Plan. The DDI Alliance is now developing an information model for integrating data across domain boundaries. The workshop was subsidized by Schloss Dagstuhl - the Leibniz Center for Informatics.

Workshop series

This workshop was the second addressing this important topic, the earlier one also taking place at Dagstuhl in October 2018. Both focused on specific real-world use cases: the first was an exploration of specific issues encountered in the use of data across domain boundaries; the second aimed at producing practical guidance for addressing them. 

Among other outcomes, the first workshop contributed to the work on the next-generation DDI model, making it a more suitable tool for dealing with cross-domain data integration independent of the social sciences. Other standards and models were also examined (e.g. spatio-temporal aspects of DCAT). This focus on practical guidance for cross-domain data use is expected to continue into the ISC’s decadal programme.

Workshop participants included representatives of use cases and technology and standards experts across several different domains, including the social, behavioral, and economic sciences, geophysical and environmental science, health research, disaster risk reduction, urban planning and policy, and the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Standards concerned with statistical and research data and metadata were an important consideration (e.g., DDI, SDMX) and specialized application schemas (e.g. OBO vocabularies from the life sciences, ISO 19115 from geospatial data community). Technical experts ranged from those involved in developing standards to systems implementers.  Almost half of the participants overlapped with the first workshop.