Data Preservation Imperatives: The Role of the US National Science Foundation

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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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U.S. President
Science Advisor
Office of Management and Budget
Other boards, councils, etc.
Office of Science and Technology Policy
Science Advisor
Major Departments
Health and Human Services
Commerce
Agriculture
Interior
Homeland Security
Defense
Energy
Independent Agencies
National Aeronautic and Space Administration
Environmental Protection Agency
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Smithsonian Institution
Other agencies
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• Research Directorates
• Biological Sciences
• Computer Info. Science Eng.
• Education Human Resources
• Engineering
• Geosciences
• Mathematical Physical Sciences
• Social, Behaviorial Econ. Sciences

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New Modes of Investigation The conduct of
science and engineering is changing and evolving.
This is due, in large part, to the expansion of
networked cyberinfrastructure
NSF Strategic Plan 2006-2011
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Office of CyberInfrastructure (OCI)
Dan Atkins Office Director José Muñoz Dep.
Office Dir.
Judy Hayden Mary Daley Irene Lombardo Deborah
White
Terry Langendoen
Lucy Nowell
Diana Rhoten
Kevin Thompson
Steve Meacham, Abani Patra
Learning Workforce
Virtual Organizations
Software/ Middleware
High Performance Computing
Data
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Cyberinfrastructure
is the organized aggregate of technologies that
enable us to access and integrate todays
information technology resourcesdata and
storage, computation, communication,
visualization, networking, scientific
instruments, expertiseto facilitate science and
engineering goals. - Fran Berman, Director,
SDSC
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CI Vision 4 Interrelated Perspectives
Collaboratories, Observatories Virtual
Organizations
Learning Workforce Development
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The Fragility of Memory in a Digital Age
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.
Report of the Task Force on Archiving of Digital
Information Commission on Preservation and Access
and the Research Libraries Group
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NASA plans new search for missing moon tapes

• Aug. 15, 2006, 513PM
• 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.

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Study Resource type Resource 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
  sciencebut 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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A Challenge for Society

• 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, 1996 Commission on Preservation and
Access and the Research Libraries Group
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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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Before the Digital Age A World Constrained to 4
Dimensions
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5th Dimension
CI
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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 dont embrace the 5th dimension will fall
behind in the digital age
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The World Is Flat - Thomas Friedman
The flat world is expanding -Anonymous OCI
program director

• More room for innovation
• New spaces for learning and discovery
• Expanded opportunities for collaboration and
  interaction
• Greater capabilities for research and
  education

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NSF Draft Strategic Plan for Data, Data
Analysis, and Visualization
Chapter 3
http//www.nsf.gov/pubs/2007/nsf0728/index.jsp
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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 (contd)

• 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

• User-centric

• Multi-Sector

• Sustainable

• Reliable

• Nimble

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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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NSFNet Traffic September 1991
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The World Wide DataNet _at_ TT0
Data point-of-presence
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The World Wide DataNet _at_ TTN
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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.

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Thank you!