Data Management Training/meeting notes 20170202

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< Data Management Training
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Present: Amber Budden, Erin Robinson, Ariane Chan, Shannon Leslie, Matt Mayernik, Paul Lemieux, Bob Downs, Wade Bishop, Kristin Vanderbilt, Nancy Ritchey, Cassandra Ladino, David Bassendine, Shelley Stall, Nancy Hoebelheinrich, Sophie Hou

Agenda:

  • Report on DMT Clearinghouse
    • Next CDI Proposal has been submitted
    • Inventory of ~ 55 items
    • Some progress on collaboration with NEON / Data Carpentry’s Data Catalog
    • Some progress on developing template for bulk loading of metadata
  • Collaboration with ESIP Usability Cluster
  • Presentation by Wade Bishop, Professor at the University of Tennessee Information Science School on Job Analyses of Earth Science Data Professionals
  • Topics for discussion / exploration during the year
  • Reports from other groups?

Notes:

  • DMT Clearinghouse:
    • Link to DMT Clearinghouse: Link to DMT Clearinghouse: http://dmtclearinghouse.esipfed.org/
    • Current major features include: Search, Browse,and Submit (a learning resource).
    • The Clearinghouse’s current inventory includes resources from USGS, DataONE, and ESIP (the Data Management Short Course).
  • Nancy provided a brief background regarding how the Clearinghouse was seeded and developed.
    • For additional information, please see DMT Clearinghouse wiki page: [1]
  • Nancy also discussed how the ESIP Data Management Short Course for Scientists related to the Clearinghouse project.
    • Link to the Data Management Short Course: [2] (these are also all in the DMT Clearinghouse)
  • A new proposal was submitted on January 20th (again to USGS Community for Data Integration) to support the second phase of the Clearinghouse’s development.
    • Cassandra is our new USGS PI for this proposal.
    • The proposal decision should be available by end of March.
  • Other organizations that we would like to collaborate with include: RDA’s US-Education working group and NEON/Data Carpentry.
  • Usability group would like to use the “User Study” technique on the Clearinghouse - this involves the user communicating with the moderator whilst they are doing the test.
  • Link to presentation on Usability and Usability Evaluation Techniques: http://wiki.esipfed.org/index.php/Usability_Cluster_Presentations
    • Presentation on User Study (the usability evaluation technique that will be used with the Clearinghouse): [3]
  • ESIP Usability Cluster Wiki: [4]
    • We meet on the First Wednesday of each month at 1:00pm Eastern.
    • Next meeting: Wednesday, March 1st.
  • Job Analyses of Earth Science Data Professionals by Dr. Bishop
    • “DACUM - Developing a Curriculum” is the approach used for the analyses.
    • The main motivation is to discover skills and knowledge from existing working force that would be essential for students to learn before entering their professional positions/careers.
    • The current data for the analyses came from ESIP (2015 Summer Meeting Focus Group and 2016 Summer Interviews).
    • Would be useful to get a wider sample as the DACUM model assumes that the samples of job analyses should be done evenly (and widely) across the profession, although there is a problem in defining the “profession”.
    • Key highlights from the data collected:
      • There is a wide range of job titles, workplace longevity, and degrees.
      • Other “on the job training,” including learning about new tools and programming languages, also took place.
    • Job related tasks could also be structured around a “lifecycle” (the lifecycle that Wade referenced is from Digital Curation Centre - http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/curation-lifecycle-model).
      • Create/receive data:
        • Metadata compliance
      • Appraisal and select:
        • Submission of metadata and “PI wrangling” - reminding researchers to turn in their data.
      • Ingest:
        • Quality assurance, test data submission process, and evaluate/resolve error rates
      • Preservation action, and store.
      • People also needed to work on “curation tasks”, which are related access/use/reuse and transform (including creating subsets).
    • Other responsibilities:
      • Project Management
      • Attending/hosting meetings - staying in touch with team members and researchers
      • Communication skills, including attending/presenting at conference, having soft skills
      • There are also many tasks that the people have to do but are mentioned less frequently than the above responsibilities. Examples of these tasks include: Learning programming languages, managing licenses, writing proposals.
    • Data, science, technology, and infrastructure are the four areas that the analyses indicated to be crucial.
    • “Geographic Information: Organization, Access, and Use” - a new book from Wade will also provide additional information about his work.
    • There are many areas that Wade need to consider going forward, including:
      • How to share these finding?
      • How to collect additional data? (There were only 12 participants for the current analyses).
      • What other resources to review/consider (such as iSchool curriculum?)?
      • What other professional roles to consider (e.g. software curation and workflow curation?)?
    • Question: Did Wade filter out specific job titles? For example, were there any database managers that were available but were not included?
      • Answer: Wade did not get any database manager during his initial rounds of interviews, but if he widens his survey pool and receives information about “database manager”, he would evaluate and present the responses accordingly.
      • Additional Comments:
        • Perhaps the feedback regarding people’s responsibilities are dependent on the domains that they are in.
        • Titles might be one way for people categorize themselves, but people’s affinity with their titles might also be an aspect to evaluate or to explore more about what motivates people to learn/do their jobs.

Action Items:

  • Continue to discuss job analyses and core skills/competency
  • Investigate opportunities for collaboration to continue refining the findings

Topics for next time:

  • Prospects for collaboration on establishing core skills / curricula for data professionals
  • What topics for discussion / exploration during the year
  • Reports from other groups?