January 15, 2010
The IASSIST Quarterly (IQ) volume 32 2008 contains a collection of the 1, 2, 3, and 4 issues into a single issue for 2008. Nikos Askitas is the head of the International Data Service Center of the Institute for the Study of Labor in Germany (IZA). At the 2008 IASSIST conference he presented what is here an article on the “Data Documentation and Remote Computing at the International Data Service Center of IZA.
December 23, 2009
The US Open Government Directive, released on December 8, 2009, instructs all federal agencies to provide high-value information to the public online in open, accessible, machine-readable formats. This adds to the momentum already in place at Data.gov to “increase public access to high value, machine readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government.” The Open Knowledge Foundation blog describes progress to date and milestones to come. The UK government also recently announced similar plans to open up data, and the imminent launch of a new Data.
December 11, 2009
From theDDI Directions Newsletter: “The DDI Alliance is pleased to announce that Chuck Humphrey (Chair), University of Alberta, and Mari Kleemola (Vice Chair), Finnish Social Science Data Archive, have been elected to lead the DDI Expert Committee, beginning January 1, 2010. Chuck has been the Head of the Data Library at the University of Alberta since 1992 and also assumed responsibility for the implementation and management of a Statistics Canada Research Data Centre (RDC) at the University of Alberta in 2001.
November 23, 2009
The 2009 William H. Flanigan Awardfor Distinguished Service as an ICPSR Official Representative was presented to Diane Geraci, Associate Director for Information Resources at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries. Diane is a long time IASSIST supporter and former Admin Committee member. Congratulations, Diane! At the same ceremony, friends of IASSIST Merrill Shanks and Steven Ruggles were each presented the 2009 Warren E. Miller Award for Meritorious Service to the Social Sciences.
November 11, 2009
IASSIST member Nancy McGovern was recently inducted as a Fellow by the Society of American Archivists at its August meeting in Austin, Texas. SAA Fellow is an honor that recognizes outstanding contributions to the archival profession. Nancy has been Digital Preservation Officer (DPO) at ICPSRsince 2006 and brought a substantial record of accomplishment to her current position. She served as DPO and director of the Research and Assessment Services Department at Cornell University; Electronic Records Manager at Audata, Ltd.
October 13, 2009
Students with research interests in scientific data management, sharing and reuse have a unique opportunity to participate in the Open Data fellowship program. Open Data is an Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) sponsored by NSF. Open Data fellows engage in a vibrant set of research activities at the University of Michigan in the conduct of responsible data-intensive science and engineering involving faculty and doctoral students from SI, Computer Science and Engineering, Bioinformatics, Materials Science, and Chemical Engineering.
September 17, 2009
Vintage Infographics From the 1930s, Flowing Data (Sept. 11, 2009). Some examples from Willard Cope Brinton’s 1939 book Graphic Presentation. jim
July 28, 2009
U-M’s Gutmann to head NSF Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate, University of Michigan News Service, July 27, 2009. Gutmann, who specializes in historical demography and population-environment relationships, currently directs the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR). He begins his NSF position Nov. 2. Jim Jacobs
July 27, 2009
There was a lot of hype when the new search engine WolframAlpha was launched earlier this year. An article in the current issue of Technology Review does a better job of explaining how it works and how it fits in with other search engines. It notes that the numeric information it uses is “curated” by Wolfram|Alpha employees – by which they mean the data are selected and acquired, not just contributed as with sites like Swivel.
June 21, 2009
Check out this week’s Fifth Wave cartoon: http://www.gocomics.com/thefifthwave/2009/06/21
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