July 27, 2007
For those not familiar with the Web 2.0 numeric data utility Swivel - their mission “is to liberate the world’s data and make it useful so new insights can be discovered and shared”. However, it looks like Swivel are going official! Some NGOs are directly uploading their data into Swivel while in other cases Swivel are gathering data directly from ‘official’ Web sites such as OECD, ILO, UNESCO, WHO - see http://www.
July 12, 2007
The UKDA celebrated its anniversary in style, with a reception at the Houses of Parliament in London on Wednesday, 10th July (2007), a forward-looking workshop in its new building at the University of Essex on the 11th, with a return of some familiar faces who have moved on to retirement or other fields. See press release at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/stories/2007/07/news_ukda.aspx The occasion called for reflection on the past, as the news story illuminates:
June 27, 2007
There is a nice article in University Affairs about Carol Perry and her work. Raises some important issues about preserving research data and researchers perceptions. Chuck Humphrey also raises the profile of a NDA in Canada. http://www.universityaffairs.ca/issues/2007/june_july/datastorage_01.html Posted on behalf of Bo Wandschneider
June 19, 2007
Back in early April, I canvassed the IASSIST list for examples of articles, studies, or any publication that misuses data. My original message: “Do you keep news stories that mis-state, misinterpret or otherwise misuse numeric data? I have a faculty member who would like to use such examples to demonstrate to her students the importance of numeracy in real life. I have a few examples but suspect others of you may stash this kind of thing in a “Can you believe this?
June 15, 2007
The IASSIST Quarterly (IQ Vol. 30 issue 2 - 2006) is now available on the web: http://iassistdata.org/publications/iq/iqvol30.html Winter came late in Denmark, but suddenly the situation was normal: snow came and traffic stopped. And now 14 days after spring was here in March. I sat outside in the sun reading articles. Still it’s more difficult to write articles outside, we are waiting for the improvements of the computer screens. However, some people have stayed inside to write articles for the IASSIST Quarterly.
June 15, 2007
The following press release was posted to the IASSIST listserv by Bo Wandschneider on 11 June: Ottawa: June 11, 2007 The Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) is pleased to announce the launch of the Ontario Data Documentation, Extraction Service and Infrastructure Initiative (ODESI), which will provide university researchers with unprecedented access to a significant number of datasets in a web-based data extraction system that will be delivered through the highly successful Scholars’ Portal model.
May 25, 2007
Here it is: music by Leonard Cohen, lyrics by Melanie Wright and company. Now you can sing along to the YouTube video. Open Data We made our way to Montreal Where everybody knows f&*% all And no one’s gonna tell you “see you later." Admin committee steaming hot Went on and on ’til we asked what Does all this have to do with Open Data? Chorus: Open Data, Open Data,
May 22, 2007
Until next year of course! This year’s conference is done and Anastassia, Susan, and the wonderful Local arrangement folks at McGill are probably breathing a sigh of relief! Lots of informations was presented and some of it was absorbed! More will likely be reviewed over coming weeks preceded by the usual “Now I know I saw a presentation about this at IASSIST….” If you were one of those fine presenters, please don’t forget to submit a paper to the IQ (instructions for doing so are on the IASSIST website).
May 22, 2007
The May 21 issue of Boing Boing describes the InfoBunker, a “Cold War era government command bunker converted into a data center”. I realize that they’re not referring to the same kind of data center we mean, but it was kind of fun to read about a data center that has “a self-sufficient power systems (six days’ worth of diesel fuel; 17,000 gallons of water (for drinking and fire suppression); military-grade NBC air filtration).
May 18, 2007
Your trusty blogger attended Data Access Questions: Open and Shut (session D3). She assumed that, as an august member of the blogging press, she would be afforded a primo seat. But no, she again found herself sitting on the floor in the corner, next to another fake potted palm! Thank heavens the session was moved to a neighboring room—larger and with a microphone. Obviously, a popular session on the challenges of working with data agreements from the perspectives of acquisition and user support.
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