Mapping the Landscape IG Charter Statement

CODATA/RDA Interest Group Charter

Updated version, dated 15 December 2017, endorsed 6 Feb 2018

The original version of the Charter can be found at the end of this page, and also attached.

Name of Proposed Interest Group: Mapping of the Landscape of Research Data Activities

Introduction (A brief articulation of what issues the IG will address, how this IG is aligned with the RDA mission, and how this IG would be a value-added contribution to the RDA community):

The Internet now connects research data, computer resources and software from globally distributed resources in real time. Where on planet Earth these resources are geographically located is irrelevant, but to enable online access to them, there is a rising need for programmatic access to both data, and to software to find and process data across institutional, domain and national boundaries. This requires the development of standardized machine-to-machine interfaces that loosely couples data and software through agreed formats, interfaces, vocabularies and ontologies, preferably across multiple domains. The complexity of these online infrastructures require that they are built by much wider communities, through effective cooperation and governance, to enable new and innovative forms of interdisciplinary science from globally accessible data stores.

The time is ripe for identifying the key communities and partnerships within the major scientific domains that are developing digital research infrastructures that enable sharing and processing of scientific data and ‘Mapping Of the Landscape’ (MOL) of these activities to further improve collaborations and partnerships, particularly those ‘umbrella’ alliances that are enabling interdisciplinary data sharing.  The key advantage of better Landscape Mapping is that researchers and infrastructure developers will know who is doing what where and hopefully avoid unintended duplication. Further, where duplication of activities are discovered, it is hoped that once groups are aware of equivalent activities, that MOL IG can help become a conduit where these groups can connect, share experiences and learn from each other to improve coordination. The IG will concentrate on efforts applying to digital work products; not physical structures. However, some geographical maps may be used to portray informatic connections between these entities.

At RDA Plenary 8 and Plenary 9, sixteen groups were identified undertaking “MOL’’ activities across a variety of data infrastructures and organisations. This not only reinforced that it was logical to attempt to coordinate all these MOL activities, but at the same time highlighted there was no agreed process on how to undertake a MOL activity so that outputs could be synthesised and leveraged.

 Key points identified at the P8 and P9 meetings were:

1. There were actually a significant number of MOL activities being undertaken;
2. That there was a diversity of research data infrastructures that each activity was trying to map (technology, data/information, computational systems, etc);
3. There was no agreed vocabulary or ontology to describe what research data infrastructures that each MOL is reviewing in a consistent way; and
4. There was a diversity of tools that were being used - each had different functionalities and the tool chosen was influenced to some extent by the type of MOL being undertaken.

User scenario(s) or use case(s) the IG wishes to address (what triggered the desire for this IG in the first place):

The MOL IG is surveying the community of landscape mappers to put together a current list of projects and a legend of vocabularies and visualization tools. The primary purpose of these lists is to increase awareness of current project and existing tools. Additional purposes are to enable current mappers to document and evaluate the differing methodologies/tools and vocabularies used by MOL- mappers (MOLers), share goals, and start to determine shared practices to enable future mapping projects to identify gaps and to align their tools and vocabularies to existing projects.

Ultimately, if the underlying data sets are sufficiently standardised  it should be possible to crosswalk between and interrogate across multiple MOLs.

Objectives (A specific set of focus areas for discussion, including use cases that pointed to the need for the IG in the first place.  Articulate how this group is different from other current activities inside or outside of RDA.):

1. Develop a structured web page with a catalogue of MOL activities related to identifying research data infrastructures: this catalogue can be self populated by any MOL activity;
2. Provide a key list of methodologies, tools, workflows, etc. being used; and
3. Provide a key list of potential map indexes (vocabularies, ontologies, data models).

This group was partially informed by the RDA Atlas of Knowledge (AOK) and the RDA Technical Advisory Board (TAB) Landscape Overview Group (LOG) mapping exercises, though in contrast to this activity, the proposed MOL IG will focus on activities eternally to RDA and at a higher organizational level.

Participation (Address which communities will be involved, what skills or knowledge should they have, and how will you engage these communities.  Also address how this group proposes to coordinate its activity with relevant related groups.):

Please refer to the MOL spreadsheet (available here); it covers a diversity of data infrastructure mapping projects, standards, repositories, organizations. Mappers and map projects across a diversity of domains, including health, arctic, earth sciences, environment, agriculture, and e-infrastructures (Note: this spreadsheet also contains the list of tools and vocabularies/ontologies.)

Related RDA groups

• TAB
• WG/IG Chairs
• All RDA groups are indirectly related to this project
• Education and Training on handling of research data IG (MOL outputs could be used as training tools or used to identify tools.  Many of these maps are considered onboarding materials.
• Data Foundations and Terminology IG (could advise on foundation vocabularies).

Outcomes (Discuss what the IG intends to accomplish.  Include examples of WG topics or supporting IG-level outputs that might lead to WGs later on.):

• Generating a dynamic list of MOL activities
• Developing a portfolio of mapping methodologies, tools, to document best practice for those wanting to undertake MOLs
  • Comparing/contrasting strengths and weaknesses of each
• Developing a list of potential vocabularies/ontologies that can be used as potential legends in MOL exercises
• Example outcomes:
  • Recommendations for others working on ‘mapping the landscape’ activities to increase alignment and possible future integration.
  • Promotion of knowledge of existing exercises and limit duplicate efforts
  • Identification of knowledge gaps.

Mechanism (Describe how often your group will meet and how will you maintain momentum between Plenaries.):

• AGU (December) /EGU (April) meetings - both are large international science meetings and attracted many interested MOL individuals this past year.  We plan to continue taking advantage of these gatherings as a feasible in-person discussion venue. This is however concentrated on Geosciences/Environmental/Earth Systems sciences only.
• Regular telecons and emails.

Timeline (Describe draft milestones and goals for the first 12 months):

March  2018 - P11 session  - introduce new MOLers and road test the tools and vocab resource lists.

September 2018 - P12 session - introduce new MOLers and evaluate if cross MOL mappings can be technically undertaken, and/or automated.

Potential Group Members (Include proposed chairs/initial leadership and all members who have expressed interest):  Bold indicates co-chairs

PLEASE NOTE - the following text was the original version of the Charter and has been deprecated in favor of the above text (which is also attached to this page).  

Name of Proposed Interest Group:   Mapping of the Landscape of Research Data Activities

Introduction (A brief articulation of what issues the IG will address, how this IG is aligned with the RDA mission, and how this IG would be a value-added contribution to the RDA community):

The Internet now connects research data, computer resources and software from globally distributed resources in real time. Where on planet Earth these resources are geographically located is irrelevant, but to enable online access to them, there is a rising need for programmatic access to both data, and to software to find and process data across institutional, domain and national boundaries. This requires the development of standardized machine-to-machine interfaces that loosely couples data and software through agreed formats, interfaces, vocabularies and ontologies, preferably across multiple domains. The complexity of these online infrastructures require that they are built by much wider communities, through effective cooperation and governance, to enable new and innovative forms of interdisciplinary science from globally accessible data stores.

The time is ripe for identifying the key communities and partnerships within the major scientific domains that are developing infrastructures that enable sharing and processing of scientific data and ‘Mapping Of the Landscape’ (MOL) of these activities to further improve collaborations and partnerships, particularly those ‘umbrella’ alliances that are enabling interdisciplinary data sharing.  The key advantage of a better Landscape Map is that researchers will know who is doing what where and hopefully avoid unintended duplication. Further, where duplicate or more activities are discovered, it is hoped that once groups are aware of equivalent activities, that MOL IG can help become a conduit where these groups can connect, share experiences and learned from each other to improve coordination and avoid any more duplication of effort.    

At RDA Plenary 8 and Plenary 9 sixteen groups were identified undertaking   “MoL’’ activities across a variety of data infrastructures and organisations. This not only reinforced that it was logical to attempt to coordinate all these MoL activities, but at the same time highlighted there was no agreed process on how to undertake a MoL activity so that outputs could be synthesised and leveraged

 Key points identified at the P8 and P9 meetings were:

1. There was no agreed vocabulary or ontology to describe what research data infrastructures that each MoL is reviewing in a consistent way; and
2. That there was a diversity of infrastructures that each was trying to map (technology, data/information, computational systems, etc).

User scenario(s) or use case(s) the IG wishes to address (what triggered the desire for this IG in the first place):

MOL activities identified so far are both within and across many scientific domains. These have similar goals and host parallel working groups that support the mission of advancing scientific research through data interoperability. Several are looking for common ‘mapping’ methodologies so that ‘maps’ created by multiple groups can be interconnected and results shared.

Objectives (A specific set of focus areas for discussion, including use cases that pointed to the need for the IG in the first place.   Articulate how this group is different from other current activities inside or outside of RDA.):

1. Develop a web page with a catalogue of MOL activities related to identifying research data infrastructures;
2. Develop a synthesis of existing MoL activities for research data infrastructure activities within and beyond RDA;
3. Investigate mapping practices including methodologies, tools, workflows, etc. and identifying whether any key pieces are missing; and
4. Discuss opportunities for collaborations on existing MoL exercises.

This group was partially informed by the RDA Atlas of Knowledge and TAB LOG mapping exercises, though in contrast to this activity, the proposed MoL IG will focus on activities  eternally to RDA and at a higher organizational level.

Participation (Address which communities will be involved, what skills or knowledge should they have, and how will you engage these communities.  Also address how this group proposes to coordinate its activity with relevant related groups.):

1. Arctic Data Committee Landscape Exercise (Peter Pulsifer, http://arcticdc.org/products/data-ecosystem-map)
2. EarthCube (http://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=9bde7150da474c828d61a5e67e98855d, http://www.goring.org/resources/neo4j_engagement.html)
3. ESRI mapping tool (http://dusk.geo.orst.edu/ec-story) - developed by Dawn Wright of ESRI that was used to map the location of, and types of communities within EarthCube
4. Belmont Forum (Rowena Davis)
5. Atlas of Knowledge (Simon Lambert, RDA/EU http://core.cloud.dcu.gr/rda_aok/ )
6. AuScope (Lesley Wyborn)
7. CODATA Task Group on Coordinating Data Standards amongst Scientific Unions (Marshall Ma, http://www.codata.org/task-groups/coordinating-data-standards )
8. TAB LOG (Steve Diggs,  [link]
9. RDA Education IG connection?  (Sophie Hou pointed to Amy Nernburger’s education landscape survey as a possible connection point at the AGU in-person meeting)
10. USGS Community for Data Integration (CDI) (Leslie Hsu, CDI wiki). Current working groups include Tech Stack, Semantic Web, Data Management, Citizen Science, Mobile App, and more. CDI Community can be engaged through Leslie Hsu, who coordinates communication to the 500+ members from within and outside of USGS. We have some initial coordination such as joint Tech Dive monthly calls with ESIP, and are interested in leveraging more opportunities, events, etc. to reduce redundancy and bring information to our members. Can serve as link to USGS data assets.
11. RISCAPE (European Research infrastructures in the international landscape) (Ari Asmi)
12. ESIP (Earth Science Information Partners) (Erin Robinson)

Related RDA groups

• TAB
• WG/IG Chairs
• Education and Training on Handling of Research Data IG
• Brokering IG
• Data Foundations and Terminology IG

Outcomes (Discuss what the IG intends to accomplish.  Include examples of WG topics or supporting IG-level outputs that might lead to WGs later on.):

Given that the landscapes of interest are eternally changing making a map or maps virtually impossible to keep current, this IG will instead focus on more manageable areas of alignment.

• Example WG topics:
  • Developing a vocabulary/ontology to describe components of research data infrastructures (that this does not exist has been a huge stumbling block for the MoL IG)
  • Mapping methodologies to document best practice for those wanting to undertake MoL’s
  • Developing a portfolio of Landscape mapping tools and comparing/contrasting strengths and weaknesses of each
  • Example outcomes:
  • Recommendations for others working on ‘mapping the landscape’ activities to increase alignment and possible future integration.
  • Promotion of knowlege of existing exercises

Mechanism (Describe how often your group will meet and how will you maintain momentum between Plenaries.):

• ESIP meetings - ESIP runs two meetings each year in the US, one in Summer and one in Winter.Their off-Plenary schedule directly complements the RDA calendar and distance virtual meeting options are supported as part of the meetings.
• AGU meetings - The AGU Fall Meeting is a large international science meeting and attracted many interested MoL individuals this past year.We plan to continue taking advantage of this gathering as a feasible in-person discussion venue.

Timeline (Describe draft milestones and goals for the first 12 months):

September 2017 - P10 session: Mini Summit and consolidation of work plan

December 2017 - AGU meeting and progress report

March  2018 - P11 session and revisit workplan

September 2018 - P12