Data keynote delivered at NEIC 2013 conference in Trondheim, Norway. Argues that research infrastructure providers are all in the data business. Video of presentation online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oCSqYoaRWR0#! (from 4:00 to 34:24).

1. What business are we in?
Data-centric research, service
requirements and national
responses
Data Keynote, NEIC 2013
Dr Andrew Treloar
Australian National Data Service

2. Overview
• What business are we really in?
• Service requirements
• Infrastructure responses
• Research Data Alliance
• Conclusions
CC-BY @atreloar 2

3. Photo CC-BY www.flickr.com/photos/dgjones/7031731377/ 3

4. Photo CC-BY www.flickr.com/photos/pejmanphotos/1322835717/ 4

5. What Business are you in?
Theodore Levitt, The Changing Character of Capitalism,
Harvard Business Review, July–August 1956
“The railroads did not stop growing because the need for
passenger and freight transportation declined. That grew.
The railroads are in trouble today not because that need
was filled by others (cars, trucks, airplanes, and even
telephones) but because it was not filled by the railroads
themselves. They let others take customers away from
them because they assumed themselves to be in the
railroad business rather than in the transportation
business. The reason they defined their industry
incorrectly was that they were railroad oriented instead of
transportation oriented; they were product oriented
instead of customer oriented....”
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6. Photo CC-BY www.flickr.com/photos/spookman01/4904264919/ 6

7. Photo CC-BY www.flickr.com/photos/jerryjohn/63351338/CC-BY @atreloar 7

8. Photo CC-BY www.flickr.com/photos/stiefkind/6454784607/CC-BY @atreloar 8

9. Photo CC-BY www.flickr.com/photos/torkildr/3462607995/CC-BY @atreloar 9

10. CC-BY @atreloar 10

11. We are all in the Data business!
• Researchers
– with some exceptions
• Research infrastructure providers
– with no exceptions
• But what about publications?
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12. LHC output from 2009-2013
= 100PB
(www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/february-
2013/achievement-unlocked-100-petabytes-of-data)
Journal Literature size in context…
@atreloar

13. Data-centric view of research data re-
use
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14. eResearch infrastructure
requirements
• Create/Capture
– automated with capture of associated
metadata
• Store
– with appropriate levels of preservation
• Describe
– information for discovery, determination of
value, access, re-use
• Identify
– indirection operator to reduce brittlenessCC-BY @atreloar 14

15. eResearch infrastructure
requirements
• Register
– in institutional/national/discipline registries
• Discover
– via general or specialised search interfaces
• Access
– with appropriate levels of control, including
humans
• Exploit
– by re-analysis or combination
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16. Photo CC-BY http://www.flickr.com/photos/vintuitive/6855133329/
16

17. I come from a land
downunder…
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AU
• 6 States
• 2 Territories
• 2 islands
• 23M people
NZ
• 2 islands
• 4.5M people

18. You come from the frozen North…
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Nordic Countries
• 5 Countries
• 4 Territories
• So many islands
• 26M people

19. And yet there are some
similarities
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• Australia+NZ – 27.5M people
• Scandinavia – 26M people

20. Australian National Data Service
 An initiative of the Australian Government being
conducted as part of the National Collaborative
Research Infrastructure Strategy ($A24M) and the
Super Science Initiative ($A48M)
 A collaboration between Monash University, the
Australian National University and CSIRO
 30 staff, funded to mid 2015
 More researchers re-using more data more often
 Data as a first-class object
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21. ANDS enables transformation of:
Data that are:
Unmanaged
Disconnected
Invisible
Single use
To Structured Collections that are:
Managed
Connected
Findable
Reusable
so that Australian researchers can easily publish,
discover, access and use/re-use research data.
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22. Data-centric view of research data re-
use
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23. ANDS activities/services
 Plan
 Data management planning tools and resources (N)
 Create/Capture
 69 Data Capture projects at 23 universities
 Store
 working closely with national Research Data Storage
Infrastructure (N)
 Describe
 25 institutional Metadata Stores projects
 National Vocabulary Services (N)
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24. CC-BY @atreloar 24
 Identify (N)
 DataCite DOIs
 Register (N)
 Repository Interchange Format – Collections and Services
(RIF-CS) – based on ISO2146:2010
 Discover (N)
 Research Data Australia
ANDS activities/services

25. ANDS activities/services
 Access
 enforced by underlying data stores
 Exploit
 25 institutionally-focussed projects to demonstrate value of
combining data
 Advocate (N)
 Be the voice for data
 Work with Government and Research Funders to change
settings in favour of data sharing
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26. 26
Research Data Alliance
 The Research Data Alliance (RDA) is a new international
organization (driven now by EC, US, AU, more soon) forming to
facilitate specific, short-term efforts that accelerate the sharing and
exchange of research data
 Unofficial motto: rough consensus and exchanged data
 Working groups will run over 12-18 months to produce
 Adopted standards
 Deployed infrastructure
 Adopted policy
 Implemented best practice, etc.
 Second Plenary in Washington DC, September 16-18
Slide by Fran Berman

27. 27
 Data Type Registries
 Data Foundation and
Terminology
 Practical Policy
 PID Information Types
 Metadata Standards WG
 Community Capability Model
 Working Group on Data Citation:
Making Data Citable
 Structural Biology
 Defining Urban Data Exchange for
Science
 Marine Data Harmonization
 Repository Audit and Certification
 Big Data Analytics
 Metadata Standards Directory
Interest Group (MSDIG)
 The Engagement Group
 Legal Interoperability
 Preservation e-Infrastructure
 UPC Code for Data
 Publishing Data
 Data in Context
 Citation of Dynamic Data
 Agricultural Data Interoperability
Working Groups Interest Groups
Research Data Alliance
Slide by Fran Berman

28. Conclusion
• We are all in the data business
• Researchers need data services from their
infrastructure providers
• A number of services can best be provided
at national or regional level
• Research Data Alliance is working to
develop international solutions for data
interoperability – join us!
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29. Questions?
@atreloar
ands.org.au
rd-alliance.org
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