Polar research is inherently interdisciplinary and is becoming more so. Correspondingly, polar data managers have been working to meet very diverse communities and needs, especially after the progress of the International Polar Year 2007-8 (IPY). But is it enough? Despite their best efforts, the polar data and research communities can be rather insular. The unique challenges of polar research and data management may sometimes blind us to relevant developments in other parts of the world. At the same time, global initiatives and research in the lower latitudes often underplay, or even ignore, data needs and solutions in the polar regions. This conference emphasizes the need to extend polar issues more globally, yet the polar voice is still not loud enough in global conversations about data infrastructure. Infrastructure, by its nature, must work across all scales. It requires a “glocal” perspective that simultaneously embraces both universalizing and particularizing tendencies. In this presentation I will discuss how there needs to be a constant interplay between local implementation and global design of data infrastructure. I will describe where the polar regions have had success in this area and where key challenges remain. I will describe a path forward for the polar data community to be better represented on the global stage through initiatives like the Research Data Alliance while also amplifying their effectiveness at the regional and local level. A goal is to improve the global understanding of polar issues while also improving the practice of polar data practitioners.

1. Unless otherwise noted, the slides in this presentation are licensed by Mark A. Parsons under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License
Going Glocal—Polar Data in a Global Infrastructure
Mark A. Parsons
0000-0002-7723-0950
Secretary General
Polar Data Forum 2
Waterloo, Canada
27 October 2015

2. Infrastructure is hard to conceive and describe
because when it works, it’s transparent,
ubiquitous, and embedded in our daily work.

7. Dynamics of Infrastructure
Edwards, et al. 2007 Understanding Infrastructure: Dynamics, Tensions, and
Design.
• Infrastructures become “ubiquitous, accessible, reliable, and
transparent” as they mature.
• Systems Networks Inter-networks
• “system-building, characterized by the deliberate and successful
design of technology-based services.”
• “technology transfer across domains and locations results in
variations on the original design, as well as the emergence of
competing systems.”
• Finally, “a process of consolidation characterized by gateways that
allow dissimilar systems to be linked into networks.”

8. Not what, but
When is infrastructure?

9. Not what, but
When and
Who is infrastructure?

10. Bridges and
Gateways
Gateways are often wrongly
understood as “technologies,”
i.e. hardware or software
alone. A more accurate
approach conceives them as
combining a technical solution
with a social choice, i.e. a
standard, both of which must
be integrated into existing
users’ communities of
practice. Because of this,
gateways rarely perform
perfectly.
— Edwards et al. 2007

11. Infrastructure is
Relationships, interactions, and connections
between people, technologies, and institutions
(that helps data flow and be useful)

12. Research Data Alliance
Vision
Researchers and innovators openly share data across
technologies, disciplines, and countries to address the
grand challenges of society.
Mission
RDA builds the social and technical bridges that enable
open sharing of data.

13. Glocality—Bridging across scales
Glocalization “means the simultaneity—the co-presence—
of both universalizing and and particularizing tendencies.”
— Roland Robertson

14. Most overarching messages from ASSW
(IARPC) emphasize glocal work.
• Need greater urgency and awareness of the global importance of changes
in the Arctic.
• Must anticipate not respond to changes in the Arctic. This requires sustained
observations and improved understanding of local, regional and global
processes.
• The rapidly changing Arctic initiates changes that cascade through the
global system … Linkages across disciplines, scales, and diverse
knowledge systems must be addressed.
• Understanding … requires increased international scientific cooperation,
including contributions from non-Arctic states.
• Need more effective and appropriate use and dissemination of local and
traditional knowledge.
• Sustainable infrastructure development and innovation to strengthen the
resilience of Arctic communities requires a collaborative approach.

15. Antarctic
Treaty
System
Human
Presence
Eyes on
the Sky
Dynamic
Earth
Life
on the
Precipice
Antarctic
Atmosphere
Southern
Ocean and
Sea Ice
Ice Sheet
and
Sea Level Ecological
Drivers
Stressors
Governance and Policy
Conservation
Global
Weather
and
Climate
World Ocean
Global Biosphere
Space
Invasions
Sun Ionosphere
SCAR Horizon Scan
(from the summary presentation)

16. Examples of glocal data leadership
from the Poles
• Open and ethical sharing
• Data discovery across difference
• New levels of data integration and reuse

17. Different meaning based on different sense
• Example of defining location of
“floe edge” based on Remote
Sensing perspective vs. local
experience
• See eloka-arctic.org

18. Some Challenges
• Are the poles heard?
• We’re still a small community with limited capacity
• Discovery systems still overly simplistic and catalog/registry based OR very
heavyweight and top down
• Funding alignment.

20. Some Challenges
• Are the poles heard?
• We’re still a small community with limited capacity
• Discovery systems still overly simplistic and catalog/registry based OR very
heavyweight and top down.
• Funding alignment.

21. Some examples of ways forward
1. Continue what you are doing
2. Join the Research Data Alliance
3. Become a certified repository and help define what that means.
4. Broaden the concept of “domain repositories” in international discourse. (RDA
Domain Repository IG, WDS, CDF)
5. Bring polar use cases and solutions to discovery and brokering systems (RDA
Brokering Governance WG; GEOSS; GSDI)
6. Put Persistent Identifiers on data, documents, people, organisations,
instruments—Everything! (RDA, DataCite, ORCID, CASRAI, etc.)
7. Share lessons learned nationally and internationally.

22. COPDESS
Registering and
Certifying Repositories

23. Some examples of ways forward
1. Continue what you are doing
2. Join the Research Data Alliance
3. Become a certified repository and help define what that means.
4. Broaden the concept of “domain repositories” in international discourse. (RDA
Domain Repository IG, WDS, CDF)
5. Bring polar use cases and solutions to discovery and brokering systems (RDA
Brokering Governance WG; GEOSS; GSDI)
6. Put Persistent Identifiers on data, documents, people, organisations,
instruments—Everything! (RDA, DataCite, ORCID, CASRAI, etc.)
7. Share lessons learned nationally and internationally.

24. ‹#›
An Area of Convergence and Agreement
Internet Domain
nodes with IP numbers
packages being exchanged
standardized protocols
Data Domain
objects with PID numbers
objects being exchanged
standardized protocols
Slide courtesy P. Wittenberg from L. Lannom from D. Clark

25. Some examples of ways forward
1. Continue what you are doing
2. Join the Research Data Alliance
3. Become a certified repository and help define what that means.
4. Broaden the concept of “domain repositories” in international discourse. (RDA
Domain Repository IG, WDS, CDF)
5. Bring polar use cases and solutions to discovery and brokering systems (RDA
Brokering Governance WG; GEOSS; GSDI)
6. Put Persistent Identifiers on data, documents, people, organisations,
instruments—Everything! (RDA, DataCite, ORCID, CASRAI, etc.)
7. Share lessons learned nationally and internationally.

26. PIC
User
PIC
User
PIC
Guidelines
& Norms
PIC
Toolbox
PIC
Toolbox
Agree
Agree
PIC
Data
PIC
Data
PIC
Data
PIC
Data
PIC
Data
PIC
Partners
Curation
Preservation
PIC
Data
PIC
Data
PIC
Data
Direct
High-level
Services
PIC
Data
A Conceptual Architecture for the Polar Information Commons

27. 27
The Research Data Alliance Community Today
Total RDA Community Members: 3378
from 104 countries
56 Working and Interest Groups

28. Plenary 7
1-3 March 2016
Tokyo, Japan

29. 12-16 September 2016
in
Denver, Colorado, USA

30. Info:
enquiries@rd-alliance.org
@resdatall