Presentation given by DRI Director Dr Natalie Harrower on 15 July 2016, opening panel 'Digital Data Sharing: Opportunities and Challenges of Opening Research' at Digital Humanities 2016 conference, Krakow, Poland.

1. Digital Data Sharing
Opportunities and Challenges of
Opening Research
Dr. Natalie Harrower
Director
Digital Repository of Ireland
@natalieharrower

2. Organisations convening this panel
Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI)
Research Data Alliance (RDA)
Why we think this panel matters
The intelligent and charming people on
this panel
@natalieharrower

3. What is the Digital Repository of Ireland?
• A national Trusted Digital Repository (TDR)
• Archives, preserves, shares humanities and social
sciences data
• Research centre for best practices in digital collections,
metadata, digital archiving, data curation, open access,
open source
• Runs several leveraged projects including Inspiring Ireland
(DH/DA)
• Widely connected to European networks & initiatives
• Building capacity in research data management

4. What is the Research Data Alliance?
• Grassroots organisation (funded: EU, US, Australia)
• ‘to create the social and technical bridges to promote data
sharing’
• Believe that sharing data makes for better research,
innovation, efficiencies
• Free to join: rd-alliance.org
• Plenary conferences every 6 months: Sept 2016 in Denver;
April 2017 in Barcelona
• ‘Real work’ in the interest and working groups
@natalieharrower

5. Africa
3% Asia
9%
Australasia
5%
Europe
48%
North America
34%
South America
1%
Total RDA Community Members: 4197
from 111 countries
Who is RDA?
Type
Members
(April 2016)
Press & Media 27
Policy/Funding Agency 62
Large Enterprise 94
IT Consultancy/Development 134
Small and Medium Enterprise 240
Other 228
Government/Public Services 657
Academia/Research 2755
TOTAL 4197
www.rd-alliance.org/about-rda
990
1273
1655
2047
2403
2635
2878
3123
3432 3695
4017 4197
Aug -
Oct
Nov -
Jan
Feb -
Apr
May -
July
Aug -
Oct
Nov -
Jan
Feb -
Apr
May -
July
Aug -
Oct
Nov -
Jan
Feb-
Apr
May -
July
www.rd-alliance.org
@resdatall

6. Why we have convened this panel
• Sharing of data is long established in the Humanities, but
the concept of ‘research data’ in humanities scholarship
is less developed
• Data stewardship is particularly relevant to DH, which
often deals with large datasets, qualitative data
• Humanities data is unique (or is it?)
• RDA membership has been driven by the hard sciences
and life sciences; want to increase voice of Humanities
• RDA outputs speak to best practices – community driven
– so let’s make sure they are relevant to work we do.

7. Introductions
Orla Murphy, University College Cork, Ireland
• ‘The Practitioner’
• Director of the BA in Digital Humanities and Information
Systems
• Coordinator of MA in Digital Arts and Humanities, and MA in
Digital Cultures
• Irish National Coordinator for the DARIAH ERIC
@natalieharrower

8. Introductions
Rebecca Grant, Digital Repository of Ireland
• ‘The Digital Archivist’
• Professional archivist with Humanities background
(previously at Irish Film Archive and an Irish visual archive)
• European co-chair of RDA Interest Group “Archives and
Records Professionals for Research Data”
• PhD Student: “Managing and Archiving Research Data”
@natalieharrower

9. Introductions
Martin Donnelly, Digital Curation Centre, UK
• ‘The Research Data Manager’
• Senior institutional support officer
• Head of the DCC consultancy services
• Convenes Research Data Management Forum events
• Involved in EU-funded FOSTER open science training
project
@natalieharrower

10. Introductions
Ingrid Dillo, Data Archiving and Network Services,
Netherlands
• ‘The RDA Advisor’
• Deputy Director of DANS
• Member of the International Board of the Data Seal of
Approval (DSA)
• Member of RDA Technical Advisory Board, co-chair of
several interest groups at RDA
• Co-chair of OECD high level expert group on sustainable
data repositories