Short Bio
Christine L. Borgman, Professor Presidential Chair in Information Studies at UCLA, is the author of more than 200 publications in information studies, computer science, and communication. Her monographs, Scholarship in the Digital Age: Information, Infrastructure, and the Internet (MIT Press, 2007) and From Gutenberg to the Global Information Infrastructure: Access to Information in a Networked World (MIT Press, 2000), each won the Best Information Science Book of the Year award from the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIST). Her next book, Big Data, Little Data, No Data: Scholarship in the Networked World, will be published by MIT Press in early 2015. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the Association for Computing Machinery, and a recipient of the Paul Evan Peters Award from the Coalition for Networked Information, Association for Research Libraries, and EDUCAUSE, and the Research in Information Science Award from ASIST. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, U.S. Co-Chair of the CODATA-ICSTI Task Group on Data Citation and Attribution, and previously served on the U.S. National Academies Board on Research Data and Information and the U.S. National CODATA. See: http://is.gseis.ucla.edu/cborgman
Data, Data, Everywhere, Nor Any Drop to Drink
Abstract
The Research Data Alliance is convening researchers, policy makers, funders, repository managers, librarians, archivists, publishers, open data activists, and other stakeholders to address the stewardship of the world’s research data assets. Overarching issues are becoming clear: the need for coordination among stakeholders, economic challenges to the sustainability of archives, and misaligned public policies for open access to publications and data. The practice and policy issues on the ground are much less well understood, however. Norms for the acquisition, release, and reuse of data –and the very definition of data – vary widely between research domains, and motivations to share data vary accordingly. Practices for the ownership and control of data influence what can be released, when, to whom, and under what conditions. These practices, in turn, vary by domain, jurisdiction, rules of universities and funding agencies, and by local context. Data are assets in some respects and liabilities in others. Releasing data offers benefits, but so does controlling data. The workforces required for the stewardship of data are many and varied; they too must be nurtured and sustained. Wise investments must be made in knowledge infrastructures – and soon – if research data are to remain useful for generations to come. This talk is based on the forthcoming book, Big Data, Little Data, No Data: Scholarship in the Networked World (MIT Press).