Global open research commons: what it takes and the road to get there. Reflections and discussion on creating a commons attribute model and a commons integration roadmap
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Welcome and icebreakers (10 min)
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Introduction to meeting and previous work (10 mins)
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Take away messages from P20
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Review of task groups and workflow
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Presentation of GORC-IG supporting outputs (10 min)
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Open discussion on definitions and interpretations
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Presentation of GORC-WG final outputs (35 min)
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Introduction, context, and intent of outputs (10 min)
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Showcase and summary of main outputs (5 min)
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Open discussion on commons attribute model (20 min)
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Discussion on what comes next for the GORC-IG (20 min)
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Update and workflow for commons integration roadmap (5 min)
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Discussion on new or continuing WGs (15 min)
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Next steps and conclusions (5 min)
The Global Open Research Commons Interest Group (GORC IG) is working on a set of deliverables to support coordination amongst national, pan-national and domain specific organizations as they work to build the interoperable resources necessary to enable researchers to address societal grand challenges. The realized vision of GORC will provide frictionless access to all research artifacts including, but not limited to: data, publications, software and compute resources; and will rely on metadata, vocabulary, and identification services being available to everyone everywhere, at all times. The GORC IG is working to develop a roadmap for global alignment to help set priorities for Commons development and integration. In support of this, the GORC IG has developed the GORC IG typology of commons essential elements supporting output.
The GORC International Model WG works under the umbrella of the GORC IG. The WG’s goal is to evaluate and recommend a model for attributes for global research commons that allows researchers and developers to coordinate services and create roadmaps for international interoperability. In pursuit of this goal the WG has instituted a speaker series where representatives of Commons from around the world share the current state and vision of their initiatives with the WG.
The WG has been developing a narrative document containing descriptions of functions and attributes of different commons in parallel with the speaker series and releasing draft versions of commons attribute models. Task Groups were formed to focus on specific areas of the model, which is framed and structured according to the GORC IG typology of commons essential elements.
By September 2023, the WG speaker series will conclude. In total, the WG will have been addressed by representatives from 13 different commons, covering a range of domains and nationalities: IVOA, NII RDC in Japan, EOSC, ARDC in Australia, KISTI KRDC in Korea, CCADI in Canada, MOSP in Malaysia, the Digital Research Alliance of Canada, IBICT in Brazil, NeiC in Norway, CST in China, AOSP, and NFDI in Germany. Each speaker was provided with the same instructions and questionnaire inquiring about their roles and missions, the scope and services they provide, how they measure success, cybersecurity, social and organizational constructs, and the current state and future vision of their commons. Extensive summaries of each research commons’ presentation can be found in our narrative document.
The form of the deliverable from the WG will be a commons attribute model and multiple narrative documents that will be derived from our current narrative document. Each research commons represented in the speaker series is analyzed in regards to how the GORC IG Essential elements typology applies to their structure and services. A draft version 0.5 of our commons attribute model was released to the community on April 27, 2023 and draws on descriptions provided by the GORC IG Essential elements, RDA WG and IG outputs, articles and reports published by the digital research infrastructure community, and from observations of the commons themselves. Attributes are grouped under the umbrellas of the GORC IG Essential Elements, and may be considered sub-elements in this typology. KPIs that were reported by commons participating in the speaker series and from the community have been summarized and compared. A version 0.6 of the model is expected to be released to the community in July 2023, and a final version released in a request for comment on September 14, 2023. Task groups will evaluate and refine the commons attribute model from version 0.5 through the final deliverable in addition to contributing to the narrative outputs and other secondary outputs.
The objective of this meeting will be:
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Present and discuss the supporting outputs of the GORC-IG
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Present and discuss the final outputs of the GORC-WG
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Discuss the next steps for the GORC-IG
Following a series of BoF sessions, an initial Interest Group meeting was held at P14 in Helsinki. Since then, initiatives such as EOSC and ARDC have matured and advanced the definitions of their core elements and operating methods. This was used to provide definitions of the Commons and a proposed typology at P16 for validation by the wider community, which has since been published as a supporting output.
As a BoF the GORC-WG submitted an original case statement to the TAB in early January 2021. The WG was endorsed by RDA on July 30, 2021. The group has been meeting monthly since the group’s first regular session on June 17, 2021, starting a speaker series in November 2021. Several draft deliverables have been shared with the community during 2023, and the WG is preparing to submit final outputs to RDA. The WG timeline runs until early November 2023.
The Global Open Research Commons IG will coordinate global activity on the development of Open Science platforms such as the EOSC, AOSP and ARDC. The Interest Group holds the overall mission and defines key activities for development through working groups, the first of which is focusing on the features/attributes of ORCs, and documenting a subset of international clouds/commons. It will also socialise the community to the concept, definition and value of Research Commons.
The GORC International Model WG works under the umbrella of the Global Open Research Commons (GORC) IG. Both entities are working towards a roadmap for the integration of research services in pursuit of cross-country and cross-discipline global open research commons. The WG’s goal is to evaluate and recommend a model for functions/attributes for global research commons that allows researchers and developers to coordinate services and create roadmaps for international interoperability. In addition, when possible, the group is capturing KPIs or metrics that can be used to track engagement or success of services provided by Commons. In pursuit of this goal the WG has instituted a speaker series where representatives of Commons from around the world share the current state and vision of their initiatives with the WG. The WG has been developing a narrative document containing descriptions of functions and attributes of different commons in parallel with the speaker series and releasing draft versions of commons attribute models. Task Groups were formed to focus on specific areas of the model.
The WG released a draft output to the community on April 27, 2023: V0.5 of the commons attribute model.
The most recent WG session was held at P20 Gothenburg (hybrid) along with a co-located workshop. March 21 and 24 2023 respectively; P20 slides, notes, and recording as well as the workshop slides, notes, and partial recording are available online.
A WG session was held at P19 Seoul/Virtual. June 21 and 23 2022; Slides, notes, and session recordings (main recording, repeat recording) are available online.
A WG session was held at P18 (Virtual). November 3rd and 4th 2021; Slides, notes (main, repeat) and session recordings (main recording, repeat recording) are available online
A WG session was held at P17 in Edinburgh/Virtual. Slides and notes (main, repeat) are available online.
A Benchmarking BoF session was held at P16 in Costa Rica. Slides and notes are available online.
The Data Together leadership (representing RDA, CODATA, GOFAIR and WDS) have convened a series of meetings to discuss how to effectively coordinate their GORC initiatives. At the CODATA 2019 'Towards next-generation data-driven science: policies, practices and platforms' conference in Beijing in September 2019, a session was held on Coordinating Global Open Science Commons Initiatives. A follow up introduction event was held in June 2021. Representatives from the WG also organized and participated in the SCIDATACON 2021 Session: Update from the Global Commons on October 21st, 2021. In all cases a number of presentations were given and further discussion was focused on understanding possible areas for consensus building and collaboration, surveying initiatives that aim to coordinate Open Science activities and reduce ’siloing’, refining the initial typology and framework and examining the potential for further coordination and interoperability. In addition, WG chairs are also participating in OSCER, the Open Science Commons Executive Roundtable.
Suggested literature for the Groups also includes:
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Principles for Open Scholarly infrastructures https://cameronneylon.net/blog/principles-for-open-scholarly-infrastructures
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Elinor Ostrom’s Principles for Managing A Commons https://www.onthecommons.org/magazine/elinor-ostroms-8-principles-managing-commmons
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The International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC) https://www.iasc-commons.org
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