Cyber Technology Is Not Enough: Social Structures to Foster Data-Rich, Discipline-Liminal Discourse Among Humans and Machines (IN22A-03)

This slide deck was presented by Dave Fulker at AGU 2023 on Tuesday, Dec 12 from 10:40-10:50 AM PT. The presentation was part of a session titled: Flourishing Science Commons: Data Science, Open Science, and Knowledge Communities. 

ABSTRACT:

Scientists and data scientists sometimes imbue the goal of “interoperability” with the expectation that data, if sufficiently well described and accessible, may be used effectively across geographic and disciplinary boundaries without human intervention. In contrast, this presentation proposes that the most fruitful frontiers of data usage and exchange require substantial human interaction through intentionally developed social structures. Over three decades, OPeNDAP has developed open access methods and software to support a computing framework for data exchange, specialized for remote dataset inspection, subsetting and retrieval. This framework is widely used by both users and providers of geoscience data, especially by agencies like NASA with large-scale dataset holdings. Having thus made substantial progress toward technological interoperability, OPeNDAP is launching a community engagement initiative to strategically foster meaningful, data-rich discourse among multidisciplinary scientists and data scientists. Consistent with the goals for this session, our initiative is positioned at the intersection of tools, techniques and a carefully chosen set of social mechanisms. Targeting audiences that span the spectrum from science to data-science in academia, government and the private sector, our social mechanisms will include organizational partnerships; decentralized and centralized modes of community interaction; collaborative discussion platforms; stewardship of community champions; communication at multiple scales; education; and training. This initiative is rooted in a commons theory value proposition, namely: boundary-stretching scientific advances are most likely to occur in a community that is built upon a multiplicity of viewpoints (from geoscientists, data scientists and others), upon open sharing of resources (software as well as data), upon community-based management and upon collaborative knowledge creation.