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IASSIST/IFDO 2009: Tampere, Finland May 26th-May 29th, 2009

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latest update 20010-07-21

Program

Monday, May 25

9:00am - 5:00pm

AC meeting

  • Location: University of Tampere, Linna Building, Room RH K106

DDI Alliance meeting

  • Location: University of Tampere, Linna Building, Room LS K109

Tuesday, May 26

9:00am - 4:00pm

Workshops

  • Location: University of Tampere, Linna Building

» See separate workshop program

10:30am - 1:00pm

DDI Alliance Steering Committee

  • Location: Juvenes Kokouskeskus, restaurant Juhlakeskus

2:00pm - 6:00pm

IFDO meeting

  • Location: University of Tampere, Linna Building, Room RH K112.

    Please contact IFDO President Ekkehard Mochmann [ekkehard.mochmann at gesis.org] for further information about the meeting agenda.

4:15pm - 5:15pm

Committee and Action Group meetings

Membership Committee

  • Location: University of Tampere, Linna Building, Room LS K113

Strategic Plan Action Group

  • Location: University of Tampere, Linna Building, Room LS K109

5:30pm - 

Program Committee 2009

  • Location: University of Tampere, Linna Building, Room LS K109

6:00pm - 8:00pm

FSD's 10 year anniversary event for invited guests

  • Location: University of Tampere, Main Building, Upper Foyer and Lecture Hall A1

Wednesday, May 27   Thursday | Friday

9:00am - 10:00am

Plenary: Digital Challenges - Bridging the gap between publication and data
[presentation][ webcast ]

  • Adam Farquhar, Head of Digital Library Technology (The British Library)
  • Chair: Sami Borg (Finnish Social Science Data Archive)
  • Location: Tampere Hall, Small Auditorium
    » Show abstract.

The digital age has seen a widening fissure in our scholarly infrastructure - the gap between published research and the datasets that underlie it. While there are well established services for published research, there is only an incomplete patchwork of inconsistently supported services for datasets. For example, there is little agreement on how to identify, cite, or catalogue datasets. The implications for future use of today's research are even more concerning. This talk will outline some of the challenges we face as we try to bridge this gap and highlight some emerging practices that could change the situation if they become widely adopted.

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10:00am - 10:30am

Coffee Break

  • Location: Tampere Hall, Restaurant Fuuga (and the adjoining foyers)

10:30am - 12:30pm

Concurrent Sessions

A1: Tools and Implementations of DDI 3.0

  • Chair: Wendy Thomas (Minnesota Population Center & DDI Technical Implementation Committee)
  • Location: Tampere Hall, Sonaatti 1

Tools and Implementations of DDI 3.0: Recent Developments

  • Arofan Gregory (Open Data Foundation) - Overview
    Jannik V. Jensen (DDA) - DDI Editing Suite [ presentation ]
    Jeremy Iverson (Algenta) - Colectica [ presentation ]
    Alerk Amin (Tilburg University) - CentERData's LISS system [ presentation ]
    Oliver Hopt (GESIS) - MISSY2
    Joachim Wackerow (GESIS) - Exanda [ presentation ]
    Dana Mueller (IAB) - IAB FDZ Reserch Data Center [ presentation ]
    Chuck Humphrey (University of Alberta) - Canadian RDC [ presentation ]
    » Show abstract.

This session is an overview of new tools developments since the initial set of DDI 3.0 tools was demonstrated at IASSIST 2008. The goal is to show people how DDI 3.0 is being implemented in new tools, to provide ideas for implementation, and contacts for each of the various tools. This panel will provide a brief (5 minute) overview of the entire tools picture (including references to new tools which have their own sessions at IASSIST), and will then provide short (10-15 minute) demos of:

  • CentERdata's tool for documenting/disseminating longitudinal online panel surveys (LISS panel)
  • The DDI Foundation Tools Editing Suite, an open-source implementation developed by a group of organizations from the DDI community
  • Exanda, a tool built by GESIS for tabulating data and making visualizations, with outputs in several formats
  • MISSY 2: another GESIS tool for documenting and viewing the German microcensus
  • Editing and database tools developed at the IAB.

This panel is very much a follow-up from last years', to show how aggressively DDI 3.0 is being adopted, and to show the various tools and approaches available to those who are looking at DDI 3.0 implementation themselves.

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A2: Semi-Permeable Boundaries Among Institutions

  • Chair: Jon Stiles (UC Berkeley, UCDATA Archive)
  • Location: Tampere Hall, Aaria

Semi-Permeable Boundaries Among Institutions: Facilitating the Flow of Between Service Settings

Data Services have evolved in very different institutions in different places: in some places, data have traditionally been lodged in centralized national data archives, in others they evolved in the libraries, and in others they began their life in local data archives. None of these settings is static - and they are certainly in transition - but each has different strengths and weaknesses. Increasingly, these institutional settings must confront the ways in which they complement, supplement, compete with, and coordinate with one another. In this session, the presenters will discuss both formal and informal initiatives which have attempted to redefine institutional boundaries with respect to kinds of services provided (e.g. statistical consulting, data discovery, file manipulation, preservation), the kinds of data dealt with (e.g. restricted vs. public, aggregate vs. microdata), and the kinds of expertise needed. The results at times blur or remove boundaries, and at times preserve institutional boundaries through formal or informal agreements to divide complementary services or activities. Whether strengthened, weakened, or simply shifted along different lines, the intent in each case is to increase the mobility of data and support services between the most appropriate providers and the data users.

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A3: Practicing What We Provide: Surveying Users of Surveys

  • Chair: Pam Baxter (Cornell University)
  • Location: Tampere Hall, Small Auditorium

The Data That Did Not Arrive for the Date. Talking the Nonresponse Blues

We have the exact formulas for computing sample errors when performing surveys with probability sampling. Most social scientists can recite some practical heuristics to the tune of if you have about 1000 questionnaires your error rate will be close to +/- 3 per cent. The precision of the actual calculations have vanished from memory, but some parts of the sampling theory are sufficiently sticky. However, the true and sad story is that the precision delivered by statisticians is unnecessary as the plausible error of nonresponse is momentous compared to the sample error even in surveys considered to have high response rates. Argumentation to diminish the effect of nonresponse is sought in methods like comparison with known values for the population and extrapolation in time for the nonresponse. The focus will be on the lightweight and insufficiency of the argumentation obtained by these methods. The presentation will demonstrate nonresponse through preliminary results from a data collection of companies using mailed out business survey, repeated phone reminding procedures with note taking, information obtained from valid registers, and special information evaluating the presence of the company. I'll be in your survey if you'll be in mine.

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Data Services Awareness and Use Survey 2008: Five-year Follow-up at the University of Tennessee

In fall 2003, the University of Tennessee Libraries conducted a survey to assess awareness of its data services among faculty and graduate students in selected departments. The information collected has been helpful in understanding how data users learn about and use Data Services, how successful various promotional and outreach methods have been, and what types of data are of interest, among other things. In fall 2008, we conducted a similar survey to assess the current state of needs for and use of secondary data, and whether there has been an increase in awareness of Data Services following several years of increased promotion and outreach activities. This session will discuss the survey process, some of the key results, and how the recent survey results compare to the 2003 survey.

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Taking the Pulse of our Members: Creating a Healthy Data Environment

Staying in touch with users is an important part of being able to provide them with the right kind of service. After 12 years in existence, Canada's Data Liberation Initiative (DLI) has recently completed a comprehensive survey of contacts-those folk who are responsible for the day-to-day delivery of data services at their institutions. With an over 90% response rate there are many lessons to be learned. Some of the topics covered were a needs-assessment, as well as satisfaction with the collection, services and local support for data. A major component was the self-assessed competencies in data-related tasks. This session will concentrate on some surprising results regarding these data competencies and the implications for future training of both the contacts and their audiences.

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A4: Public Opinion Data: Over Time and Across the Globe

  • Chair: Brigitte Hausstein (GESIS)
  • Location: Tampere Hall, Opus 4

Question bank: new and comparative research at a glance

This paper will demonstrate and discuss how the Danish question bank is of great value for both the social science research community but also for the data archives. The question database holds information on every question from the questionnaires deposited in the archive. The database is searchable from the Web via a dedicated search interface on two levels: simple and advanced. The paper will present the new advantages and possibilities where the most important feature is no doubt the direct access to compare the question wordings at a glance and the immediate access to the original questionnaires. All relevant information regarding a question is presented for the user like e.g. response categories. Other advantages for the users are e.g.:
1) an additional method for identifying more precisely relevant surveys
2) links to all the surveys using the given question
3) the possibility of making comparative research of the surveys using a given question
4) support in the construction of new questions and questionnaires
5) new research projects as the question wordings themselves reflect the time and circumstances in which they were designed
6) more open access and insight in the surveys and the data via the question database.

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Unlocking Public Opinion Poll Data in Canada

A best practice for creating persistent metadata, an infrastructure housed and managed by the Ontario Council of University Libraries, and a dissemination service available to Ontario universities, have lead to the success of <odesi>, the Ontario Data Documentation, Extraction Service and Infrastructure Initiative. As <odesi> begins to evolve into a Trusted Data Repository, data providers, such as Gallup Canada, Ipsos-Reid, Goldfarb and the Canadian Opinion Research Archive are looking to <odesi> as the key to unlocking their data. This paper will discuss how the infrastructure, management and collaborative nature of <odesi> have encouraged and unlocking and increasing data access in Canada.

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The Data Consultant as Archaeologist: Digging for Meaning in World War II Era U.S. Public Opinion Surveys

Helping a history professor examine U.S. public opinion in the 1930s and '40s using old surveys required a data consultant to turn archaeologist. Does a complete lack of documentation for response codes render a question unusable? Not necessarily. The presentation will discuss techniques for making undocumented data usable. Through creative use of other, documented variables and some contextual knowledge, the intrepid researcher was able to figure out which code represented which religion in a 1941 survey, and identify Black respondents in a 1940 survey using a variable labelled Economic (among other feats). Plus, as a bonus, learn how Roper wanted 1946 interviewers to handle stupid-looking respondents.

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Sources of Historical International U.S. Data

As a result of the DataPASS initiative in the U.S., and especially the partnership that it supported between the custodial electronic records program of the U.S. National Archives and the Roper Center for Public Opinion at the University of Connecticut, there is now greater awareness of and expanded opportunities for using the rich collection of international public opinion data collected from 1952-1999, by the United States Information Agency (USIA). The National Archives also preserves and makes available online the public portion of the electronic telegrams, 1973-1975, from the U.S. Department of State's Central Foreign Policy Files. This presentation will focus on the complementary nature of these two types of data for research on U.S. foreign relations, and the manner in which the public opinion data and the electronic telegrams offer unique perspectives on a selection of mid-1970s topics.

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12:30pm - 1:45pm

Lunch

  • Location: Tampere Hall, Restaurant Fuuga

1:45pm - 3:15pm

Concurrent Sessions

B1: Forging Links: Context and Content in Cultural and Educational Data

  • Chair: Bobray Bordelon (Princeton University)
  • Location: Tampere Hall, Sonaatti 1

Combining Statistics and Documents for a Contextual View of Irish History and Culture

This paper will discuss quantitative aspects of an ongoing research project Context and Relationships: Ireland and Irish Studies. For biographies and other cultural materials, context and relationships are central to humanities scholarship -- Who were the people and institutions mentioned? How were they related? What else did they do? What other materials relate this topic? Where and when did this happen? What else was going on around that time and place? One important feature of context is the quantitative statistics gathered for the time and place. We relate a historical dataset of Irish census data from the 19th and early 20th century to approximately 1/2 million pages of newly digitized Irish scholarly materials (publications in history, culture, architecture, etc) by connections in time and place. The project is a partnership between the University of California at Berkeley and the Centre for Digitisation at the Queen's University, Belfast, which is creating A digital library of core e-resources on Ireland, including back files of 100 journals on Irish culture and history. Berkeley funding is from the USA National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services

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National Digital Library of Finland: How to Enable Access to Digital Cultural Material to Users of Today and to Future Generations?

Ministry of Education has started a project called "National Digital Library" (2008 - 2011), which encompasses digitization of prioritized cultural heritage material of museums, archives and libraries, and online accessibility and long term preservation of both digitized and born-digital cultural material. The aim of this project is to establish one national access point, through which the most essential cultural heritage collections are searchable on the item level. The service will allow access also to databases of immovable heritage and various services of museums, archives and both research and public libraries. In addition, the Finnish National Digital Library aims at creating the lasting mechanisms for long-term preservation of digital cultural material and scientific information (common architecture and guidelines, common information system, legal and contractual responsibilities, processes etc.). National Digital Library of Finland encompasses:

  • digitisation of cultural heritage collections of museums, libraries, archives, and audiovisual archives
  • access to digital cultural resources, and
  • long-term preservation of digital cultural heritage.

The aims

  • to make the most essential Finnish collections both digitised and searchable through a common user interface (in operation 2011)
  • to create sustainable solution for long-term preservation of digital cultural material (finalised plan in 2010)

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Research Data Center at the German Institute for Educational Progress (IQB)

After decades of abstinence Germany resumed to participate in international empirical educational large scale assessment studies like TIMSS, PISA and PIRLS in the 1990s. Because of the political explosiveness of the topic and lacking experience in data dissemination in Germany the generated data was regularly not accessible for researchers outside the national research groups. The recent development of research data centers (RDC) and the growing interest for educational research in Germany led 2007 to the foundation of the RDC at the Institute for Educational Progress in Berlin (German: IQB) to facilitate the data access to the available German educational assessment data. The aim of the presentation is to introduce the RDC at IQB. We provide cross-sectional and longitudinal educational assessment and survey data on students, schools and classes. Data on individual students include comprehensive information on actual competencies and personal and family background. School and class data is linkable to the student data. We offer different access methods which depend on the degree of data confidentiality: Anonymous made scientific use files are sent to the researcher. Confidential data can be analyzed via on-site use or remote execution. Access is free of charge and not restricted to German researchers.

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B2: Enhancing Data Sharing: Practices, Tools and Constraints

  • Chair: Daniel M. Edelstein (Leddy Library)
  • Location: Tampere Hall, Small Auditorium

Making Sense of the Census: One Year On with the Census Aggregate Information Resource Demonstrator (CAIRD)

As previewed at IASSIST08, the CAIRD project is utilising developments in structured XML (SDMX and DDI) to create an online service combining, advertising and providing data and metadata generated from UK 2001 Census aggregate outputs in open-standards, machine-readable ways to increase their usability, and facilitate advances in application development. The primary aim of CAIRD is to encourage adoption of a similar approach by UK census agencies for the UK 2011 Census by demonstrating the potentials of this approach. As of November 2008, CAIRD is beginning to produce some exciting outputs, with more in the pipeline by IASSIST09! A prototype web service is already delivering previously impossible search and exploration capabilities based directly on dataset information content; a major improvement on browsing traditional census tables. We are pleased to report substantial interest from, and collaboration with UK census agencies. CAIRD has strong relevance to the IASSIST09 theme of Mobile Data and the Life Cycle through demonstration of the benefits that this approach can bring to data sharing, flexibility and overall usability; prerequisites for a mobile, Web 2.0 world. It also identifies a need for the approach to be incorporated and considered prospectively at all stages of the data life cycle in order to fully realise its benefits.

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Identifying and removing barriers for sharing scientific data.

The area of depositing and making research data available is not a new or uncultivated one. Scientific data archives have been active in this field since the early sixties. Since a couple of years nearly all scientific organizations in the Netherlands aim for a policy in which public funded research will be made accessible as much as possible. Funders and commissioners of research attach more and more value to the permanent accessibility of research data financed by them. Governmental organizations, funders of research, universities, publishers, scientific data archives and researchers are implementing in different ways the policy of access to research data. However, sharing of research data is not a common practice for most scientists. In practice it appears that the depositing of research data is not imbedded in the scholarly workflow and 'mental' system of researches, institutions, funders and policy makers. Therefore it is important to identify which stakeholders benefit by making research data available. What kind of policies have they already developed? Which instruments play an important role in these policies and which restraints do they encounter in practice? In 2008 DANS organized a workshop with different stakeholders where recommendations have been made to remove obstacles for sharing data. During this presentation these recommendations will be addressed.

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Access to Governmental Microdata for Research: Recent Developments and New Challenges in Europe.

Official microdata constitute a major source for research in the social and economic sciences and for public policy evaluation. The paper provides an overview of similarities and differences in conditions of access to governmental microdata for researchers in European countries, placing emphasis on recent changes and trying to identify directions for future development. Regarding anonymized datasets, focus is on limits that often remain despite a generalized improvement in availability, and on unevenness of access conditions across Europe. On confidential data, the paper examines challenges arising from the recent upsurge in researchers' data demand, and discusses some possible solutions, including safe data centres on the premises of statistical institutes, secure virtual data laboratories accessible through the Internet, and an enhanced role for data archives at the national and European levels. These solutions are diverse in terms of easiness, cost-effectiveness, and extensiveness of access. Dealing with these problems, and experimenting with innovative solutions, requires an appropriate legal framework. In this light, the paper draws attention to recent changes in the law of European countries and examines whether and how they have opened new possibilities for microdata dissemination. Special emphasis is placed on the cases of France and the United Kingdom.

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B3: Life Cycle Considerations for Research, Users and Archives

  • Chair: Amy Pienta (ICPSR)
  • Location: Tampere Hall, Opus 4

Applying the DCC Curation Lifecycle Model

The documentary heritage and the scientific record are increasingly born digital. The UK based Digital Curation Centre supports institutions who store, manage and preserve such data to help ensure its enhancement and continuing long-term use. The DCC (Digital Curation Centre) Curation Lifecycle Model provides a generic graphical high-level overview of the stages required for successful curation and preservation of digital material from initial conceptualisation. The model can be used to plan curation and preservation activities, to ensure sustainability of digital material, within an organisation or consortium. It's application can help ensure that all necessary stages are undertaken, each in the correct sequence. The model is used by the DCC: as a curation training tool; an internal planning tool to ensure that information, services and advisory material cover all areas of the lifecycle; to contextualise standards within the DCC DIFFUSE Standards Project; and to structure advisory case-study work. Externally it has been adopted by a number of organisations as the framework for curation activities and to date has been used to conceptualise processes by the UK Research Data Service and some JISC initiatives. This paper will present the DCC Curation Lifecycle Model and highlight some of the current applications of it.

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Is Mobility of Data a Special Problem for Qualitative Research Collections?

This paper builds upon the experience of archiving qualitative data to look at issues of data mobility. It will look at the interplay of such mobility with the wider concerns of data acquisition, preservation and delivery. At different times within the life cycle of data the potential for data mobility may be strong and beneficial. At other times it may be seen as problematic or as occupying a place of tension within the demands of a digital archive. This will be examined through examples of audio and textual data. The need for archives to promote data and metadata standards as part of their key objectives will also be considered. Such activity can be used to promote mobility but it is arguably important to recognise where it may present problems for an archive and as such be discouraged. The effect of restricting access or dealing with confidentiality will therefore be considered. Particular reference will be made to the role of users of data and there will be a consideration of user demands and expectations. The argument that such expectations are new and novel and that they have developed alongside digital media - in ignorance of traditional archival values - will be examined.

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From Life Cycle to Continuum: Assuring Research Use of Records and Archives

Life cycle thinking has spread to every field in society; products, services and healthcare have life cycle. In the digital working environment the life cycle of data, information, documents, records and archives have to carefully design in advance. To be able to use them as long as needed in operational tasks and later on in research needs holistic multidisciplinary approaches. In the meaning "from the cradle to grave" the life cycle concept misrepresents the case. Records as evidences of social realities and building blocks of social memory are preserved long time or permanently. This means continuous attending of accessibility, usability and availability of digital records and archives. Specialised scholarly and professional knowledge is needed in appraising, managing, selection and preservation of digital records and archives - all this even before "the cradle stage", and with future visions reaching over hundred years. Standardised recordkeeping in organisational context supports current and future research with creating researcher satisfied metadata. Question is not about a linear and ending life cycle but a continuum, a kind of "information processing rhythm", which assures that information can not die.

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B4: Crossing Traditional Boundaries: Mobile Data-Based Resources

  • Chair: Ron Nakao (Stanford University)
  • Location: Tampere Hall, Aaria

Networking Outside the Networks

Due to the recent unfortunate events, for example, the ability to monitor and control the messages and data transferred in the Internet has gained attention. However, there also exist methods for networking beyond any control. Smart, hand-held mobile devices with support for communication technologies such as the WLAN allow spontaneous, ad-hoc networks being created (and discontinued) without notice. Such networks may remain completely invisible and hence allow the delivery of illegal or inappropriate contents with very low risk of being detected. And even if the network traffic can be detected, it is virtually impossible to point out the originator of the data from a large crowd, for example, if he manages to shut down the equipment fast enough. The author has participated in research on short-range wireless mobile networks, where the concept Mobile Encounter Network has emerged. Based on this concept, the so-called ''Dark Side'' of mobile networking has been predicted. It is suggested that much more research effort, both in computer science and in human sciences, should be directed to this area. Getting mobile can integrate, but it may also disintegrate. We must know what we can't let loose, before it is too late.

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Mobile Today - Records Management Issues

Mobile information and communication technology challenges the theory and practice of organization science, business processes, information systems, and especially records management. Electronic records cannot be managed without changes in the methods developed for traditional records mainly in paper form. Electronic records can be found in every area of government and business activities. These records are part of mobile business processes more and more often. With the growing number of people using mobile tools new kind of problems are also encountered. It has been estimated, that about 12 percent of organizational knowledge is in structured knowledge base and the majority lies scattered about organizations in the form of paper and electronic documents. Since mobile workers have less control over the working environment, records may not be captured into records management systems and neither into the organizational memory. There is no regulation for producing, editing and storing records in the mobile working environment. Another important topic is the idea of accessed: what problems do mobile professionals have accessing information sources of their organizations? Using mobile devices and electronic records, we also need to be convinced of the integrity of data.

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Doing Data on YouTube: Outreach and Education using Web 2.0

In the YouTube era, data centers need new outreach mechanisms to raise awareness of their services and instruct their clientele in the use of data resources. At Rutgers University Libraries, the Data Librarian is creating a series of video tutorials, titled "Data Snapshots", on major data resources for posting on YouTube, blogs, and university web sites. These are integrated into research guides and the newly created RutgersData blog (rutgersdata.wordpress.com), which is a news resource for the Rutgers data community. Issues in scripting, capturing, editing and manipulating the videos using various software will be discussed. The expansion of a virtual presence for data services through chat consultations and design of the blog is driven by the dispersed environment at Rutgers University, where only one dedicated data librarian serves a student population of 50,000 spread across multiple campuses. Feedback from users is also being gathered to improve design of services and guide future efforts.

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3:15pm - 3:45pm

Coffee Break

  • Location: Tampere Hall, Restaurant Fuuga

3:45pm - 5:15pm

Concurrent Sessions

C1: Developing Best Practices for the DDI

  • Chair: Stefan Kramer (Yale University) [ presentation ]
  • Location: Tampere Hall, Sonaatti 1

Developing Best Practices for the DDI

In November 2008, a group of 25 members of the DDI community gathered in Germany for a week-long working meeting to draft an initial set of Best Practice documents addressing technical and business matters related to the application and implementation of Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) metadata. This panel will discuss the benefits of creating best practices; how the specific best practice topics were chosen and prioritized; how the workgroup collaborated to produce the best practices; and further developments with DDI best practices since November.

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C2: Sharing Data: High Rewards, Formidable Barriers

  • Chair: Jon Stiles (UC Berkeley, UCDATA Archive)
  • Location: Tampere Hall, Small Auditorium

Swedish National Data Service's Strategy for Sharing and Mediating Data

  • Iris Alfredsson (Swedish National Data Service)
    Carina Carlhed (Mälardalen University)
    Veronika Marosi (Swedish National Data Service) [ presentation ]
    » Show abstract.

The main purposes for SND are to mediate information on data bases and other digital material collections for research, to facilitate access to research databases and to serve as a knowledge node for documenting and managing research data and adherent methodologies in several knowledge fields. Thus, a very important task for SND is to strengthen the altruistic reception of the importance of data sharing and open access among researchers. We have identified two key areas which serve as barriers for reaching our goals; legal barriers and possessive barriers. The legal barriers are hinders in Swedish current laws and statues. The possessive barriers are thresholds connected to unconsciousness among researchers. We will present our strategy which is a combination of "top-down" and "bottom-up" activities and some preliminary results from a survey. An example of a "top-down" activity is to influence research financiers to put higher demands on future open access data when completion of studies. Another example is to provide means and support researchers through the whole research process, e.g. with interpretations of different legal aspects of open access. Examples of "bottom-up" activities is to be present in different research contexts and "missionize" the benefits of sharing data.

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Changing Laws in the UK: The New Statistics and Registration Services Act

This paper will outline the new UK Statistics and Registration Services Act, giving details of the new legislative framework, and examining how the Act affects the status of research data users. The Act is the first of its kind in the UK and has led to the creation of the independent UK Statistics Authority, and has made researcher access to data a statutory function of the Office for National Statistics. The paper will also look at the opportunities this might present for improving researcher access to data.

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Mind the Gap: Global Data Sharing

  • Richard Wiseman (ESDS International, Mimas, University of Manchester)
    Celia Russell (ESDS International, Mimas, University of Manchester) [ presentation ]
    » Show abstract.

In our increasingly globalised world, the importance of data sharing and collaborative research into international issues, such as climate change, economic crises, migration and health, cannot be underestimated. With this in mind Richard Wiseman and Celia Russell from ESDS International discuss the barriers which prevent data sharing on a global scale. They will explain the licensing issues which restrict the use of data in the ESDS International portfolio to the UK academic community but will highlight the ways in which the service also helps the non UK international data research community by identifying sources of freely available data and producing freely available supporting documentation and resources. The presentation will focus on the development of one such resource, e-learning materials based upon a key socio-economic theme 'the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)'. As the current international framework for development planning for countries around the world, the eight MDGs are time-bound and quantified targets for reducing poverty, improving health and protecting the environment. Intended to raise awareness of the potential use of quantitative international data in research and teaching, these open access e-learning materials have been developed as an interactive online set of materials to be used as a self-teaching resource. They include step-by-step activities, screen capture simulations, links and resources.

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C3: Mobilizing Data in the Learning Environment

  • Chair: Chiu-Chuang (Lu) Chou (University of Wisconsin)
  • Location: Tampere Hall, Aaria

Infrastructure for Statistic Education in Russia

Statistical knowledge is considered one of the main competences of next generation administrators, managers, specialists in all fields of economic and social progress of a country, its concurrent position in future decades and successful personal career of a citizen. One by one states declare statistical education as a national priority and launch programs to promote teaching and training in data understanding and analysis. Following other countries Russian university community has set forth the initiative to develop statistical culture in society, as a first step to compose modern information infrastructure. International experience proves that education may start and go up all school years and to be continued at a college - university and then at post-university training centers. When started at school statistical education may bring important social benefit if a pupil may access and exploit an information base that maintains real economic, social, demographic data and portraits the place a school child lives. The University Information System RUSSIA (http://uisrussia.msu.ru) is supposed to serve as one of a statistical infrastructure components - it provides for data bases that update indicators at regional and local levels. Analytical instruments and tutorials are implemented. Graphics- and map-based data representation is accomplished. Modified modules-based teaching program in statistics is being work out to serve all levels of education - schools, graduate and post graduate university courses and training for government agencies' and public institutions' specialists.

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What Lies Beneath? Building a Repository for Complex Collections with Sementic Web Tools on Top

The ENSEMBLE (Semantic Technologies for the Enhancement of Case Based Learning project) is a 3-year £1.5 million project exploring the potential of the 'Semantic Web' to support teaching and learning in complex, controversial and rapidly-evolving fields using case based learning. The project is exploring both the nature and role of the cases around which learning is focused, and the role that emerging Semantic Web technologies and techniques can play in supporting this learning. The backend repository being built focuses on FEDORA with metadata schemas being developed to deal with a disparate range object types and their relationships. Front ends will focus on piloting semantic web (such as SIMILE) and web 3.0 tools developed by MIT and the University of Technology in Sydney.

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Bringing Data to Undergraduate Classrooms: The Social Science Data Analysis Network (SSDAN) and ICPSR's Online Learning Center (OLC)

Quantitative literacy/reasoning have become buzzwords on many campuses, and few disciplines are as well-suited to building students' skills in these areas as are social sciences. Introducing students to data in their early courses when the focus is mainly on substantive topics also gives them a more realistic picture of how social scientists work, preventing some of the disconnect often felt as students move from substantive courses into research methods and statistics. Instructors face many challenges in using real data in these early classes, however. Difficulty in identifying relevant data, the need to simplify data for analyses, and the desire to avoid teaching statistical packages at these early stages are common obstacles instructors describe. This presentation will describe the SSDAN and OLC tools which aim to assist faculty by making it easier for instructors to bring data into lower-division social science courses. SSDAN makes available new data from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey and the OLC pairs substantive concepts with relevant data, both using a Web-based interface and teaching modules that are ready to use with little additional instructor preparation. These tools and support quantitative literacy skills by exposing students to the world of data.

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C4: Data Sharing Across the Disciplines

  • Chair: Shawn W. Nicholson (Michigan State University)
  • Location: Tampere Hall, Opus 4

Data Sharing Across the Disciplines: An Empirical Study

This three-part session will explore differences in data sharing among disciplines, with a specific focus on how the nascent open data movement in the sciences portends the emergence of a data sharing culture much different from that found in the social sciences. The role of data specialists in promoting unfettered sharing of research data is explored. Part One will examine the theoretical underpinnings of data sharing within several disciplines and provide empirical evidence - from an examination of dissertations (with particular focus on access to raw data that is supplemental to published dissertations) - to test our hypothesis that a culture of data sharing is less evident in life sciences and physical sciences than it is in social sciences. Part Two offers insights from two data librarians who - as front-line data-sharing intermediaries (largely in the social sciences) - will draw upon experiences and observations to offer practical tips for promoting and advancing a data-sharing culture. This will include suggestions for guiding emergent data developers in the sciences towards an ideal model of data sharing. Part Three will engage the audience in a lively discussion about advancing the role of data specialists as full participants in support of the growing data-sharing culture across disciplines.

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5:15pm - 6:15pm

Committee and Action Group meetings

Publications Committee

  • Location: Tampere Hall, Aaria

Technology Action Group --> eCommunity Infrastructure Action Group

  • Location: Tampere Hall, Opus 4

7:00pm - 8:30pm

City of Tampere Reception

  • Location: City Hall (Raatihuone)
    See map for directions.

Thursday, May 28   Wednesday | Friday

9:00am - 10:00am

Plenary: Data Archives in the 21st Century: evolving, adapting or endangered?
[webcast ]

  • Professor Deborah Mitchell, Director (Australian Social Science Data Archive)
    Dr. Ben Evans, Head (ANU Supercomputer Facility)
  • Chair: Chuck Humphrey (University of Alberta)
  • Location: Tampere Hall, Small Auditorium
    » Show abstract.

Over the past five years government research and higher education funding institutions have 'discovered' many aspects of data and its uses that the IASSIST community has known for over thirty years: data is a valuable commodity, a source of new knowledge, the basis for international research efforts and which therefore requires sound policies to preserve and manage its use and re-use. Thus, there is considerable irony in the fact that just as high-level policy bodies at the national and international level are coming to this realisation, the comfortable and predictable environments in which many of us work are being challenged on a number of fronts. For example, the 'google' world leads to naïve assumptions about discoverability of data no matter where it is housed. But of what quality? New tools and technologies have thrown up a multiplicity of choices for storing, retrieving and analysing data. But can these multiple stores, formats and standards 'talk' to each other? This paper explores how the environment in which we work is changing; the need to take advantage of, and adapt to, the growing recognition of the importance of data; and the need for greater international efforts to maintain the strong, professional standards and practices built up within the IASSIST community.

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10:00am - 10:30am

Coffee Break

  • Location: Tampere Hall, Restaurant Fuuga

10:30am - 12:30pm

Concurrent Sessions

D1: Tag - You're it! DDI Applications and Experiences

  • [ webcast ]
  • Chair: Jeremy Iverson (Algenta Technologies)
  • Location: Tampere Hall, Small Auditorium

Managing the Metadata Life Cycle: The Future of DDI At GESIS and ICPSR

  • Peter Granda (ICPSR - University of Michigan)
    Joachim Wackerow (GESIS)
    Meinhard Moschner (GESIS)
    Wolfgang Zenk-Moeltgen (GESIS)
    Mary Vardigan (ICPSR - University of Michigan) [ presentation ]
    » Show abstract.

This paper will describe the current uses of DDI at GESIS and ICPSR and discuss both short-term and long-term plans to incorporate additional features of the specification into the workflow of the organizations. The emergence of DDI 3 now enables data producers, processors, and archives to describe and encompass all aspects of the life cycle of social science data. At present, GESIS and ICPSR use Version 2 of DDI to populate the elements of their data catalogs as well as to produce documentation at the variable level for data portals (ZACAT) and retrieval databases (SSVD). DDI has also been adopted as the long-term preservation format for documentation. With the creation of appropriate tools, GESIS and ICPSR envision using DDI 3 to include information collected at earlier stages of the data life cycle, such as questionnaire creation and sampling design, that occur prior to data collection. Also planned are projects to document original language question wordings, concept classifications, scale definitions, and complex survey designs to enable new functionalities for scientists interested in comparative survey research. Additional areas include using DDI 3 to record data processing steps and to develop study groupings to enhance the search for comparable datasets and encourage possible new harmonization projects. GESIS and ICPSR plan to coordinate these initiatives with developments in other social science data archives to optimize information interchange and resource discovery.

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Finding the Right Tags in DDI 3.0: A Beginner's Experience

The Institute for Employment Research (IAB) is associated with the Federal Employment Agency in Germany. We decided to establish a new database organized according to the DDI 3.0 standard for our documentation. One initial task was to build the DDI 3.0 structure for our most complex data example, to make sure that all needed metadata would be supported. For this purpose the Integrated Employment Biographies (IEB) were selected. The IEB is a merged dataset, containing data on employment, benefit receipt, participation in measures of active labour market policy, and jobseeker status. These data come from many different sources, which produce many difficulties. For example, harmonization of some variables is not possible, because the values are dependent on the sources, and are collected in different ways. Capturing such things in DDI 3.0 is not obvious, and some difficulties were encountered. This presentation focuses on how these types of challenges were resolved, to allow for the DDI 3.0 model to be used with our documentation systems.

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EduDDI - an Application of DDI 3.0 for Large-Scale Assessments in Education

For the monitoring of educational systems, large-scale assessments of student's archievements are conducted. The institutions involved in these studies need IT systems for the following steps: development of hierarchical structured questions, generation of booklets and codebooks, coding/rating, data processing, analyses, dissemination of datasets and reporting. In order to improve the efficiency of these systems, the reuse of questions and the analysis of one question throughout the whole set of studies is an crucial demand of the researchers. Therefore, any system used in that context must offer an easy link between data sets and the question bank(s).

At the German Institute for Educational Progress (IQB), a proprietary IT system for the generation of booklets has been developed and used for 4 years. This system will be expanded to the management of datasets as described above. But the internal datastructures and the tools will implement DDI 3.0 to ensure a sustainable and nationwide utilisation. The presentation covers the following issues: institutional arrangement to ensure a broad-based support, first sections of the DDI-model developed, architecture and first software tools.

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Slovak Archive of Social Data (SASD) and Its Experiences with Implementing DDI 3.0

Slovak Archive of Social Data was established in year 2004 with aim of collecting, preserving and disseminating data and metadata from sociological research for non-commercial purposes like research and teaching. Archive is open to all kind of data, but in present initial stage, is actively gathering data mainly from international research programmes (eg. ISSP, EVS, ESS). Main tool for disseminating is our website, where access to (meta)data is provided by two means. User can browse catalogue of archived surveys or search data using keywords, as well as Advanced search. Presently SASD is using DDI 1/2 for archiving metadata. From now on, migration to DDI 3.0 is taking place. Part of the presentation is about experiences with using this new schema. Schema is suitable for exchange of metadata between archives, therefore discussion may arise about this topic concerning efficiency of documentation labour. For example information about survey and core parts of variables can be shared among national archives (eg. basic documentation of ISSP modules). So when one archive will document this core part, other archives may use this documentation.

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D2: Future of IASSIST

  • Chair: Paula Lackie and Lynn Woolfrey
  • Location: Tampere Hall, Aaria

Continuation/update/report from the robust future of IASSIST-Outreach session from Stanford.

  • Moderators: Paula Lackie (Carleton College) and Lynn Woolfrey (Data First, University of Cape Town)

    » Show abstract.

This session will serve as a platform to report on the ongoing discussions for IASSIST Outreach and provide a venue to continue the conversation among interested attendees - especially those from outside of north America and Europe.

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D3: Ideal IRB

  • Chair: Thomas Lindsay (University of Minnesota)
  • Location: Tampere Hall, Opus 4

The Ideal IRB: Perspectives on Researchers, Institutional Data Archives and Professional Data Organizations.

  • Kristine Witkowski and George Alter (ICPSR) [ presentation ]
    Elizabeth Stephenson (UCLA, ISSR Data Archives) and Jacob Carlson (Purdue University) presented by Thomas Lindsay (University of Minnesota) [ presentation ]
    Arja Kuula (Finnish Social Science Data Archive, FSD) [ presentation ]
    » Show abstract.

In four presentations, this session will address issues with respect to how IRB's (Institutional Review Boards) affect the data gathering/sharing/preserving practices of researchers; understanding how IRB's view their role in overseeing the re-use of social science researchers and how this affects institutional repositories such as ICPSR; and finally, we will review issues addressed in the first two presentations, highlight how some organizations are responding, and introduce a newly formed IASSIST IRB Interest Group. We plan on opening up the floor for discussion on next steps.

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D4: Just the Same, but Different: Comparison Across National Contexts

  • Chair: Felicia LeClere (ICPSR)
  • Location: Tampere Hall, Sonaatti 1

Cross-National Comparative Survey Data: Benefits and Limitations

This paper examines the benefits and limitations of large scale cross-national social science survey data. International survey networks, such as the International Social Survey Program, provide valuable multi-nation databases of social and political measures - the ISSP, for example, having run in 2006/7 its "Role of Government" module and in 2004/5 its "Citizenship" module in its 41 member nations. The primary benefit is contemporaneous data with measures designed to provide cross-national comparability on key social attitudes and behaviour. The problem, however, is that validity of these measures varies from nation to nation, due to significant differences in social and political systems, and thus the meanings and reference of citizen attitudes about them. The consequence is that issues of measurement validity, and questionnaire and survey design, are of unequaled importance in the context of these international surveys, and yet little detail is provided on-line about how these surveys are constructed. This paper, reflecting my different roles as Principal Investigator of the Australian Survey of Social Attitudes (which carries the ISSP in Australia), Data Archive Node Director in the Australian Social Science Data Archive, and Political Scientist, examines the benefits and limits of ISSP data, and issues of survey design, measurement and use.

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Marching to the Same Drummer: An Overview of a Proposed IHSN (International Household Survey Network) Open Source Question Bank

Survey takers must ask the similar and culturally-appropriate questions in order to ensure that they measure the same phenomena. In most countries, sample surveys, censuses and administrative reporting systems measure the same variables (e.g., demographics, income, labour activities, health characteristics, etc), but often with slight differences which result in non-comparability of data across sources. In this presentation, the IHSN will provide an overview of a question bank which aims to address issues of metadata accessibility and quality by using a standard and comprehensive XML template to hold information on questions, classifications, concepts and indicators from a range of official sources. The Question Bank will serve as a central resource for data producers and other stakeholders to share information in a consistent way. It is hoped that this question bank which, using an open source software will support improvements in data comparability within country as users have easy access to recommended approaches and can consider modifications to new and existing instruments.

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Original Language Documentation for the European Values Study

  • Wolfgang Zenk-Möltgen (GESIS - Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften)
    Evelyn Brislinger (GESIS - Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften) [ presentation ]
    » Show abstract.

For repeated comparative surveys like the European Values Study (EVS) conducted in 1980, 1990, 1999, and 2008 metadata management becomes more and more challenging. The EVS is a longitudinal survey research program, carried out in now 46 countries under the responsibility of the European Values Study Foundation. The original language documentation was started in cooperation with the EVS-countries, CEPS Luxembourg, and EVS at Tilburg University with the aims to assist the primary investigators with the development and translation of the questionnaire for the 2008 wave and to support user friendly comparisons of the wording of questions and answers used in the different languages for comparative analyses. For this purpose a procedure was developed to document the original languages. The documentation process has been supported by two programs developed by GESIS: the Dataset Documentation Manager (DSDM), which allows the language specific documentation on variable level and the export into a DDI 2 compatible format, and the CodebookExplorer (CBE), a special tool to manage complex data and metadata. The translation process was done by a web-based translation system (WebTrans) provided by Gallup Europe. The original language documentation will be published in the GESIS Online Study Catalogue ZACAT (a Nesstar server).

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12:30pm - 2:00pm

Business Lunch

  • Location: Tampere Hall, Restaurant Fuuga

2:00pm - 3:30pm

Concurrent Sessions

E1: IASSIST Futures (Strategic Plan)

  • Chair: Joel Herndon (Duke University / IASSIST Administrative Committee)
  • Location: Tampere Hall, Opus 4

IASSIST Futures: A Discussion Panel on IASSIST Strategic Planning and Organization

  • Joel Herndon (Duke University / IASSIST Administrative Committee)
    Thomas Lindsay (University of Minnesota) [ presentation ]
    Bill Block
    Melanie Wright
    San Cannon (Federal Reserve Board)
    » Show abstract.

This panel seeks input from the IASSIST general membership about the 2010-2015 Strategic Plan. Since IASSIST 2008, the Strategic Planning Action group has conducted a series of surveys trying to understand members' impressions of the current state of the organization as well as future opportunities for IASSIST. This session will present information about the Strategic Planning Process, share results from a survey of the IASSIST membership, and engage the membership in a discussion about next steps in creating IASSIST's new strategic plan.

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E2: United States Information Agency's Historical International Data

  • [ Papers Withdrawn or Moved to Another Session ]

E3: Qualitative Data: Understandings, Tools and Strategies for Sharing

  • Chair: Kristi Thompson (University of Windsor)
  • Location: Tampere Hall, Sonaatti 1

"It's about relationships, it's about ethics, it's about respect": Qualitative Researchers' Understandings of Their Practice and the Implications for Data Archiving and Sharing

  • Lynda Cheshire (The University of Queensland)
    Alex Broom (The University of Sydney)
    Michael Emmison (The University of Queensland) [ presentation ]
    » Show abstract.

With qualitative data archiving emerging as a distinct possibility in Australia, the practices and 'use' of qualitative research are coming under increased scrutiny and reflection. The recent development of a qualitative data archive (AQuA) by the Australian Social Science Data Archive (ASSDA) provides an opportunity for qualitative researchers to reflect, not only upon the feasibility of qualitative data archiving, but on the core assumptions of their work and the extent to which qualitative data lend themselves to sharing and secondary analysis. Drawing on a series of focus groups with qualitative researchers, we critically explore the meanings ascribed to qualitative research practice and the perceived challenges posed by contemporary technological innovations in data management, access, and analysis. As well as raising concerns over the ethical and intellectual property implications of data sharing, focus group participants frequently referred to the uniqueness of qualitative research as an artistic endeavour that is both personal and solitary, yet at the same time involves special relationships with participants, data and research partners. The accounts presented provide insight into key debates (and divergences) within the qualitative community regarding the values and meanings of qualitative practice, but also how data archiving may come to challenge these core values.

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Reusing Qualitative Data for Teaching Purposes

  • Bethany Morgan (UK Data Archive, ESDS Qualidata)
    Dimitris Vonofakos (UK Data Archive, ESDS Qualidata)
    Presented by Richard Deswarte (UK Data Archive, ESDS Qualidata) [ presentation ]
    » Show abstract.

Qualidata at the UK Data Archive has recently completed two on-line teaching resources, specifically designed to assist qualitative methods teaching. The first resource distinguishes different types of interviewing, whilst highlighting and promoting some of the most important collections held in the archive. It offers summaries of seven distinct interview types: structured, unstructured, semi-structured, feminist, psycho-social, oral history and life story interviews. Each typology begins with a summary of what characterises that particular type of interview and is illustrated by selected extracts from some of the most interesting studies held in the UKDA. The second resource looks at five non-interview qualitative methods, including focus groups, the written word, ethnography, visual methods and the Internet, once again using examples from archived collections.

This paper provides an introduction to Qualidata's teaching resources and demonstrates their potential uses for researchers and methods teachers. It highlights the challenges to reusing qualitative collections for teaching purposes, such as issues of distinguishing research styles, the dissemination of the collections and resources, gaining permissions from depositors, and addressing issues of confidentiality and anonymisation. It further discusses the complex interplay between qualitative methods and data collection.

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E4: CESSDA PPP

  • [ webcast ]
  • Chair: Hans Jørgen Marker(DDA)
  • Location: Tampere Hall, Small Auditorium

Life-Cycle & Comparative Study Types - Metadata Needs of the Future CESSDA RI

Particular attention is given to researcher's expectations and demands on metadata from specific study types and to discuss options and barriers in providing substantive context information. Both appear relevant to find available and relevant data as a base for use them in comparative research. On the background of a study life-cycle perspective within the CESSDA research infrastructure (RI) the presentation will focus related metadata needs for different complex study types. Uses cases e.g. on EB trends; ISSP, ESS, BHPS will focus the metadata specifics of these study types. Along with best practice in documenting respective studies and their data the use of the new DDI3 standard is of specific interest for a developing research infrastructure along the study life-cycle from survey design to the publishing, dissemination and reuse of the data.

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One-Stop-Shop/Single-Sign-On Requirements of CESSDA

The 5As: - authentication, authorization, access, auditing and accounting are major issues within communities wishing to share resources. These communities can be as small as a single organisation or as large as a federation of national institutions. In the CESSDA-PPP we are investigating the additional problems associated with creating a research infrastructure providing access to social science data from across the whole of Europe to researchers located anywhere in the world.

At present each of the different participating data distributers will have their specific authentication procedures, access conditions and auditing requirements. They may or may not be part of an already existing National federation, and these federations will have differing agreements as to what attributes about any individual they are prepared to release. This paper will present the CESSDA-PPP solution.

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Changing the Data Sharing Culture in Eastern European Countries

Prevailing national research traditions in the light of the development of a European Research Infrastructure: In most of the eastern European countries the provision of national infrastructure services and the improvement of the data access conditions are generally seen as problematic due to the lack of data sharing culture of the research community. A tendency of privatisation of data and a lack of access to publicly funded data are often mentioned as common. The presentation focuses on these country specific conditions that may affect the future integration into a new European Research Infrastructure.

The presentation will not only illustrate the specific situation in various countries but also introduce efficient models and strategies that show the fundamental role of a data archive as an agent of the change of the national conditions of data access. Beside these bottom-up strategies the session will also discuss the possibilities of the new European Research Infrastructure to influence the development of the data sharing culture by providing a common strategy for a top-down approach.

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3:30pm - 5:00pm

Break & Posters
Location: Tampere Hall, Park Foyer 2, adjoining to Restaurant Fuuga

» See separate poster session lineup

4:15pm - 5:15pm

Committee and Action Group meetings

Education Committee

  • Location: Tampere Hall, Opus 4

International Outreach --> Committee for IASSIST Fellows

  • Location: Tampere Hall, Aaria

6:00pm - 11:00pm

Banquet

  • Location: Museum Centre Vapriikki
    See map for directions.

Turkey Action Group

  • Location: Sorin Sauna
    See map for directions.

Friday, May 29   Wednesday | Thursday

8:30am - 9:30am

Committee and Action Group meetings

Organizational Memory Action Group

  • Location: Tampere Hall, Aaria

9:30am - 11:30am

Concurrent Sessions

F1: Foundations First: Laying the Groundwork for Building Partnerships First

  • Chair: Margaret Adams (NARA)
  • Location: Tampere Hall, Sonaatti 1

Cozying up to the CODATA Elephant: Some Ideas for IASSIST Outreach

One of the thrusts of the IASSIST strategic plan (2004-2009) was to encourage "collaborations and strategic alliances with related organizations". CODATA is one of the organizations with which IASSIST has started to collaborate. The mission of CODATA is to strengthen international science for the benefit of society by promoting improved scientific and technical data management and use. Sounds a lot like IASSIST! Thus far, collaboration has consisted mainly of having IASSIST members attend the annual CODATA conference and having CODATA members attend IASSIST conferences. The question is... what else can we do to strengthen this relationship? Wendy Watkins and Ernie Boyko from Canada have been officially invited to be observers on the Canadian National Committee for CODATA. This presentation will outline a possible strategy for IASSIST members to use in the context of their National and Regional CODATA committees. By working individually, IASSIST members may be able to strengthen IASSIST's overall connection with CODATA.

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The Data Archive Technologies Alliance: Looking towards a Common Future

For more than a decade social science data archives and other providers of social science data have used the new technologies of the World Wide Web and advanced programming systems to integrate their internal workflows and systems for delivering data and other content to their users. In this environment two trends emerged: individual, proprietary systems custom-developed for individual archives (such as that at ICPSR, the IPUMS project, and many others), and general-purpose systems that were designed to be installed and used in many archives (such as Nesstar and the DataVerse Network). The proliferation of such systems, and the increasing cost of developing and maintaining them, has led to proposals for increased open source and community development approaches that would allow archives to share a common architecture and common tools, while allowing extensive customization of workflows and data delivery systems. In October, 2008, a group met to discuss the creation of a Data Archive Technologies Alliance. This group will report on its activities at IASSIST, focusing on a survey of technology needs among data archives and a list of priority activities for the Alliance as it moves forward.

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Scoping and Developing Institutional Data Services: the Data Libraries of 2020

Research methods are experiencing a revolution due to the emergence of infrastructure and tools that empower scholars to conduct research in novel ways. This brings an increase production of digital research data that has triggered the alarms from research funders and academic institutions. Many research funders in the UK require data produced as part of the research process to be made available on request and expect data management plans to be included with funding applications. Although the UK is rich in domain specific national data services, many disciplines do not have the support and infrastructure required for data collection, access and preservation. Therefore, academic institutions need to help their researchers comply with funding requirements as well as to provide them with the means to allow them to participate in a new data centric research world. Data libraries are great examples of institutional data support and now their services need to evolve to serve the future needs of scholars. This presentation will explore these issues in addition to describe the work carried out in Oxford to scope the requirements for services to manage and curate research data as well as to develop some of these services.

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Establishing Trust in Data Curation: OAIS and TRAC applied to a Data Staging Repository (DataStaR)

DataStaR (http://datastar.mannlib.cornell.edu/), a Data Staging Repository developed and maintained by Cornell University's Mann Library, was designed as a platform and related services to support data sharing among collaborators, as well as the eventual publication of data to permanent, domain-specific repositories and institutional repositories. As a staging repository, providing temporary storage for data (whether preliminary or final), DataStaR assumes no long-term responsibility for preservation of content. However, because one of the goals of DataStaR is to facilitate the publication of data to permanent, external repositories, it is critical that DataStaR's operations are consistent with digital preservation best practices. Toward that end, we consider how DataStaR's design and function map to the OAIS reference model, and use the Trustworthy Repositories Audit & Certification (TRAC): Criteria and Checklist as a framework for specifying system, policy, and documentation requirements to ensure that DataStaR is a responsible partner in the entire chain of preservation activities. We present a description of this process and a summary of the types of elements that are most important in a staging environment.

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F2: Protecting Privacy While Preserving Access: Restricted Use Data and Disclosure Considerations

  • [ webcast ]
  • Chair: Kristine Witkowski (ICPSR)
  • Location: Tampere Hall, Small Auditorium

Strengthening Data Security

  • Dr Sharon Bolton (UK Data Archive)
    Dr Matthew Woollard, Head of Digital Preservation and Systems (UK Data Archive)
    [ presentation ]
    » Show abstract.

In the light of heightened concern around data security, this paper will highlight some of the measures that can be used to develop and strengthen security in data archiving. We will discuss the different approaches which can be taken towards the construction of firm and resilient data and information security policies within the social science data archiving communities. While international standards can provide theoretical guidelines for the construction of such a policy, procedures need to be informed by more practical considerations. We will draw attention to the necessity of following a holistic approach to data security, which includes the education of data creators in the reduction of disclosure risk, the integration of robust and appropriate data processing, handling and management procedures, the value of emerging technological solutions, the training of data users in data security, the importance of management control as well as being informed by emerging government security and digital preservation standards.

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Strengthening the Production of Public Use Microdata Files: Better Tools for Anonymizing Census and Survey Data.

Public use microdata files (PUMFs, PUFs or many other acronyms) are the bread and butter of many data centres and are essential tools for research and teaching. To date, the production of such files has been a challenging and time-consuming task for data producers. This makes it an expensive step which is often not undertaken by data producers. Intuitively, the anonymization of data files should lend itself to the use of computer based tools to facilitate this process. The International Household Survey Network (IHSN) has established a task force which is investigating the development of a series of tools to aid data producers in measuring the disclosure risk associated with a file, identifying ways of reducing this risk and assessing the information loss as a result of implementing the disclosure limitation procedures. Rather than an integrated software tool, the task force is working towards a modular, coherent set of tools to achieve the above goals. By building on work by others, they may even be able to develop an "intelligent" system. This presentation provides an overview the work of this task force.

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An Integrated System for Handling Restricted Use Data

The volume of restricted use data files distributed by data archives and data producers has increased dramatically in the last 10 years. As data files become more complicated with the addition of georeferencing, biomarkers, and linked administrative records, and other information, disclosure risk has increased dramatically. The most popular solution for distributing highly confidential data is to issue legal restricted use contracts to users. The handling of confidential data and the distribution of restricted use contracts, however, have not kept pace with other developments in data distribution. In this paper, we will explore several linked initiatives at ICPSR designed to streamline the handling, processing, and distribution of restricted use data. This paper will report on our progress in redesigning the entire system of handling, processing, and distributing confidential data. Our internal data processing steps will include segregating and streamlining data handling for confidential data through a CITRIX system. We are also creating an automated contracting system to handle the distribution of all of our restricted use files through a secured download system.

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Disclosure Protection for Sharing Data in SDA

Protecting the confidentiality of respondents is a major problem for the sharing and dissemination of data files. This presentation will describe new disclosure protections included in the SDA software to monitor and regulate the type of output that users of online data analysis may produce. The disclosure protections are of two types:

  • Restrictions on the type of analyses that can be run, including the use of certain combinations of variables in the same analysis run.
  • Suppression of all or part of analysis results, if they do not meet certain criteria for minimum cell sizes or maximum number of allowable predictor variables in regressions.

The presentation will explain how to set the disclosure rules in SDA and illustrate what users will encounter when they try to generate output that is not permitted by those rules.

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F3: Beyond and Behind the Numbers: Metadata, Codebooks and Publications

  • Chair: Harrison Dekker (UC Berkeley Library)
  • Location: Tampere Hall, Aaria

Uncovering the Pitfalls of Enhanced Publications

Researchers are discovering the enormous potential of the Internet and want to use it to enhance their publications with additional resources such as research data or visualizations. There are currently many ways to construct such 'enhanced publications', but there remain many difficulties that need to be solved before these enhanced publications can be safely implemented on a large scale. DANS, in cooperation with partners from the SURFshare programme, has built a demonstrator of enhanced publications. The demonstrator gives examples of enhanced publications from different scientific disciplines and shows how OAI-ORE can aggregate the different resources of an enhanced publication and how these aggregations can be transformed into user friendly web pages that allow researchers to view- and navigate between them. The goal of this demonstrator is twofold: triggering the researcher to think about their actual needs by showing them what is possible and making repository managers aware of the difficulties that have to be dealt with before enhanced publications can become a common way of publishing. This paper will give an overview of these difficulties.

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Adding to the Toolbox: Creating and Maintaining a Searchable Database of Events

Economists at the Federal Reserve Board are tasked every day with explaining the underlying causes of shifts in data, yet they do not have at their disposal all the tools necessary to efficiently perform these tasks. A glaring omission in their stable of available resources is a system which allows for researching events in a fast, organized, and succinct manner. We plan to solve that problem by creating a database of events categorized by date, type (financial, political, economic, etc), sector (labor, energy, prices, etc) and sub-sector (unemployment, crude oil, CPI, etc). Using established guidelines for event inclusion while also having strong metadata requirements we can open up a wealth of information for, and greatly reduce the search costs paid by, the user. An open-source application is being developed which will allow for the visualization of a timeline of events which can then be plotted against the time-series data in question. This paper will describe the efforts currently under way at the Federal Reserve Board to create and maintain a searchable database of events aimed primarily at assisting the work of research and forecast economists.

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Back to Basics With Dublin Core

When the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System needed to create a new metadata system they decided to start with a time tested foundation; Dublin Core. The U.S. Central Bank consumes a variety of metadata including metadata that defines collections of data and metadata that describes variable level data. This paper discusses the challenges and advantages of using an international standard. It follows the processes used to create collection level metadata, variable level metadata, and retrofitting existing metadata to make it all usable by economists and financial analysts.

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CoSSI - Codebook for Statistical Information or Something More?

The starting point of the presentation is to examine the character of statistical information, the way in which data and metadata are interconnected in statistical information and how the entity formed by them can be modelled. The focus of interest is statistical information itself - what we actually mean when we talk about statistical information. CoSSI (Common Structure of Statistical Information) is a model created for statistical information. Within its framework different parts of statistical information are combined conceptually as one complete entity. The CoSSI model defines the structures of statistical data (matrices and tables), statistical metadata, quality declarations and publications. XML DTDs have been selected as the technical means for implementing these structures. The CoSSI model also contain the language versioning necessary for statistics in international use. After the short introduction to the CoSSI model its usability is examined in the statistics production and dissemination of statistics, as well as in the scientific research use of statistical data. Finally the relation and compatibility of CoSSI and DDI are examined.

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F4: Building on Data: Resources, Tools and Applications

  • Chair: Jen Green (University of Michigan)
  • Location: Tampere Hall, Opus 4

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Playing a Data Custodian

The National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH) is a prominent longitudinal study on family life. NSFH was funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and National Institute on Aging (NIA). The total amount of federal grant for NSFH was 14.5 million dollars. Three waves of surveys were conducted in 1987-1988, 1992-1994 and 2001-2003. According to ICPSR Related Literature database, there are 1,053 publications based on NSFH data. Researchers continue to use NSFH to study family living arrangement, marriage, cohabitation, fertility, parenting relations, kin contact and economic and psychological well-being. The Center for Demography of Health and Aging (CDHA) took over user support for NSFH, after this project ended in summer of 2006. Without the expertise of the original NSFH project team, how does CDHA staff help NSFH researchers? In this paper I will share the challenges and rewards we have in providing user support for the complex NSFH studies. Our enhancement on disseminating NSFH data using an online analysis tool will be discussed. A plan of data repurposing for NSFH in the future will be presented also.

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Hidden in Plain Sight: Creating County-Based Data with Public Use Microdata Areas

Researchers are requesting geographically-referenced data, particularly at the sub-state level. There is a array of resources to fulfill these requests. This paper describes a 'hidden' source of county level data; presents a tool that allows users to extract user-defined characteristics; and illustrates a reverse use of this tool to create reliable characteristics for sparsely populated counties. The American Community Survey has generated county-based data since 2005. However, the only counties included in the data release are counties with populations of 65,000 or more. While this population cut-off includes over 80 percent of the US population, it only incorporates 783 of 3,141 counties. Data from the census has typically included all counties but access problems remain. Sometimes a researcher needs a measure not included in the summary files. In addition, there are some sparsely populated counties. Users would benefit from more reliable statistics for these counties. The lowest unit of geography in Census/ACS microdata is the public use microdata area (PUMA). Using the mapping between PUMAs and counties, we translate PUMA-based statistics into county-based statistics. Likewise, when counties are too small to generate reliable statistics, we combine data for these counties based on their PUMA boundaries to create pseudo county-based measures.

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NEEO's data curation

Nereus is a consortium of prestigious European libraries in the world of academic economics. At present the consortium concentrates its efforts on a EU funded project called NEEO (Network of European Economists Online) which will address the lack of integration of academic output by creating a powerful new research tool called Economists Online. With this tool it will give access to 50,000 journal articles, working papers, book chapters, conference proceedings and primary datasets of leading European Economists. One of the work packages of the project is entirely devoted to datasets. The three main objectives of this work packages are: To disclose and link the research data of publications of leading economists in Europe on the Internet To make these datasets openly accessible and freely available To make an inventory of the problems involved in the disclosure of primary research data To do so NEEO partners will store datasets in their Institutional Repositories, describe the datasets to the DDI standard and harvest the metadata for the Economists Online portal. The NEEO data workgroup will use the results of the enriched publications project "Together in Sharing" which was presented at last year IASSIST conference at Stanford.

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The Value of Public Sector Data and Information to Civil Society Organizations' in South Africa: Evidence from the Fight to Alleviate Poverty

Public sector data and information (PSDI) are considered by many to be a strategic resource, potentially needed at all levels of society, by different communities. This presentation reports on the preliminary findings of an investigation of the ways in which these resources are utilized by the South African Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to increase their effectiveness and add value to their efforts to alleviate poverty. The study draws upon literature from organizational studies and information policy. The concepts of value of information (Parker & Houghton, 1994), management of external information (Sammons, 2005), absorptive capacity (Cohen & Levinthal, 1990), organizational learning (Argyris & Schön, 1978), and organizational innovation (March & Simons, 1958) are used to guide my inquiry to demonstrate the value of PSDI to South African CSOs through describing and explaining the processes to identify, acquire (including factors that facilitate or hinder access and acquisition), assimilate, and exploit this strategic resource. It is expected that the discussions and findings of this study will have theoretical and policy contributions, and will be of special importance to the government of South Africa (and hopefully governments in other developing countries), the CSOs fighting against poverty, and subsequently to the people of South Africa.

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11:30am - 12:30pm

Lunch

  • Location: Tampere Hall, Restaurant Fuuga

12:30pm - 2:00pm

Concurrent Sessions

G1: DDI Across the Lifecycle

  • [ webcast ]
  • Chair: Mary Vardigan (ICPSR)
  • Location: Tampere Hall, Small Auditorium

DDI Across the Life Cycle: One Data Model, Many Products

  • Sue Ellen Hansen (Survey Research Operations, ISR, University of Michigan)
    Peter Granda (ICPSR)
    Sanda Ionescu (ICPSR)
    Felicia LeClere (ICPSR) [ presentation ]
    » Show abstract.

Panel Coordinator - Mary Vardigan: Producing DDI-compliant documentation from computer-assisted interview software has long been a goal of the DDI community. Generating such documentation upstream in the data life cycle has benefits for data producers because the resulting documentation is machine-actionable and can be used to inform the interview software in subsequent data collection cycles. Data archives benefit as well because they can ingest comprehensive DDI documentation with question text integrated into variables and generate statistical software setup files from the documentation. Two units of the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research - Survey Research Operations and the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research - came together early in 2008 with a strategy to create a shared DDI 3.0-compliant relational database model. This data model served as a foundation for several products and services, which this session will demonstrate.

MQDS - Sue Ellen Hansen: The Michigan Questionnaire Documentation System (MQDS) was designed to create comprehensive eXtensible Markup Language (XML) metadata for Blaise survey instruments. With the development of the DDI 3.0-compliant relational database model, MQDS was updated to change the method of processing data collection instruments. MQDS is able to process any size instrument and provides greater flexibility in processing instruments in part or whole. From the database, MQDS provides the ability to export data to DDI-3 XML and provides the ability to use database methods for queries, comparisons, and merging of data. MQDS imports the Blaise BMI files into a relational database. From the database, MQDS produces a DDI 3.0 compliant XML file. Style sheets are then used to produce other file formats needed (.html, etc).

Editing Tool - Peter Granda: During the course of Computer-Assisted Interviewing (CAI) it is often necessary for data producers and processors to customize the content of variable descriptions. Such elements as variable and value labels, question texts, and universe statements must be understandable to a broad audience when public-use files appear. A special editor, with a Web-based interface, has been developed to serve the needs of funding agencies and the Institute of Social Research as they collect, review, and process the a variety of datasets. Based on output from CAI instrument, this editor permits internal and external users to update pertinent information about all variables, specify those to include in public-use files, and provide a permanent, DDI-compliant record of decisions made through the data life cycle.

ICPSR Social Science Variables Database - Sanda Ionescu: ICPSR has developed a Web-based tool that allows users to search the new database for variable descriptions across studies, refine searches using certain parameters, and examine the context of relevant hits within a study or series of studies. The database is compliant with both DDI 2.1 and DDI 3.0 and may serve to perform transformations between the two versions. This project currently uploads variable-level documentation marked up in DDI 2.1, displays search results, and can generate DDI 3.0 descriptions. We will discuss how a first batch of approximately 3,500 DDI files, representing about 1,300 IPCSR studies, was prepared for the initial database ingest. We will review the criteria used for selecting, or prioritizing, certain types of studies, the sources for DDI markup, the quality standards and checks performed, as well as content upgrades as necessary. We will also describe how we moved to automated upload as part of the routine archival processing procedures once the database became functional. The first version of the public interface will be presented, alongside with a discussion of enhancements projected for the near future.

ICPSR Internal Variable Search - Felicia LeClere: ICPSR has created a database application that allows an internal metadata search to create dynamic metadata crosswalks for data collections in shared portfolios. The Integrated Fertility Survey Series is a federally funded data system designed to harmonize ten data files from the Growth of American Families in 1955 to the NSFG, Cycle 6 in 2002. This internal search application, based on the shared SRO-ICPSR data base, allows us to search and display variables across a variety of data files in order to identify comparable questions and variables. The search mechanism allows us to search all elements of the metadata including variable description, question text, variable and value labels, and other elements of the metadata record.

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G2: Making Space: Issues in Linking Data and Geographies

  • Chair: San Cannon (Federal Reserve Board)
  • Location: Tampere Hall, Opus 4

GeoConvert: Creating that Spatial Relationship.

GeoConvert is a web based service allowing the matching and conversion of geocoded data to other geographic area types, including those from different years. Geography area types abound - Counties, Postcodes, Output Areas, NUTS areas... and on and on and is ever changing, so every few years the boundaries get redrawn or someone creates a new type of geographical area. What is the social science researcher to do, at what level does he collect his data or do his analysis? Most people know their Postcode, but very few know what Census Output Area they live in. GeoConvert enables the user to convert their data to numerous other geocoded datasets, no matter what geographic level it has been collected at. UK Census geographies can be connected to European Union Eurostat data at NUTS level or Postcodes can be matched to Primary Care Trust health data. GeoConvert opens up social science dataset usage to new users such as Widening Participation and Further Education by making it easy to link datasets to Postcodes, a common easy to use geographical identifier. By reducing the technical barriers to geocoded data and allowing the ability to connect to historical geographies the re-use of pre-existing datasets is encouraged.

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Standards Based Services for Dissemination and Processing of Geospatial Data - An Example Using the UK Census.

This paper will report the findings of the Data Integration and Dissemination (DIaD) project , which is investigating the potential of using international open standards based techniques (Open Geospatial Consortia) to perform data linkage between two of the most heavily used UK academic census outputs - the aggregate statistical data and the output geographies. The primary objective of this work is to develop a data dissemination model which demonstrates a more generic capability - that of 'geo-linking'. This provides the ability to separate census statistical data (for example, but other geospatially-linked data are equally capable of utilising this approach) and the boundary (geometry) data to which it relates. Geo-linking allows for distributed, multi-source datasets to be seamlessly linked in a fashion that facilitates data separation for management and administration purposes. In essence, the approach proposed will provide an extensible infrastructure applicable not only to the immediate needs of the UK Census Programme but also more widely to a broader range of use cases. Additionally, using the same standards based approach, the project will aim to demonstrate how further value added processing can be invoked by transforming the geo-linked outputs through a series of ancillary web processing services.

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Screening Data for Disclosure Risk and the Research behind One Possible Tool

In their efforts to broadly release information that has high scientific value, producers may consider releasing the attributes of geographies instead of directly identifying the locations of respondents. Informing the design and production of such data files, this study describes various factors that are of concern when evaluating disclosure risk of contextualized microdata and some of the empirical steps that are involved in their assessment. Utilizing synthetic sets of survey respondents, I illustrate how different postulates shape the assessment of risk when considering: (1) estimated probabilities that unidentified geographic areas are represented within a survey; (2) the number of people in the population who share the same personal and contextual identifiers as a respondent; and (3) the anticipated amount of coverage error in census population counts and extant files that provide identifying information (i.e., name, address).

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G3: Building Data Archives and User Communities: Greece, Estonia and Ethiopia

  • Chair: Jane Roberts (University of Oxford Social Science Data Service)
  • Location: Tampere Hall, Sonaatti 1

What Do Researchers Look for in Archives? Data and Metadata on User Requests, and After Service Tracking in the Case of an Emerging Data Sharing Culture

  • Chryssa Kappi (Greek Social Data Bank - National Centre For Social Research)
    Dimitra Kondyli (GSDB-EKKE)
    Christina Frentzou (GSDB-EKKE)
    Tolis Linardis (GSDB-EKKE) [ presentation ]
    » Show abstract.

Work in data services across the world demands similar infrastructure in terms of facilities and services, and commonly agreed tools and procedures; yet, the 'clientele' is the research community consisting of individuals who differ, both in terms of needs and in terms of attitudes to the available infrastructure; these differences are mostly evident at a geographical scale, where research communities have different collective identities in relation to their local data services. This presentation will offer facts and their analysis on the profile of a local research community -namely, Greece- as studied by the Greek Social Data Bank. Strengths and weaknesses of the infrastructure will be stressed at a general level. At a more specific level, the analysis will focus on the type of data requests, availability of data, functionality of services and after-service tracking. The local data sharing culture, its transformations, and the role of social networking at the individual and institutional levels will be portrayed.

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Social Science Data Archiving and Needs of the Public Sector: the Case of Estonia

Because Estonia is a small country the number of social scientists working with original research data is rather modest. Most users of social information are coming from the public sector. The significance of using social information in legislation is stressed in the Estonian public at large. There are domain-specific ideas to collect data and research materials. Noticeably, the existing data archive can be the information centre for Estonian public sector as a whole. Representatives of public sector are more interested in interpreted results of concrete data analyses. To realise that demand ESSDA tries to collect and systematize as much as possible data-connected additional information (especially research reports, publications, etc) and to establish the database of Estonian social sciences research resources. We are also starting to analyse our archived data for users, interested in such services. The other direction to satisfy the demand of the public sector is teaching. We have been teaching general principles of data archiving to our social science students. When our students are starting to work in the public sector, they can better understand possibilities of secondary analysis based on archived data and also can be more competent in using resources offered by the data archive.

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Development of Data Archiving and Dissemination System at the CSA

The Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia is responsible for providing accurate and timely statistical information for development planning and monitoring purposes. To achieve its responsibility CSA has been engaged in utilizing Information Communication Technology to facilitate its data processing, archiving and dissemination system so that the required statistical information can be generated and reach the users. CSA is considered as one of the leading institutions in Ethiopia in utilizing ICT to accomplish its basic tasks. The CSA started its computerized statistical data production by utilizing the IBM System/3 with 12k CPU. This time, the agency is handling its statistical data archiving and dissemination system through high capacity servers and a reliable network infrastructure. The paper based dissemination and restricted access to the CSA data has undergone very significant improvements. The DDI application has tremendously improved the metadata documentation and enables the CSA metadata to be archived and disseminated in an internationally accepted standard. Utilization of GIS in providing easy access of data to decision makers has shown a very significant improvement as well.

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2:00pm - 2:30pm

Coffee Break

  • Location: Tampere Hall, Restaurant Fuuga

2:30pm - 3:30pm

Plenary: Collecting, Visualizing, Communicating, and Modeling Spatial Data in the Social Sciences
[ webcast ]

  • Dr. Michael Batty (Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London)
    with Andrew Hudson-Smith, Andrew Crooks, Richard Milton and Duncan Smith
  • Chair: Melanie Wright (UKDA)
  • Location: Tampere Hall, Small Auditorium
    » Show abstract.

New web technologies and task specific software packages and services are fundamentally changing the way we share, collect, visualize, communicate and distribute geographic/spatial information. Coupled with these new technologies is the emergence of rich fine scale and extensive spatial datasets of the built environment. Such technologies and data are providing opportunities for the social sciences that were unimaginable ten years ago, particularly new forms of modeling and simulation. In this paper, we discuss such changes from our own applications which are developed in a research context which emphasizes dissemination using Web 2.0 technologies... Specifically, we illustrate how it is now possible to harness the crowd to collect peoples' opinions about topical events such as the current financial crisis, in real time and map the results, through the use of our GMapCreator software and the MapTube website, infrastructure for social science developed under the banner of the UK's National Centre for e-Social Science. Furthermore, such tools allow for widespread dissemination and visualization of geographic data to whoever has an internet connection. We will explore how one can use new datasets to visualize the city using our 3-D GIS-CAD Virtual London model as an example which we can embed in web based software such as Google Earth as well as within conventional GIS and CAD software. Within the model, individual buildings can be tagged with multiple attributes providing a lens to explore the urban structure offering a plethora of research applications. Finally we turn to how one can visualize and communicate such data through low cost software and virtual worlds such as Crysis and Second Life with a look into their potential for modeling. Our aim in the paper is to provide a perspective on new developments in spatial data and modeling and their dissemination within the social science.

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3:30pm - 3:45pm

Mini Break

  • Location: Tampere Hall

3:45pm - 4:45pm

Conference Wrap Up

  • Location: Tampere Hall, Small Auditorium

See Excursions for more information on social programme