ESA Wksp 17: How to Manage Ecological Data for Effective Use and Reuse

Pre-Workshop Assessment:

Have you ever:
 * Shared your data with colleagues? yes
 * 
 * Been asked for your data by a researcher outside your collaborative group? no
 * Deposited your data in a publically accessible archive / repository?no
 * Used someone else’s data?yes
 * Searched for data within a publically accessible archive / repository?yes
 * Used metadata to describe your data?yes, but not according to any official standard



Post-Workshop Assessment:

Do you think you will be more likely to:
 * Use a repository to store your data?
 * Yes
 * Definitely
 * Yes
 * Yes
 * yes
 * yes
 * Yes
 * Yes

 * Use a repository to share your data?
 * Yes
 * yes 
 * Yes
 * yes
 * Yes
 * Yes
 * Yes, however promotion and access to these will be important

 * Use someone else's data from a shared repository?
Yes
Yes
Yes
yes, but not sure how much than before
yes
yes
I think so, now that I have more ideas where to look.
Yes
 * Use the data life-cycle when planning your research project?
Perhaps
yes
yes
yes
yes, helpful in planning and making things a bit less overwhelming

Absolutely
Yes, or at least think more before starting about what I would like to do in the end with it and how to best accomplish those goals
 * Use metadata to describe your data?
Yes, definitely.
yes
Yes
yes
yes
yes, given access to proper formats
yes
 * Use increased data protection mechanisms?
yes
Not sure how to yet...
yes
yes, if I can find affordable external hardrives
Yes
Actually, was happy to learn I'm already using the 3 recommended methods

yes
Workshop Feedback:

Please use this space to highlight elements you found to be valuable, provide suggestions for improvements and include any other comments on the workshop.
I liked the diversity of resources (people who are experts at different types of data management) available to us. Next time I would like working groups where we actually work on our own data. This would take way more personnel but would be very very helpful. I have walked away from this meeting with a better idea of what I would like to do with my data, but very little practical knowledge. How, exactly, do I use my software to do what I want to do? 
    Metadata!
It was great to learn about the many tools available for data management plans and creating metadata. I would like to learn about R tools/code for database stuff -- but maybe would be too specific or require a specific, R-oriented workshop? Also, would be helpful to learn more about file naming practices. I totally agree with keeping original data sacrosanct, but sometimes you discover data entry errors as you go, so what's the best way of back-correcting files and make sure any corrections make it into all the analyses down the road.