Topics for Further Discussion from SCWG Call July 3, 2012
                   
Subject matter for us to consider addressing.  

• One possibility is to develop enough of a plan to work on products together (papers, workshops, grants) at the AHM in September.
• Think about what venues we want to be seen at/in
  
  

Topics of interest
1) institutional issues

• Ways to approach institutional support issues around the work of data management, sharing, curation, preservation etc.  Making sure people get credit for good data.   It’s been looked at but we can continue to look at ways to make that happen.
  • Metrics – something that helps instutions support good data practices and data sustainability
  • Perhaps a policy review within academia (and government?) of what rewards and/or incentives are in place to incentivize data sharing and re-use (unless we already know there are none)?  We have data on how much people do and don't share, and some on why, perhaps we could match this to a framework of the insitutional and career policies within which these people work and how and how not they are changing as the practice of science changes.
    
    

2) Library related issues

• How do librarians/the library community become ambassadors for research
• How do we fit into supporting research and data collection? (hot topic at ALA)
  
  

3) Scientists

• Scientists willingness to reuse data.  DataONE has taken a real supply side emphasis.  But the demand side needs attention as well.  Why do people reuse data?  (KC interest)
  • (This is an excellent point and interesting possibility.  The UAWG will be developing the scientists re-assessment this fall and we could speak with them about adding in 1 - 3 questions that would get at this in the survey.  MD)
• time to start thinking about the grand premise of DataONE – that people get more out of data, that it not just be a grand store house for data.  Maybe start developing a set of use cases in which researchers need to actually find and leverage existing data in order to address their questions.  Very valuable contribution and very much in our scope. (AB)
  
  

4) Sociocultural Issues in Environmental Information Science

• I've recently come across several articles that analyze the sociocultural facilitators and barriers to the sharing of biodiversity data and information either writ large or within a specific project such as OBIS, Convention on Biological Diversity Biological Clearing Houses, GBIF etc. (MD)
•  Now that DataONE and its tools are going public, and given its highly collaborative structure that specifically sought to address sociocultural issues, I’m wondering if a reflective piece of work might be of interest.  We could/would create a framework of known/possible barriers and facilitators from other projects/from theory, and analyze the process of getting to this point, or to a point a year from now when people have been using DataONE, and look at how we did and what we could recommend for other such efforts.  Do we identify any new issues and/or solutions?  How did the way DataONE tried to proceed towards creation and function play out in terms of these facilitators and barriers? (MD)
•  This sits in the middle between projects in service to DataONE and projects in service to socio-cultural issues of environmental science information, the duality we discussed at our last meeting and summarized below (MD).  

 
Comments/Thoughts to Consider
(AB) The SCWG has had a dual relationship with DataONE.  Partly we function as contractors to DataONE providing materials needed for the success of the project, and partly we use DataONE within our own academic/theoretical/and applied interests as part of our own work.  To date, the balance has been heavier on the former than the latter.