Data Management Training Resources Survey and Clearinghouse Project Report

Nancy:

1. Nancy provided the background in terms of the activities that the Data Management Training sub-group from the Data Stewardship Committee has been conducting, including the Data Management Short Course for the Scientists.

2. The work so far has let us to consider what other data management activities we should be participating in.

3. However, in order for us to evaluate the potential next steps, we want to understand the types of effort that others have made in the similar area and the kinds of resources that have already been produced by other organizations/institutions.

4. One of the ideas that the sub-group is pursuing is to build a collection of the resources or a “clearinghouse”.  This collection would be a centralized location where people could access and utilize the resources in order to customize their personal learning/training process for data management.

5. However, the actual structure of the clearinghouse is yet to be determined, and Nancy would welcome anyone who is interested in participating in the process to get involved.

6. Similarly, we would also like to explore additional possible resources/funding that might be available to develop the next phase of the Short Course.

Sophie:

1. Sophie presented mainly from her presentation (the presentation is attached in the following section).

2. The main discussions that resulted from the presentation included the following:

   1. Determine who are our targeted audience for the next phase of the Short Course.

   2. Explore the different types of content and format that we might be able to deliver the Short Course based on the resources/funding that are available to us.

   3. Evaluate the possibility of getting more partners involved in the process, so that additional resources/funding can become available to the next phase of the Short Course project.

   4. Based on the Survey Project, there is an emerging trend for the types of topics that might be considered as “core knowledge” of data management, but it would be important for us to evaluate these topics more comprehensively against other types of resources, such as syllabi from academic data curation programs.

Nancy:

1. Nancy provided additional information regarding our USGS Clearinghouse Proposal, including the elements of Request for Proposal (RFP).

   1. Timeline is about 6 months starting in April 2016.

2. Input from the audience: zooniverse (https://www.zooniverse.org/) could be a potential platform for hosting the clearinghouse.

3. There are several details of the clearinghouse that we welcome additional feedback, including whether the content of the clearinghouse should be peer-reviewed.

4. Nancy also provided the status of the final proposal (due: January 22nd).

5. Suggestion for the clearinghouse: Adding common language that is used in the data management training resourced.

6. Input from the audience: Maintaining the links to the resources would be crucial, so that if the links change or die, the updates are reflected accordingly.  It might be helpful that we review and implement a technique that can automatically detect changes in links and redirect as needed.  Relating to this issue, the content of the resources need to be reviewed and annotated accordingly.