Agenda

Date/Time/Place: Thursday, 22 September/14:00-15:30/The National Library of the Netherlands/Koninklijke Bibliotheek: http://www.kb.nl/hpd/wegwijzer/plattegrond-en.html
1.) Welcome and Introductions (Jane Greenberg, UNC/Metadata Research Center.)
2.) Context and brief updates for DC-SAM community (Jane Greenberg) (slides)
3.) Status report: DataCite Dublin Core (DC2) Application Profile: Progress Report (Jian Qin, Syracuse U.) (slides)
4.) Presentations:
4.1) Overview of Scientific Metadata for Data Publishing, Citation, and Curation (Alex Ball, Research Officer, UKOLN) (slides). Scientific data as a resource type is very hard to characterize, not least because of the sheer variety of requirements placed on it by different areas of research. It is no surprise, then, that scientific metadata has traditionally been very discipline- and application-specific. With the rise of interdisciplinary research and data sharing, though, there is increasing pressure for common standards in areas such as data discovery and curation. Mr. Ball will report on his research assessing the feasibility of a common metadata profile for scientific data discovery, and ask "Is it worth a try?"
4.2) Elsevier Metadata Design for Smart Content (Michael Lauruhn, Disruptive Technology Director, Elsevier Labs; Véronique Malaisé, Head of Taxonomy Center, Content Enrichment Center) ( slides). Elsevier researchers will review SKOS and Resource Description Framework (RDF) considerations for Smart Content initiatives that facilitate the move into a Linked Data environment. The presentation will include an overview of EMMeT (Elsevier Merged Medical Taxonomy) and ongoing research in the area of Smart Content including an overview of prototypes and previews of products.
5.) Open discussion
6.) Future charter and group activity

Meeting Summary

DC-SAM community members held a workshop at DC-2011, Thursday, 22 September (14:00-15:30) at the National Library of the Netherlands.

The meeting began with a brief welcome, and a round-the-room introduction.

There were 22 participants from a range of organizations and institutions (academic, government, industry). Participants were primarily engaged in informatics activities—as metadata administrators, catalogers, computer scientists and researchers. A couple of participants noted backgrounds in a scientific domain, but indicated their work and DC attendance was primarily informatics-driven. (Note: The larger DC-SAM community includes a scientists as well as informatics folks.)

  • Jane Greenberg (UNC + Metadata Research Center) spoke first. She explained how DCMI communities operate and underscored they are open and participatory. Jane provided historical context and briefly commented on the community’s recent accomplishments, including the two new co-leaders (Alex Ball and Jian Qin).
  • Jian Qin (Syracuse) followed, presenting a progress report on a DC-SAM initiative to develop the DataCite Dublin Core (DC2) Application Profile. Over the last year, Jian and Alex have worked with DataCite leaders on representing the DataCite Metadata Schema as a DCAP. The work is part of a DC-SAM effort to not reinvent the wheel in terms of metadata for scientific data—extending Dublin Core, but also to enable interoperability between DataCite and Dublin Core. (slides)
  • Alex Ball (UKOLN) reported next on his scoping study that provides an overview of scientific metadata supporting data publishing, citation, and curation activities. Among take-home messages he emphasized that scientific data is very hard to characterize, and that there is a great variety of requirements relating to research. He commented on research assessing the feasibility of a common metadata profile for scientific data discovery, and concluded it may be worth a try, provided the profile serves a tightly scoped purpose; a single profile cannot hope to satisfy all the needs of all disciplines. (slides)
  • Michael Lauruhn and Véronique Malaisé, (Elsevier labs) followed with an overview of 1.) Elsevier’s Smart Content initiatives, including their exploration of linked data environment, and 2.) EMMeT (Elsevier Merged Medical Taxonomy). The EMMeT initiative presents an innovative model for linked data in an enterprise like Elsevier, servicing many constituents.
  • Time for Q&A was limited; however, there were a few brief remarks, and follow-up discussions took place during the break that followed and the remainder of the conference. Greg Tourte, School of Geographical Science, Bristol shared an example from climatology, where metadata is critical if simulated and real climate datasets are to be compared. (Note: The time challenge was due, in part, to the start-time delay attributed to the trek through the library to the designated room.)

As part of the wrap-up, participants were asked to comment on the continuation of the community as a forum for exchanging ideas and it is clear that there is continued interest. Participants' needs ranged from just starting to grapple with scientific data (where/how to start with metadata in this context?) to sophisticated metadata processes that were more domain-driven; the reproducibility of research was a concern for several folks. All participants were encouraged to join the community listserv. (Records confirm several new DC-SAM community members following the CfP pre-DC-2011, and following the recent workshop.)

The closing discussion was devoted to next year’s DCMI conference in Malaysia and future meetings. There was some support (although not overwhelming support) expressed for holding a DC-SAM meeting at another conference in the future, such as JDCL, ECDL, or IDCC, and this is something the co-community leaders will consider in their 2011/2012 work plan. Folks also expressed interest in allocating more time for the DC-SAM workshop in at the future DC conference, and considering the NKOS model—combining two workshop slots. Overall, despite time challenges, it was a successful workshop and an agenda has emerged for DC-SAM activities in the coming year.

Respectfully submitted by the DC-SAM community co-leaders (Alex Ball, Jane Greenberg, and Jian Qin)