Open Research in the New Zealand Context

The workshop will attempt to explore the meaning of ‘Open Research’ in the New Zealand context. It will

explore the views of those attending the workshop on the value and feasability of Open Research in New

Zealand.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand License.

New Zealand eResearch Symposium, Wellington, July 4 2012

Overall Questions

• What is Open Research and if we want it how do we get there?

• How do we move from the list of principles to a list of actionable tasks?

• What are the main themes that should be included in a document to be presented to relevant stakeholders (i.e. institutions, funding agencies, etc.) to promote/incentivise adoption?

• Who should write that document? Who should endorse it?• What should the purpose of the document be how does

understanding this shape the format of the document?

Stage 1

Go into groups and come back with 3 opportunities which would enable NZ research to be more….

Opportunities• Single data space (computational ready data and infrastructure to store data and a single

integrated virtual collaboration research space built into that infrastructure) -> Reference to Earthcube (http://earthcube.ning.com/)

• Human space – researchers linkage: at the levels of researcher-researcher (identify/discover expertise) and researcher-public

• More research by more people and accessible to the world• Shift in culture – sharing as default• NZ as model for weightless economy – defeat the tyranny of distance. • Share NZ research data across agencies• Make NZ data more accessible and exciting to the world• Galvanise more support for nz data and opportunities• Tell better science stories• Open framework for knowledge – opening stuff up is half the process • Collective intelligence building eureka – move away from the lonely dude in the bathtub• Communities – build them don’t discourage them • Knowledge not just data

Stage 2Identify the 3 more critical barriers to changing and improving on the assigned topic.

Topics to discuss:– Infrastructure– Communities– Collaboration– Culture

Opportunity 1: InfrastructureIdentify the 3 main challenges or hurdles associated

with your opportunity

Challenges• University support of infrastructure – do we know what we have, and what we

need to build for what we need to do or are we just adding stuff• Governance over infrastructure – Who makes the decision, who has

ownership (or feels ownership)• Institutional infrastructure – does it meet the needs of the people. Or after

investing do we need to buy more to fit individual needs• Research is built around great ideas – but need the wheels to keep it moving• Competition and siloed ownership of data – hard to build infrastructure as a

one size fits all. How do we manage shared and unshared environments? -> culture comes in here too

• Trained professionals to support. People don’t know what they don’t know. Need to provide a HR element to infrastructure to bridge the software and hardware and make it meaningful to researchers

Opportunity 2: CommunitiesIdentify the 3 main challenges or hurdles associated

with your opportunity

Challenges• Bureaucracy and all of its levels and embedded inertia• Context of NZ being a small country and too much duplication

creating more bureaucracy• Lack of enablers: (e.g., elitism, money, space, vision, etc)• Rules for doing science: Conservative ideals and culture and

policies and settings do not facilitate collaboration. • Lack of diversity• Value placed on how to build and sustain communities• *Recommended reading: The art of Community

Opportunity 3 : CollaborationIdentify the 3 main challenges or hurdles associated

with your opportunity

Challenges:• Collaboration in terms of who is collaborating with whom – it is an opportunity

but might not be followed through• $ not identified as a challenge• Knowledge gap: Need to introduce the right hand to the left hand• Gap in NZ between businesses and research organisations: Failure to identify

opportunities due to lack of knowledge• Commercialisation: When it is the goal of everything you do then you loose the

opportunity to make something that will enable something else but that might not be a goal in itself

• Personalities: You can have the $, the policy, the ethics and all the cake, but you can still come across human interaction-level barriers

• Methodology alignment between collaborating groups • Need to think of the difference between collaboration vs cooperation.

Opportunity 4: CultureIdentify the 3 main challenges or hurdles associated

with your opportunityChallenges:• Risk: Researchers are change averse/ Institutions pay the cost for change/

Cost of Open Access/ Data security and privacy• PBRF and other metrics of performance• IP imperatives• Value of open research vs. traditional research -> What is the return and

how do you measure it?• Incentives and leadership• Who carries the burden of cost?• Continuity…..• Demographics – different generations have different attitudes• Fragmentation• Thinking and attitudes

Go have coffee and moan

Harass the person who is your biggest hurdle (if they are in the room) and get a better sense of why they don’t do things the way you want

Themes that arose around ‘issues’• Trust• Skills/Competencies• Incentives/Assessment/ Value• Communication (Discovery, Connections) • Communication top to bottom/middle out• Understanding the small steps in the long leap

context• Lag/Inertia/BureaucracyTask: Identify small step actionable tasks that can be taken in the next 6 months by the people in the room (don’t feel you are signing up to it)

Specific Actions• eResearch infrastructure: Find out what it already

has and find out what it needs to be added. • Develop a group with interests in Open Research to

have a sense of identity and align with groups along the ditch.

• Have a business case to present to key stake holders.

• How do we get to people that can promote key-decisions.

• Need to identify the advocates. • Need the mandates.

Specific Actions• Research Office needs to be convinced to attend the next eResearch Symposium• Open Access Week: Have a more active role as a national community• Raise the profile of Digital History and how it benefits from #OA• How to make each one’s community more open• Up skilling institutional support staff to promote open research as an option –

Walk the talk• Educate students and build these ideas into courses or develop new courses that

incorporate these ideas• Workshop on open license contract clause that can go into institutional/science

contracts. These need to be understood by the local institutional lawyers. Think of legal frameworks around material transfer agreements

• Working with scientists to get data out of the firewalls and from places that prevent them from sharing.

• Identify success stories to ‘sell the idea’, Good practice stories, and share those. • Use social media channels for promotion• Tweet the publication as a form of promotion and incorporate to metrics

Specific Actions• Identify like-minded colleagues. Talk about what we

do/where we go. Why we go what we got from it. Incentivise participation.

• Open research conference. • Blogs. Tweets. Identify who does it, give them material to

blog about. • Identify projects where openness would help success • Consistent use of language• Summer of eResearch: Capitalise on this. Provide projects.

Connect software engineering students to understand what eScience is about – need content for newsletter. Need examples to talk about to the new generation

Specific Actions

• Networking – what are the different organisations doing? Lets not duplicate efforts but rather work together.

• Think of networking those promoting adoption at a national level. Need to be transparent within our own community

• Need high speed access and endless storage• Otago has a series of seminars around Open

Access that will be shared.

Wrapup

• Build a network that includes key people• Build a network that provides identity• Share resources• Facilitate communication channels• Try to understand more what the gaps and

needs are in the regional and national space

Overall Questions

• What is Open Research and if we want it how do we get there?

• How do we move from the list of principles to a list of actionable tasks?

• What are the main themes that should be included in a document to be presented to relevant stakeholders (i.e. institutions, funding agencies, etc.) to promote/incentivise adoption?

• Who should write that document? Who should endorse it?• What should the purpose of the document be how does

understanding this shape the format of the document?

Shameless Plugs (aka opportunities)

• Creative Commons ANZ – Discussion as part of NetHui. We will talk about Open Access and OERs.

• CatalystIT Open Source Awards. Awards Gala I 7 November. There is a category on Open Science -> Go nominate someone!

• NZ AU Open Research Conference • National Digital Forum 20-23 November. Mix and Mash. Humanities

and Technology Camp. • Archives Conference August in Brisbane• Open Access Week October University of Auckland with guest speaker

Alex Holcobe• eResearch Australia October 28 Nov 1 Sydney. It is the kickoff of

Australasia EarthCube with Cliff Jacobs • Open Access Conference in South Africa.

ParticipantsCameron Neylon – In betweenFabiana Kubke – UoAucklandAlison Stringer – Open Data information SecretariatNicky Gardner – ESRJace Carson – Research Consultant U CanterburyMatt McGregor – CCANZSydney Shep – VU Prashant Gupta – UoA PhD studentCameron McLean – UoA PhD studentDonelle McKinley – VU MSc StudentJingli Lu – AgResearchLizzy Lang – VU LibraryCharlotte Clements – NIWABob Allan – Info Management – UVStuart Charters – Lincoln UniLeonie Hayes – UoA LibraryIngrid Mason – Intersect Australia Kate Bardwell – U Otago – LibraryHoward Amos – U Otago LibraryRichard Hoskings – UoA PhD StudentRussell Butson – U OtagoDaniel Spector – CatlaystITKate Nolan Massey UniversityRobert Gibb – Landcare ResearchYanan Zhao – UoA Library

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand

License.

New Zealand eResearch Symposium, Wellington, July 2012