Towards curating data for sharing, access and preservation ... · PDF fileaccess and preservation with environmental voluntary groups ... research and participative decision-making

2/26/2014

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Towards curating data for sharing, access and preservation with environmental voluntary groups

Faculty of Education, School of Information Studies

Mary Anne Kennan, Charles Sturt University (CSU) Kirsty Williamson, CSU & Monash UniversityGraeme Johanson, Monash University

Background

•Data created and held outside of formal ‘academic’ science, often not generated by professional work, e.g., by environmental voluntary groups (EVGs)environmental voluntary groups (EVGs)

•Data largely inaccessible outside those often-small EVGs

•Potential value of this “wild” data for:

• science, research and participative decision-making (Callon, Lascoumes & Barthe 2009)

• academic and other professional researchers


p

•Management of data by EVGs may be:

• poor or non-existent

• haphazard and spasmodic regarding quality control

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Volunteers, amateurs, professionals & citizen scientists

• “Volunteer” freely does something useful

• “Amateur” common usage problematic

• “Citizen science”

• Our project – harnessing the data of “amateur


the data of amateur experts” – Volunteers

• (Bell et al 2008; Grove-White et al 2007; Kennan et all 2011)

Photo: Ken Walker, Museum Victoria/Bowerbird

Harnessing data

outside formal CS programs?Focussing on biodiversity databiodiversity data

• Observations and collections e.g. Species, location, date, time etc.

For use in:• Tracking location and

status of endangered or


status of endangered or invasive species

• Development of policy; informing decisions

• Combining with other (e.g. weather & climate) data

Photo: Russel Best, APSV/NatureShareNodding Greenhood Orchid

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Why share?• Data are expensive to collect

• May be unique, snap shot

Data sharing• Integral to data intensive

science, collaboration

• Can be reused e.g.• Reproduce or validate

• Advance original research

• Open new line of enquiry

• Contribute to inter-disciplinary problem solving and answering large scale questions

• Component of current scientific method

• Requires:• Description, accessibility, find-

ability

• Preservation, persistence, sustainability

• Maintenance of quality


• Reasons not to share?• Social

• Technical

Maintenance of quality

(Borgman, 2006; Cragin et al, 2010; Henty et al, 2008; Kowalczyk & Shankar, 2011; Markauskaite et al, 2012; Tenopir et al, 2011; Witt, 2009)

Information sharingHIB

• Some research on

Information systems & KM• Emphasis on how systems

Some research on information sharing but still emerging (Fisher & Julien 2009; Pilerot 2012; Wilson 2010)

• A form of collaborative information behaviour (Talja & Hansen 2006)

can be designed & implemented to enhance collaborative information sharing (c.f. Widen-Wulff & Ginman 2004; Lave & Wenger 1991)

Sharing data and information


)

• Multifaceted: trust, risk, reward, benefit, reciprocity (Savolainen 2007; Wilson 2010)

through formal systems requires understanding of user communities and practices (Talja 2002)

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Research problem and questions1. What are the present data

storage and management practices of APSV members?p

2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of these practices for the sharing of research data?

3. What are APSV members’ present attitudes to sharing research data?

To understand how data management and approaches to data sharing could be improved to enhance EVG member

Photo: Ken Walker, Museum Victoria/Bowerbird


4. What can be done to encourage APSV members to share their data and to empower them with skills and technology to contribute to major data repositories?

improved to enhance EVG member contributions to formal science while also continuing to meet individual and group needs

Background of site•APS Branches in every state

•1,700 Victorian members

•APSV begun in Melbourne in 1957

•Name change in the late 1990s:• from ‘Society for Growing Australian Plants’ (SGAP)

• to ‘Australian Plants Society’ – reflecting broader approach to include, e.g., researching, observing, and conserving

Emphasis of members varies e g


•Emphasis of members varies, e.g.,• Cultivation of Australian plants (priority of gardens)

• Broader ‘field naturalist’ approaches

• Strong scientific interest

• Social engagement with like-minded people

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Summary of method

•Interpretivist/constructivist h hil hresearch philosophy

•Ethnographic method and interview technique

•Purposive sample to reflect membership of APSV

•15 interviews of 1-2 hours, semi-structured, audio-taped


& transcribed

•Analysis through identification of categories and themes Image: APSV Project, Bowerbird

Participant Analysis

Gender Age Length APSV MembershipMembership

7 male8 female

40-49 150-59 460-69 570-79 380-89 2

1-5 years 1 6-10 years 311-15 years 321-25 years 330+ years 5


Sample ages closely reflect age profile of ASPV: 88% of membership was aged over 50 in 2007 (Phil Hempel, 2007 survey of APSV members)

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Motivations to join EVG

• Love of Australian plants, nature and p ,conservation

• Work and socialize with like-minded people

• Increase own knowledge & understanding


understanding

• Make a contributionPhoto: Ken Walker, Museum Victoria/Bowerbird

Current positionObservations

•In field •historical

Current modes of sharing/dissemination

• MeetingsSurveys of habitats

Data types• Photographs• Specimens• Notes e.g.

• Location

• Meetings

• Newsletters and magazines

• Guided walks

• Group collecting trips

• Individual and group


• Time/Date/Season• Flowering• Habitat• Pollinators• Growth patterns

g pwebsites

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Current practices • Handwritten notes

• Personal computers (PC)(PC)

• Personal websites & DBs

• Group websites & DBs

• CDs e.g. Photo galleries


• Writing up notes –transferring to articles and books

• Emerging shared repositories/databases

Image: APSV Website

Current practices

Advantages• Computers great

Disadvantages• Small distributed collections

advantage over handwritten and print

• Shared websites great advantage over personal computers

• Managed repositories?

• Data loss – backups, multi systems, death

• Technical obsolescence

• Long term preservation

• Dated print materials

• L IT kill b


g pOnly one using • Low IT skills base

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Attitudes to data sharing

Most “willing to share in a useful way, but can’t”• Trust – e.g. Sensitive data - conserving rare species

• Loss of control (e.g. FIS)

• Need for acknowledgement, attribution, community

• Lack of reciprocity – datum or small collections into larger ones

• Di i t t/l k f bilit i t h l


• Disinterest/lack of ability in technology

• Time and knowledge requirements

• Data quality control

Repositories for sharingCurrent examples:

•Atlas of Living Australia http://www.ala.org.au/ national – not geared to individuals/volunteers

•NatureShare http://natureshare org au/ Developed by APSVNatureShare http://natureshare.org.au/ Developed by APSV Research officer, just completed at project end

•Bowerbird http://bowerbird.org.au completed after project end

Advantages•Automatically updating and referencing taxonomic changes

•Manage data and metadata quality

•Offer curation and preservation - sustainability


Offer curation and preservation - sustainability

•Different purposes – into one central “mother” repository

•Disadvantages•New, hard, unfamiliar

•Not always developed with volunteers practices and needs in mind

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Next stepsThis understanding of needs and practices

can inform repository developersp y p• Action research in collaboration with

NatureShare and BowerBird

• In-field (smart phones, tablets, apps) data collection and contribution

• At home data contribution (computers and


At home data contribution (computers and laptops, tablets)

• Training (and TTT) packages developed and evaluated

Training

Technology• Hardware (iPads, iPhones,

Requirements• NatureShare

computer etc)

• Software (databases deposit, databases search, in field collection apps)

Data requirements• Minimum metadata for an

observation

• Species name, location date/time,

• Bowerbird• Date/time, location,

evidence (the social network can provide the species name)


observation

• Minimum for a survey

• Image standards & apps to achieve (e.g. GIMP, Picasso, Photodshop)

species name)

• Atlas of Living Australia• Species name, date/time,

location, evidence

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NatureShare• free, web-based tool for individuals,

groups & communities to use as a reference, or upload sightings, photos & species information about their plocal environment

• currently includes in its database all the plants & major animal groups known to occur in Victoria (over 8,500 species names). 10,000 more to be added.


• anyone, or any group, can set up species 'collections' for their own property, for parks/reserves, for areas/towns, for anything, anywhere

(currently for Victoria only)

BowerBird• Biodiversity/national

focus – live May 2013

• T k i i ti• Track species in time and space

• Aims to be a 24/7 field naturalist club

• BowerBird development funded to bring data to


ALA from volunteers

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BowerBird SNW - community• Valda took a picture of an

“unknown sea creature” and posted it to BowerBird.

• Dr Jan Carey from MU posed questions and suggested identification

• Once Jan suggested “sponge” KW contacted a friend at the Queensland Museum who is the Australian sponge expert – Dr John Hooper who identified it.


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• ALA could not have accepted this initially.

• But, once it was identified on BowerBird, it was then uploaded to ALA where it is now as a record

Metadata (DarwinCore)ALA :

• Data resource

• Observer

• Record URL

• Date Recorded

• Record Comments

• Scientific Name

• Common Names

• Full Classification


• State

• Decimal Latitude

• Decimal Longitude

• GPS Datum Format

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NatureShare to ALA


Community -> Science

• Data picked up from NatureShare and B Bi d hBowerBird when “complete”.

• Added to other data

• Used by scientists and policy makers

• Suite of analytical tools


yand ability to download native data

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Thank you! Questions and comments?

Photo: Bowerbird


Thank you! Questions and comments?

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors acknowledge, with thanks, the support of the APSV, especially the assistance of Cathy Powers, President, and Dr Russell Best, Research Officer, and the interviewees who gave us their time and their views. Also thanks to Dr Ken Walker of Museum Victoria and developer of BowerBird. Photos: Title slide photograph from Cathy Powers. Other photos as attributed. The Small Grant funding received by Kennan and Williamson from the Faculty of Education, Charles Sturt University, is also acknowledged with thanks.

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Towards curating data for sharing, access and preservation ... · PDF fileaccess and preservation with environmental voluntary groups ... research and participative decision-making