[ESIP-all] Seeking open review of provocative data publication essay.

Dr Jeff de La Beaujardiere jeff.delabeaujardiere at noaa.gov
Thu Dec 15 10:49:06 EST 2011


Peter & Mark,

Thanks for the opportunity to comment. I agree that "publication" is too 
limited to be a general-purpose metaphor.

My only concern is near the end, where you mention that you 'have become 
intrigued by the metaphor of a "data ecosystem".' At NOAA we explicitly 
gather information about real ecosystems in nature, and there is an 
Ecosystems Goal in our Strategic Plan, and Ecosystems are a GEOSS Theme, 
so use of the term as metaphor would be confusing. ("Use the data 
ecosystem to share ecosystem data.") We already have too many overloaded 
terms like Geo/GEO, Geoportal/GEO Portal, open standard/source, etc. 
Also, the act of sharing (whether called publication or something else) 
is different from the sharing mechanism (whether called data ecosystem, 
cyberinfrastructure, or something else).

Regards,
Jeff DLB

--
Jeff de La Beaujardière, PhD
NOAA Data Management Architect
NESDIS/OSD/TPIO   +1 301 713 2789 x143
1335 East-West Hwy, Silver Spring MD 20910 USA


On 2011-12-14 09:07, Mark A. Parsons wrote:
> Peter Fox and I have submitted an essay to the Data Science Journal entitled "Is data publication the right metaphor?". If accepted, the essay would be part of a special issue resulting from the inaugural conference of the new ICSU World Data System.
>
> In this essay we discuss the importance of metaphor in framing how we think, and we critically examine the data publication and several other metaphors. Our intention is to be somewhat provacative and to spark a conversation in the community about how we conceive of, describe, and evolve the overall data management enterprise.
>
> While the paper is submitted for formal peer-review, the DSJ editors have also allowed us to make the essay available for open community review. The essay is available at http://dl.dropbox.com/u/546900/parsons_fox_metaphor_dsj_open.docx. We encourage everyone to read it and to provide constructive critique in the comments of this blog: http://mp-datamatters.blogspot.com/2011/12/seeking-open-review-of-provocative-data.html
>
> Apologies for cross posting, but we really want to get the word out. Please share with others.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Mark Parsons and Peter Fox
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