Legal Framework for e-Research

July 2007Gold Coast, Australia

Chris GreerUS National Science Foundation

Office of Cyberinfrastructure (NSF/OCI)

Outline

• Research and Discovery in 5 Dimensions

• Fundamental Challenges

• A Shared Vision

• Strategies for Achieving the Vision

… is the organized aggregate of technologies that

enable us to access and integrate today’s information

technology resources—data and storage,

computation, communication, visualization,

networking, scientific instruments, expertise—to

facilitate science and engineering goals.

- Fran Berman, Director, SDSC

Cyberinfrastructure …

New Modes of InvestigationNew Modes of Investigation

The conduct of science and The conduct of science and engineering is changing and evolving. engineering is changing and evolving. This is due, in large part, to the This is due, in large part, to the expansion of networked expansion of networked cyberinfrastructure …cyberinfrastructure …

NSF Strategic Plan 2006-2011NSF Strategic Plan 2006-2011

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Before the Digital Age:A World Constrained to 4 Dimensions

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Time t

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CI

5thDimension

Opening a 5th dimension

through cyberinfrastructure

is the defining feature of the

digital age …

The world is flat-Thomas Friedman

•More room for innovationMore room for innovation•New spaces for learning and discoveryNew spaces for learning and discovery•Expanded opportunities for collaboration and interactionExpanded opportunities for collaboration and interaction•Greater capabilities for research and educationGreater capabilities for research and education

The flat world is expanding-Anonymous NSF program director

Information is the currency of the

digital age and information

integration is the means for

mobilizing that currency for

discovery, innovation, learning,

and progress.

How and where did life on earth arise?

Geochemistry

Paleobiology

Biochemistry

SystematicBiology

EvolutionaryChemistry

Cyberinfrasructure for Information Integration

Behavioral Science

Cognition

Neuroanatomy

Neurochemistry

Philosophy

What is the biological basis of consciousness?

Cyberinfrasructure for Information Integration

Individuals, groups, Individuals, groups,

organizations, and nations organizations, and nations

that don’t embrace the 5that don’t embrace the 5thth

dimension will fall behind dimension will fall behind

in the digital agein the digital age

Characteristics of a 5D World:

1. Time and place are no longer barriers to participation and interaction

2. Information is the primary driver for progress

3. Access is open to specialists and non-specialists alike

4. The realm of the possible is expanded through new capabilities, resources, and mechanisms

“Sometime in the 2010s, if all goes well, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will start to bring a vision of the heavens to Earth. Suspended between its vast mirrors will be a three billion-pixel sensor array, which on a clear winter night will produce 30 terabytes of data. In less than a week this remarkable telescope will map the whole night sky …. And then the next week it will do the same again … building up a database of billions of objects and millions of billions of bytes.”

Nature 440:383

Estimated Annual Digital Information Totals

0

200

400

600

800

1000

2002 2004 2006 2008 2010

Year

Ex

ab

yte

s Sources:

•The Expanding Digital Universe, March 2007, IDC White Paper sponsored by EMC Corporation, www.emc.com/about/destination/digital_universe/

How Much Information? 2003, Peter Lyman and Hal Varian, Berkeley School of Information, http://www2.sims.berkeley.edu/research/projects/how-much-info-2003/

5000 4000 3000 2000 1000 0 FUTURE

CLAY

PAPYRUSPAPYRUS

TIME (years before present)

INF

OR

MA

TIO

N T

RA

NS

PO

RT

INF

OR

MA

TIO

N I

NT

EG

RA

TIO

N

INFORMATION VOLUME

STONE

““ONCE IN A HUNDRED GENERATIONS”ONCE IN A HUNDRED GENERATIONS”

INFORMATION ERASINFORMATION ERAS

© 2005 EvREsearch LTD© 2005 EvREsearch LTD

FUTURE010002000300040005000PAST

PAPERPAPER

DIGITALDIGITAL

Source: Paul Berkman

The Fragility of Memory in a Digital Age

Report of the Task Force on Archiving of Digital InformationCommission on Preservation and Access and the Research Libraries Group

“In 1964, the first electronic mail message was sent from either MIT, the Carnegie Institute, or Cambridge University. The message does not survive, however, and so there is no documentary record to determine which group sent the pathbreaking message.”

NASA plans new search for missing moon tapes

Aug. 15, 2006, 5:13PM

Seth Borenstein, Associated Press

WASHINGTON —NASA said today it was launching an official search for more than 13,000 original tapes of the historic Apollo moon missions.

2006 US National Library of Medicine Survey

• 6,054 articles in 214 journal issues in calendar year 2006

• 10% of articles have linked, supplemental information (SI)

• Among articles with SI links, average 2.2 links per article

Broken Links

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

1995 1997 1999 2001 2003

Year

Per

cen

t M

issi

ng

Web

C

itat

ion

s

Source:Sellitto, C (2004) J Info Sci 30:484

N = 1,041 web references in 123 articles

Study Resource typeResource half-life

Koehler (1999 and 2002) 

Random Web pages 

2.0 years

Nelson and Allen (2002) 

Digital Library Object 

24.5 years

Harter and Kim (1996) 

Scholarly Article Citations 

1.5 years

Rumsey (2002)  Legal Citations  1.4 years

Markwell and Brooks (2002) 

Biological Science

Education Resources 

4.6 years

Spinellis (2003) Computer

Science Citations 4.0 years

Source: Koehler W. (2004) Information Research, 9 (2), 174

“If we are effectively to preserve for future generations the …. corpus of information in digital form that represents our cultural record, we need … to commit ourselves [as a society] technically, legally, economically, and organizationally to the full dimensions of the task.”

Report of the Task Force on Archiving of Digital Information, 1996Commission on Preservation and Access and the Research Libraries Group

A Challenge for Society

A Global Response

“Ensuring research data are easily accessible, so that they can be used as often and as widely as possible, is a matter of sound stewardship of public resources.”

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD); “Promoting Access to Public Research Data for Scientific, Economic,

and Social Development”

Europe

“DRIVER responds to the vision that any form of scientific-content resource, including reports, research articles, experimental or observational data, rich media … should be freely accessible through simple Internet-based infrastructures.”

Digital Repository Infrastructure Vision for European Research (DRIVER) www.driver-repository.eu

Canada

“[W]e propose the establishment of a dedicated national infrastructure, tentatively called Data Canada, to assume overall leadership in the development and execution of a strategic plan [for digital data].”

National Consultation on Access to Scientific research Data (NCASRD)

New Zealand

“Ensuring that New Zealand’s digital memory is preserved so it is accessible for present and future generations … Providing the mechanisms to make it quick and easy for New Zealanders to find, share, access, use and re-purpose content.”

Creating Digital New Zealand:The Draft New Zealand Digital Content Strategy

Australia

“The National Library of Australia's Preserving Access to Digital Information (PADI) initiative aims to … ensure that information in digital form is managed with appropriate consideration for preservation and future access.”

National Library of Australia'sPreserving Access to Digital Information (PADI) initiative

http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2007/nsf0728/index.jsp

National Science Foundation

Vision:

“… a vision in which science and engineering

digital data are routinely deposited in well-

documented form, are regularly and easily

consulted and analyzed by specialists and non-

specialists alike, are openly accessible while

suitably protected, and are reliably preserved.”

Goals:• To catalyze the development of a

system of science and engineering data collections that is open, extensible and evolvable.

• To support development of a new generation of tools and services facilitating data acquisition, mining, integration, analysis, and visualization.

Digital Data Preservation and Access Framework

Federal

State

LocalInternational

Non-profit

College

University

USER

Commercial

Multisector

Nimble

Sustainable

Reliable

User-centric

Summary

Strategic plan seeks to:

• Promote a change in culture

• Catalyze development of a digital data preservation and access framework

• Support new generations of tools, services, and capabilities

NSFNet Traffic– September 1991

The World Wide DataNet @ T=T0

= Data point-of-presence

The World Wide DataNet @ T=TThe World Wide DataNet @ T=TNN

The Universities

“Ever since their inception, universities have been occupied with the fundamental elements of what we now call 'knowledge management', i.e. the creation, collection, preservation and dissemination of knowledge.”

Andre Oesterlinck, Knowledge Management in

Post-Secondary Education: Universities

The distinctive mission of the University is to serve society as a center of higher learning, providing long-term societal benefits through transmitting advanced knowledge, discovering new knowledge, and functioning as an active working repository of organized knowledge.

Mission Statement of the University of California

The Academic Libraries

“It is to the research library community that others will look for the preservation of … digital assets, as they have looked to us in the past for reliable, long-term access to the ‘traditional’ resources and products of research and scholarship.”

Association of Research Libraries (ARL)Strategic Plan 2005-2009

Keith WebsterUniversity Librarian and Director of Learning Services

The University of Queensland Library's

mission is to link people with information,

enabling the University of Queensland to

achieve excellence in teaching, learning,

research, and community service.

DomainScience

Archival Sciences

Lib/Info Sciences

Computer Science

Cyberinfra-structure

Computational& Information

Sciences

I-Center

CI Principles for a Successful Legal Framework in 5 Dimensions

• Enabling information integration is the raison d’etre

• Reliable digital preservation and access are the foundations

• Data are plural• A world of five dimensions is inherently

international• The 5th dimension is built by individuals and

institutions• Absence of continuous change is a threat

NSF’s Cyberinfrastructure Vision for 21st Century Discovery:

www.nsf.gov/od/oci