Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Follow The Data: How Astronomers Use And Reuse Data (Poster), Christine L. Borgman, Ashley Sands, Laura Wynholds, Sharon Traweek

Christine L. Borgman

We analyze the people and infrastructure involved in the building, sustaining, and curation of large astronomy sky surveys. Our research assesses what new infrastructures, divisions of labor, knowledge, and expertise are necessary for the proper care of data. Between May 2011- February 2012, we conducted fourteen interviews employing Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data use as the focus. SDSS is a multi-faceted, multi-phased data-driven telescope project with hundreds of collaborators and thousands of users of the open data. The Follow the Data interview protocol identifies a single publication authored by each interviewee and uses it as a lens looking backward …

Follow The Data: How Astronomers Use And Reuse Data, Christine L. Borgman, Ashley Sands, Laura Wynholds, Sharon Traweek

Christine L. Borgman

We analyze the people and infrastructure involved in the building, sustaining, and curation of large astronomy sky surveys. Our research assesses what new infrastructures, divisions of labor, knowledge, and expertise are necessary for the proper care of data. Between May 2011- February 2012, we conducted fourteen interviews employing Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data use as the focus. SDSS is a multi-faceted, multi-phased data-driven telescope project with hundreds of collaborators and thousands of users of the open data. The Follow the Data interview protocol identifies a single publication authored by each interviewee and uses it as a lens looking backward …

Who’S Got The Data? Interdependencies In Science And Technology Collaborations, Christine L. Borgman, Jillian C. Wallis, Matthew S. Mayernik

Christine L. Borgman

Science and technology always have been interdependent, but never more so than with today’s highly instrumented data collection practices. We report on a long-term study of collaboration between environmental scientists (biology, ecology, marine sciences), computer scientists, and engineering research teams as part of a five-university distributed science and technology research center devoted to embedded networked sensing. The science and technology teams go into the field with mutual interests in gathering scientific data. “Data” are constituted very differently between the research teams. What are data to the science teams may be context to the technology teams, and vice versa. Interdependencies between …

Data, Data Use, And Scientific Inquiry: Two Case Studies Of Data Practices [Presentation Slides], Wynholds A. Laura, Jillian C. Wallis, Christine L. Borgman, Ashley Sands, Sharon Traweek

Christine L. Borgman

Powerpoint Presentation from the 2012 Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL).

Wynholds, L. A., Wallis, J. C., Borgman, C. L., Sands, A., & Traweek, S. (2012). Data, data use, and scientific inquiry (p. 19). ACM Press. doi:10.1145/2232817.2232822

Syllabus For Data, Data Practices, And Data Curation Part 2; Spring 2012, Christine L. Borgman

Christine L. Borgman

No abstract provided.

Local Or Global? Making Sense Of The Data Sharing Imperative, Christine L. Borgman

Christine L. Borgman

The deluge of research data has excited researchers, policy makers and the general public with the possibilities for exploring problems from climate to culture. Yet the very definition of “data” is contested, and determining whether something is “independently understandable” is problematic. Data rarely are simple objects that can be easily shared; rather they embody the epistemological perspectives of their creators/collectors/producers/authors. This talk will explore the matches and mismatches of motivations, interests and incentives of stakeholders in research data.

Research Data, Reproducibility, And Curation, Christine L. Borgman

Christine L. Borgman

No abstract provided.

Unearthing The Infrastructure: Humans And Sensors In Field-Based Scientific Research, Matthew S. Mayernik, Jillian C. Wallis, Christine L. Borgman

Christine L. Borgman

Distributed sensing systems for studying scientific phenomena are critical applications of information technologies. By embedding computational intelligence in the environment of study, sensing systems allow researchers to study phenomena at spatial and temporal scales that were previously impossible to achieve. We present an ethnographic study of field research practices among researchers in the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS), a National Science Foundation Science & Technology Center devoted to developing wireless sensing systems for scientific and social applications. Using the concepts of boundary objects and trading zones, we trace the processes of collaborative research around sensor technology development and adoption …

Why Are The Attribution And Citation Of Scientific Data Important? In: Uhlir, Paul And Cohen, Daniel (Eds.). Report From Developing Data Attribution And Citation Practices And Standards: An International Symposium And Workshop., Christine L. Borgman

Christine L. Borgman

Keynote address from the Developing Data Attribution and Citation Practices and Standards: An International Symposium and Workshop in Berkeley, CA on 22 August 2011. Keynote speech is contained within the forthcoming 2012 Report from Developing Data Attribution and Citation Practices and Standards: An International Symposium and Workshop published by the National Academy of Sciences.

Preferred Citation: Borgman, C.L. (2012, forthcoming). Why are the attribution and citation of scientific data important? In: Uhlir, Paul and Cohen, Daniel (eds.). Report from Developing Data Attribution and Citation Practices and Standards: An International Symposium and Workshop. National Academy of Sciences’ Board on Research Data …

Surf’S Up: Riding The Big Data Wave (Poster), Ashley Sands, Christine L. Borgman, Sharon Traweek

Christine L. Borgman

We use ethnographic methods to follow the builders and users of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), known as “the human genome project of astronomy.” SDSS was designed as an open data project and it is among the most successful big data projects in science. We are spotting the indicators of how well astronomers are riding the big data wave - and when they are wiping out - with consequences for other creators, users, analysts, managers, and funders of big data systems. http://ipp.oii.ox.ac.uk/2012/programme-2012/poster-session/ashley-sands-christine-l-borgman-laura-a

Preface, Christine L. Borgman

Christine L. Borgman

No abstract provided.

Data, Data Use, And Inquiry: A New Point Of View On Data Curation, Jillian C. Wallis, Laura A. Wynholds, Christine L. Borgman, Ashley E. Sands, Sharon Traweek

Christine L. Borgman

Data are proliferating far faster than they can be captured, managed, or stored. What types of data are most likely to be used and reused, by whom, and for what purposes? Answers to these questions will inform information policy and the design of digital libraries.

We report findings from semi-structured interviews and field observations to investigate characteristics of data use and reuse and how those characteristics vary within and between scientific communities. The two communities studied are the researchers at the Center for Embedded Network Sensing (CENS) and users of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data. We found that …