Today there is a growing abundance of data often in large-scale collections or with great complexity. It is pertinent to every pressing strategic challenge, to the deep questions that research addresses and the urgent application sciences. A great deal of thought is needed to improve our capabilities to use data well in a wide variety of research endeavours. The workshop will bring together practitioners, theoreticians and technologists with a wide range of viewpoints to shape a strategy for the thinking and research that is needed.

The cross-fertilisation of ideas between disciplines and viewpoints will spark new insights and steer us towards more effective strategies. This will be captured as a map of the research challenges and potential routes to address them with flags indicating where groups and individuals are working and what they plan. It will draw attention to identified gaps.

The purpose of this meeting is to bring together experts in a complementary set of areas of Data-Intensive Research, bring each other up to speed on the thinking in other areas and then identify research challenges and strategies (from the UK’s National eScience Institute)

It appeared to have shaken the credibility of one of the most important global warming data sets in the world. A blog-inspired campaign by amateur climate sceptics seemed to show that numerous weather stations across the US were so poorly located they could not be relied upon (link).

Phil Jones, the beleaguered British climate scientist at the centre of the leaked emails controversy, is facing fresh claims that he sought to hide problems in key temperature data on which some of his work was based.

A Guardian investigation of thousands of emails and documents apparently hacked from the University of East Anglia’s climatic research unit has found evidence that a series of measurements from Chinese weather stations were seriously flawed and that documents relating to them could not be produced (link to Guardian).

Tim Berners-Lee discusses the launch of the government’s new open data project, and Dan Gluckman explains why the BBC was so keen to open the development of a new series about the social history of the web (link) Also see: http://data.gov.uk/

The government is to explore ways of making all Ordnance Survey maps freely available online from April, in a victory for the Guardian’s three-year Free Our Data campaign. The move will bring the UK into line with the free publication of maps that exists in the US.

Gordon Brown announced the change at a joint event in London today with Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, who is now information tsar advising on the handing over of private government data to the public (thanks to Andy W for the link).

The report written by UKOLN at the University of Bath and the Digital Curation
Centre, identifies open-ness, predictive science based on massive data
volumes and citizen involvement as being important features of tomorrow’s
research practice.

It is hoped that this document will stimulate and contribute to community
discussion in the UK, which is ranked second in the world for its output of
quality research, but also fuel the open science debate on the global stage.

As part of JISC’s data management programme JISC is discussing with UK
research funders and libraries on how best to build on recent initiatives, such
as the HEFCE-funded UK Research Data Service feasibility study, so as to
address the considerable challenges outlined in the Open Science report.

Neil Jacobs, programme manager at JISC, says, “There are important changes
in the way science exploits the potential of digital technologies. We are not
saying that the these trends go together – they may conflict – but what we
are looking to find out is to what extent they are happening now and what
researchers, librarians and others think their impact will be in the future.

“Where there is widespread access to the web, digital cameras and
computers, then citizens can become active participants in science, for
example collecting data on natural phenomena on a massive scale. While this
has happened so far in isolated projects, the potential is now for a more
general shift in public participation in science,” added Neil.

The Open Science report looks at how technologies can support the open
movement to share data, workflows, methods and research outputs. It also
illustrates the vital role librarians could have in supporting these new trends
and the recognised need to build relationships between researchers and
librarians to support the research of the future.

Read the Open Science report at:
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/documents/opensciencerpt.aspx

Take part in the Open Science discussions and share your views at
the ‘Research 3.0 – driving the knowledge economy’ blog
http://res3.jiscinvolve.org .

The views, comments and opinions posted on the blog will shape JISC’s
activities over the next 12 months so events cover areas the research and
education community feel strongly about.

Opening the knowledge base to all means more researchers can build on it and there is less duplication of effort. Researchers can reach a greater audience and find that their work is more widely read and cited, institutions gain an enhanced reputation as their research becomes more visible, funding agencies see a greater return on their investment, and publishers find that the impact of their journals increases (link).

Help us free London’s Data
Saturday 24th October 2009 10.00 am
London’s Living Room
City  Hall
The Queens Walk
London SE1 2AA

The Greater London Authority is currently in  the process of scoping London’s DataStore. Initially we propose to release as much GLA data as possible and to encourage other public agencies in London to  do the same and we’d like your  help!

We want the input of the developer community from the outset prior to making any decisions on formats or  platform. We would therefore like to invite interested developers to City Hall so that we  can talk to you about what we want to do, get your  views, and seek your input on the best way to deliver for  London.

On the  day we’ll be running a requirements specification workshop and a high  level technical design session to explore how we might do this in a way that  makes sense for the end users – you

The event will take place in London’s Living Room at 10 am on the morning of Saturday 24 October. If you would like to attend please register your interest.(link).

This Report explores the roles, rights, responsibilities and relationships of institutions, data centres and other key stakeholders who work with data. It concentrates primarily on the UK scene with some reference to other relevant experience and opinion, and is framed as “a snapshot” of a relatively fast-moving field. It is strategically positioned to provide a bridge between the high-level RIN Framework of Principles and Guidelines for the stewardship of research data, and practitioner-focussed technical development work1. For ease of cross-reference, the number(s) of the relevant RIN Principle(s) are given against each of the recommendations (link).