“I’m an archivist who does digital preservation in a library and I’m very aware of the opportunities and challenges that happen in that context.  When we talk about inclusion, we need to remember professional and technical inclusion, too.  We don’t leverage our cumulative power enough.  Archives, libraries, digital preservation, digital curation, data science: we need to think what we all bring to the table and how we can put the pieces together.  If we don’t do that, we end up bumping into each other and missing opportunities.

I recently marked 30 years of working with data.  I’ve been a curator, preserver, creator and user.  I believe strongly in the continuum of data to information to knowledge to wisdom – we often stop at data and that’s short-sighted.  Data is the raw material that fuels we what understand and share, and we don’t make nearly enough of its potential.

I really like the kinds of stories that people are able to tell with various types of data.  When people think about what data can be, they often stop at structured, quantitative data, but there is a a broad mix of the various content that we can consider to be data.  We have an opportunity to innovate if we come together to develop a shared understanding of data services and practice, and collaborate with shared objectives.”