This post was written by Shaily Gandhi, who is currently pursuing a PhD in Geomatics from CEPT University, India. Shaily attended the CODATA-RDA School of Research Data Science, hosted at ICTP, near Trieste, Italy.

Urban Data Science is a course which is an outcome of the collaboration which took place in CODATA Research Data workshop in Trieste 2017. The course of urban data science was hosted by CEPT University, Ahmedabad, India from May 14 – May 19, 2018 to address the challenges with poor use of available open data in decision making while keeping urban in focus. The course had been designed to get students started with the basic data science components in a short span of 6 days. The aim of the course was to give an insight on open urban Data Sets and insights for interaction with other sources of data freely available. These Data Sets allow a deeper understanding of the urban and its problems, allowing the students to have a firmer control over possible bias and therefore analysing and giving solutions for overcoming thesituations.

The course was carefully designed for students from different backgrounds like planning, architects, civil engineer, geomatics and other disciplines from both bachelors and masters level who belonged to IT and non- IT background. The lessons of the basics of R were prepared by using the material of software carpentry lessons Programming with R and R for Reproducible Scientific Analysis. The concepts were taken and the lessons were redesigned focusing on urban problems and analysis. The school begun with setting a study objective using techniques to develop a research concept, planning area of study, thus bearing in mind the type of data avaible from Open data sets for urban research to be captured, whether continuous, discrete, ordinal or nominal data and the different stages of statistical analysis that can be conducted in other to produce results. Knowledge on research methodologies and implementation of statistical application software’s to support data analysis was one of the vital goals of the course. The Statistical software package called “R” was used as it has become a very powerful and useful tool for the purpose of data cleaning, management, statistical analysis and data graphical visualization. When mastered, this application is user friendly and could reduce the time and efforts of the researcher, student and professionals.

Innovative teaching techniques like mixing theory and practical’s with group work were followed in this course as it had diverse students attending and it required a special attention to keep the whole class in the same pace. Despite the course being intense from morning 9 am till evening 7 pm it was very motivating to see the students following up with the topics and catching up with the pace of the instructor. Daily feedback was taken from the students to enhance class activity decisions by tutors. Course was modified daily with more group activities and practical’s based on students feedbacks received. Continuous constructive comments from the students made it more effective as the tutors were able to achieve the desired output by changing the teaching method according to the requirement of the students. This process of understanding the capability of the students was well appreciated.

The second aim of this course is to transform the traditional teaching techniques into a newer form in which the students have an energetic and innovative involvement to improve the way the course is taught and in the process enhance their proficiencies in solving data driven case studies in practice. By the end of the course it was a great pleasure to receive outputs of the case study which had Data Science for urban studies. Some of the outstanding studies are Traffic Violation in Montgomery County using the data from Public Safety department from the government portal data.montgomerycountymd.gov. Another study on the crime in the city of Chicago was also considered by one of the student where the used of open data was done. Another study was done on the monitoring the trend of border crossing vehicles in USA which showed interesting pattern. Study of air quality for major urban states of US showed interesting pattern stating that majority of the US is affected by medium concentration of PM (Particulate matter). Many more interesting topics were studied which gave a very good inside of the understanding of the students about data science. Students analyzed and interpreted the spatial behavior of the urban data with Geospatial as well as Graph Analysis.

• the digital frontiers of global science;
• a global and inclusive data revolution;
• applications, progress and challenges of data intensive research;
• data infrastructure and enabling practices for international and collaborative research.

The organisers of a session on ‘Measuring the Impact of Data Citation Practices in Research’ at SciDataCon part of International Data Week invite the submission of abstracts.

We invite researchers and organisations that are looking at the impact of data citation to consider contributing to this session.

Data citation has been advocated across and within many research enterprises globally. Individual researchers have adopted data citation as part of their work and an increasing number of publishers and funders are now encouraging or requiring some level of data citation. The benefits of data citation are clear: besides increasing the visibility of data resources, improving the integrity of research and publications, there is a general trend of acknowledgment and accreditation being associated with data citation. Researchers are beginning to see the value in the citation of their data to be as important as citation of their other outputs.While the benefits extend beyond reuse and accreditation, there is however little insight into the real impact of data citation. A number of questions have to be addressed; for example, what metrics can be used to measure the impact of data citation and how should impact be measured?

Information about submissions for SciDataCon can be found at Submit Abstracts for Papers and Posters: https://www.scidatacon.org/IDW2018/submit/

For further information contact Anwar Vahed, CSIR, Anwar Vahed <avahed@csir.co.za>

Submit Abstracts for Papers and Posters: https://www.scidatacon.org/IDW2018/submit/

Call for Papers and Posters: https://www.scidatacon.org/conference/IDW2018/call_for_papers/

Provisionally Accepted Sessions: https://www.scidatacon.org/IDW2018/sessions/

Themes and Scope of SciDataCon: https://www.scidatacon.org/conference/IDW2018/conference_themes_and_scope/

International Data Week comprises the next Plenary Meeting of the Research Data Alliance and the SciDataCon conference on all aspects of the role of data in research. It is taking place in Gaborone, Botswana, 5-8 November 2018.

The deadline for abstract submissions is 25 June.

This is a reminder that the deadline for submitting abstracts for this session on the validation, curation and management of citizen science data at the SciDataCon is on Monday, June 25.  They  would use people’s help in recruiting papers, especially from African citizen science groups. Given costs, it may be most pragmatic to focus on southern African (or South African) groups, but CS groups or researchers from all over the world are welcome to participate.  To submit, go to: https://www.scidatacon.org/IDW2018/sessions/.

Assessment of Data Management Practices of the Citizen Science and Crowdsourcing Communities

Alex de Sherbinin and Anne Bowser

The objectives of the CODATA–WDS Task Group on citizen science data are to better understand the ecosystem of data-generating citizen science, crowdsourcing, and volunteered geographic information (VGI) projects so as to characterize the potential and challenges of these developments for science as a whole, and data science in particular. Through interviews with principals involved in 50 projects, the task group has assessed the methods and approaches for validating various streams of citizen science data, the mechanisms for cleaning and curating the data, and systems in place for the long-term management, documentation and dissemination of those data. This presentation reports on results of this assessment, and provides recommendations to the citizen science / crowdsourcing community on data quality and management practices.

The European Commission’s Expert Group on FAIR Data, chaired by Simon Hodson, CODATA Executive Director, published the interim report ‘Turning FAIR Data into Reality’ and the interim ‘FAIR Data Action Plan’ on 11 June 2018 at the Second EOSC Summit in Brussels.

Interim Report and Action Plan

The interim report and Action Plan are available from the Zenodo repository with the DOI-URLs below:

• Interim FAIR Data Report: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1285272
• Interim FAIR Data Action Plan: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1285290

Consultation until 5 August

Consultation is being conducted on the interim report and Action Plan until 5 August 2018.  A commentable version of the report is available on Google Drive.  Structured comments on the Action Plan and specific recommendations and actions may be made via a dedicated GitHub repository.

• Comment on Report: http://bit.ly/interim_FAIR_report
• Comment on Action Plan: https://github.com/FAIR-Data-EG/action-plan

The Expert Group will conduct webinars to support and facilitated the consutlation and these will be announced in due course.

About the Expert Group and the Report

Rec. 3: A model for FAIR Data Objects
Implementing FAIR requires a model for FAIR Data Objects which by definition have a PID linked to different types of essential metadata, including provenance and licencing. The use of community standards and sharing of code is also fundamental for interoperability and reuse.

It is recognised that FAIR data (data that are Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) play an essential role in the objectives of Open Science to improve and accelerate scientific research, to increase the engagement of society, and to contribute significantly to economic growth. Accordingly, ‘the Open Science agenda contains the ambition to make FAIR data sharing the default for scientific research by 2020.’ The overall objective of the European Commission Expert Group on Turning FAIR data into reality is to help operationalise and facilitate the achievement of this goal.

Rec. 4: Components of a FAIR data ecosystem
The realisation of FAIR data relies on, at minimum, the following essential components: policies, DMPs, identifiers, standards and repositories. There need to be registries cataloguing each component of the ecosystem and automated workflows between them.

To this end, this report that examines the FAIR data principles, considers other supporting concepts and discusses the changes necessary, as well as existing activities and stakeholders to make these interventions. Recommendations and actions are presented as an Action Plan for consideration by the Commission, Member States and leading stakeholders in the research and data communities.

It might have been possible to take a data centric point of view and to work through the FAIR principles slavishly or systematically (depending on your point of view) asking what needs to be done to achieve each one. The Expert Group decided at an early point that this would not be the most effective approach to our task. Rather we felt it was important to take a holistic and systemic approach and to describe the broader range of changes required to achieve FAIR data. It is hoped that what has emerged will be at one and the same time an Action Plan that will be immediately useful and a longer standing survey and discussion, providing a discursive framework for ongoing considerations of how to make FAIR data a reality.

Consultation is open on the interim report and Action Plan and we actively invite constructive feedback. Does the Action Plan highlight the correct priorities? Are the recommendations sound and the actions tangible and achievable? Are they presented in a way that will helpfully guide the stakeholders mentioned? Is the Action Plan sufficiently grounded in the discussions and arguments of the broader report? Given the way this particularly piece of marble has already been cut and carved, what still needs to be done to make a polished statue emerge?

Consultation on the interim report was launched at the EOSC summit on 11 June 2018 and initiated by means of a workshop at that meeting. It will be pursued by online means and by webinars until 5 August. A final version of the Report and Action Plan will be published at the Austrian Presidency event on 23 November.

The group has conducted its work by means of face-to-face and virtual meetings and a lot of asynchronous, collaborative work with the text. All members of the group have contributed substantively and substantially to the text. We hope that we have harnessed the strength and collective wisdom of the Expert Group, while minimising the flaws of group authorship. Our approach has been discursive and we have endeavoured to explore the arguments relating to FAIR in detail to identify the key steps needed for implementation. This is an iterative process and the final version of the report will present a more condensed argument.

The group has been chaired by Simon Hodson, CODATA Executive Director, with Sarah Jones, Associate Director of the Digital Curation Centre, as Rapporteur; but in effect the two have acted as co-chairs.

Membership of the Expert Group

• Sandra Collins, National Library of Ireland
• Françoise Genova, Observatoire Astronomique de Strasbourg
• Natalie Harrower, Digital Repository of Ireland
• Simon Hodson, CODATA, Chair of the Group
• Sarah Jones, Digital Curation Centre, Rapporteur
• Leif Laaksonen, CSC-IT Center for Science
• Daniel Mietchen, Data Science Institute, University of Virginia
• Rūta Petrauskaité, Vytautas Magnus University
• Peter Wittenburg, Max Planck Computing and Data Facility

Whether it will be called a guideline, a roadmap or a framework – all participants during the AOSP ICT Infrastructure meeting held on 14 May 2018 in Pretoria, South Africa were in agreement that a document guiding African countries in preparing ICT infrastructures in support of research data sharing, will be of benefit to all. The one day meeting brought together key stakeholders. African regional NRENs (National Research Education Networks) attendees included Dr Pascal Hoba (Chief Executive Officer, UbuntuNet Alliance), Dr Ousmane Moussa Tessa (Chief Executive Officer, NigerREN & member of the WACREN Board, on behalf of Dr Boubakar Barry (Executive Director, WACREN), Dr Yousef Torman (Managing Director, ASREN) and Dr Leon Staphorst (Executive Director, SANRen).

The objective of this meeting was to help NRENs better understand the needs experienced by collaborative data intensive research projects, and for NRENs to consider future service delivery in support of research data. The three projects represented included H3ABioNet (Prof Nicky Mulder, Head: Computational Biology, UCT & Lead: H3ABioNet), GBIF (Dr Mélianie Raymond, Senior Programme Officer for Node Development, GBIF Secretariat) and Dr Jasper Horrell (representing the Square Kilometre Array Organisation, SA).

Regional NRENs represented indicated that they are in full support of working with AOSP on developing and populating a framework as part of service delivery to their research communities, and to also invite national NRENs in their respective regions to explore opportunities. Important elements to be included in such a document have been identified, and the group will continue as a working group, building on what is already in place through the SADC Cyberinfrastructure Framework, of which an overview was provided by Prof Colin Wright. This framework was approved by SADC ministers in June 2016, and the next step would be to revisit the existing framework and to adapt – where needed – for the whole of Africa, with input from key stakeholders across Africa. It was also clear that – through possible partnerships and lessons learned from KENET, Ilifu, DIRISA, Sci-GaIA and more, the design, development and implementation of ICT infrastructures in support of data sharing and curation can become a reality – sooner rather than later.

The AOSP ICT Infrastructure Framework will be tested during various stages and across different domains, before it will be finalized to be shared with African countries interested in advancing the sharing and responsible management of data.

The AfriGEOSS Week 2018 will take place from 22 to 29 June 2018. The 3rd AfriGEOSS Symposium will be held during AfriGEOSS Week, from 26 to 28 June 2018 with some training sessions taking place beforehand.

The Symposium is hosted by the Agence Gabonaise d’Etudes et d’Observations Spatiales (AGEOS) and the theme is “Building smarter Earth observations to support sustainable development policies”.

The objectives include:

• Engage with end users, particularly policy and decision makers, to understand information needs for evidence-based policy-making and raise awareness on the value of Earth observations in meeting those needs;
• Showcase the use of Earth observations in implementing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and development policies at national and regional levels;
• Reinforce dialogue on Earth observations priorities in Africa and promote or build synergies with ongoing and planned Earth observations initiatives at the national, regional and international levels – to draw linkages with the implementation of the African Space Policy according to development policies;
• Strengthen regional and national thematic Earth observations coordination mechanisms to broaden African participation in the Group on Earth Observations and AfriGEOSS activities; and
• Review the implementation of the 2017 AfriGEOSS Symposium outcomes and contributions, and establish a mechanism of Monitoring and Evaluation for the future.

For more information and registration visit the AfriGEOSS Week website or contact symposium@afrigeoss.org.

Statistics and Data Science for a Cyber Secure Internet of Things 

Rapid growth in the number of devices connected through the internet of things (IoT) poses major challenges to maintaining connectivity, functionality, and security, as demonstrated by prominent cyber attacks launched through IoT devices. Traditional approaches in cyber security such as firewalls and encryption aim to prevent malicious intrusion, however additional countermeasures and approaches are necessary to detect and respond to malicious behavior and to identify when devices or data are compromised.

The National Academies invite you to attend a symposium and webcast on Statistics and Data Science for a Cyber Secure Internet of Things on June 14, 2018 in Washington, DC. During the event, speakers will discuss the role of statistical models and theory for IoT and for detecting, overcoming, and neutralizing cyber attacks.

Date/Time: June 14, 2018 from 1-5 p.m. EDT
Location: Keck Center, Room 100
500 Fifth St. NW, Washington, DC 20001
Or via webcast
Register Now