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Re: ICSTI/CODATA Winter meetings

Dear Brian,

I recommend not to shorten this text since it is very informative for 
our community whose members, for the greatest part, are not aware of the 
important role played by IUCr in international bodies.

Regards.

Yves

Brian McMahon a écrit :
> I have just returned from a Paris weekend in the company of ICSTI and
> CODATA. I have put together the remarks below as a possible front-page
> leader article for the IUCr web site. The idea is to provide the wider
> crystallographic readership with some information about these bodies, and
> the reasons for the IUCr's interest in them. While this naturally focuses
> on the data/publishing area, I would hope that it could be used as a model
> for other brief notes from IUCr representatives on other bodies to explain
> to the  community a little more about our interactions with those bodies
> (ICSU itself, ICTNS, COSPAR etc.)
>
> Your comments are welcome on this piece - whether it's sufficiently
> informative, sets the right tone, etc. - before I actually submit it to the
> Executive Secretary, who is acting as the front-page editor. It currently
> runs to nearly 500 words, so suggestions for shortening it are particularly
> welcome!
>
> Best wishes
> Brian
>
> ==============================================================================
> Relationships with ICSU bodies
>
> The IUCr is a member of ICSU, the International Council for
> Science. The acronym ICSU represents its original role as the
> International Council of Scientific Unions, but in 1998 the official
> name was changed and its membership broadened to allow it to take on a
> more strategic role in representing science at the international policy
> level.
>
> Over time, ICSU has generated a number of more specialised bodies. Two
> of these are of particular relevance to the IUCr's interests in
> publication and data management: ICSTI, the International Council for
> Scientific and Technical Information; and CODATA, the Committee for
> Data. In 2004, ICSU conducted an extensive strategic review programme
> that included three Priority Area Assessments (PAA). One of these,
> addressing scientific information, resulted in a comprehensive account
> of the major challenges for science in the effective use and curation
> of digital information, which nowadays includes published literature
> and primary research data. The PAA outlined strategic issues within
> this area, and identified roles in which CODATA and ICSTI could be
> effective agents for change.
>
> It also recommended closer cooperation between these two organizations
> on matters of common or overlapping interest. In response to the PAA,
> both ICSTI and CODATA have produced Strategic Plans that take note of
> ICSU's strategic vision, and are emerging from the review process with
> a reinvigorated sense of purpose.
>
> Over the course of the end February/beginning March weekend, the
> Executive bodies of both ICSTI and CODATA met at ICSU headquarters in
> Paris to develop their individual activities, but also, for the first
> time, to meet together in social and formal sessions to explore active
> routes to collaboration. Among the weekend activities was a workshop
> establishing a consortium of major scientific libraries to act as
> registration agencies for unique identifiers for data sets, and to
> improve the curation and management of scientific data in the library
> sector. Among the topics discussed at the workshop was the question
> of citing data sets, and specifically of citing particular views or
> subsets of the data. The IUCr was able to contribute to this discussion
> on account of its experiences in electronic publishing.
>
> The IUCr has active representation on both CODATA and ICSTI. On this
> occasion, I was able to represent the IUCr on the ICSTI Executive
> Board as alternate for John Helliwell, former Editor-in-Chief of IUCr
> journals. As the usual IUCr delegate to CODATA, I found it an
> excellent opportunity to renew or make new relationships with members
> of both bodies.
>
> The IUCr commends this active collaboration, which will allow the
> joint energies of ICSTI and CODATA to be focussed on some of the many
> difficult problems that they face in common, and can only help to
> improve the practice of international and interdisciplinary scientific
> information activities.
>
> Brian McMahon
> IUCr Representative to CODATA
> 4 March 2009
> ==============================================================================
> _______________________________________________
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>   

-- 
   Prof. Yves Epelboin,Université P.M. Curie,
   Campus Boucicaut
   Insitut de Minéralogie et de Physique des Milieux Condensés,
   140 rue de Lourmel, 75015 Paris, France
   Yves.Epelboin@impmc.jussieu.fr  

   Directeur du Service Général des TICE,
   Atrium, case 1205, 4 place Jussieu, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France

   Phone: +33 (0)1 4427 6568/6567  Fax: +33 (0)1 4427 6544
   http://www.impmc.upmc.fr/~epelboin

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