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Report of * The G8 explicitly recognized the importance of datasharing issues
- To: execsec@iucr.org
- Subject: Report of IUCr Representative to CODATA
- From: Brian McMahon <bm@iucr.org>
- Date: Fri, 24 Apr 2009 12:57:31 +0100
- Cc: epc@iucr.org
Dear Mike Please find attached the 2008 annual report of the CODATA representative, which I am also copying to the Electronic Publishing Committee list for information. Best wishes Brian ============================================================================== IUCr 2008 Report - ICSU Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA) The major event for CODATA during 2008 was the biennial conference and General Assembly held in Kyiv, Ukraine, between 5 and 8 October. CODATA Conference ----------------- The theme of the 21st International CODATA Conference: "Scientific information for society - from today to the future" continued the focus on the information society that has emerged in the last few biennial meetings. The 2008 meeting took as its keynote the importance of engaging the younger generation of scientists to lead future developments in a world community increasingly dependent upon information and scientific data. Presentations of interest to the IUCr were delivered in some of the Plenary Lectures ("Information and knowledge as a tool in facing global challenges"; "Interdisciplinary scientific data for sustainable development global simulation"; "Curating data? What about curating services and workflows?") and in the meeting sessions on * Long-term data and knowledge management * Physical science: data quality and databases * Data visualization approaches, at which the IUCr representative gave a presentation demonstrating the IUCr approach to the interactive visualization of data as a feature of online crystallography journal articles. A full meeting report is available at http://www.iucr.org/resources/data/meeting-reports/codata-2008. General Assembly ---------------- During the course of the 2008 CODATA conference, two special sessions were held to reduce the burden spent on reporting directly to the General Assembly, and to allow greater involvement of conference members. The first was on "Collaboration with ICSU Organizations and Report from the ICSU ad hoc Strategic Committee on Data and Information (SCID)". Its main purpose was to discuss the recommendations contained in the report of the ICSU ad hoc Strategic Committee on Data and Information. This Committee, following on from the ICSU Priority Area Assessment Report of 2004, was formed to implement the key recommendations from that report relating to the reforms of ICSU's own structures. It acknowledged CODATA's development of a Strategic Plan, recommended that CODATA be closely involved with a new ad hoc ICSU Strategic Coordinating Committee, and recommended that CODATA should work closely with the the World Data System (a proposed reorganisation of the World Data Centres and Federation of Astronomical and Geophysical Data Analysis Services). The second special session allowed National and Union members of CODATA to report on their relevant activities in the previous two-year period. The General Assembly noted the SCID Report. It was commented that the advisory role recommended by the Report for CODATA reflected the fact that it was still developing focus within its evolving Strategic Plan, and might later become more closely involved in managing the World Data System. The General Assembly reviewed progress with the CODATA Strategic Plan, and noted the urgent need to finalise the Plan and roll out energetic work plans within each of its three major initiatives (the Global Information Commons for Science Initiative, the Scientific Data Across the Digital Divide Program, and the Advanced Data Methods and Information Technologies for Research and Education (ADMIRE) project). A report of the activitities of the Secretariat described the upheaval during the period involved in relocating the office to its new premises at 5 rue Auguste Vacquerie in Paris, but also described the many projects in which it had been actively involved in spite of the disruption. The General Assembly greeted this report with acclamation. The 2008 CODATA Prize for outstanding achievement in scientific and technical data was awarded to Liu Chuang, Professor and Director of the Global Change Information and Research Center at the Institute of Geography and Natural Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, who has been very actively involved as Co-Chair with the CODATA Task Group on the Preservation and Archiving of Scientific and Technical Data in Developing Countries, and who served on the ICSU Priority Area Assessment (PAA) Panel on Scientific Data and Information. The General Assembly also appoints or re-confirms Task Groups and Working Groups to further the objectives of CODATA. The Task Groups approved by the 26th General Assembly for 2008-2010 are as follows (those marked with an asterisk are continuations of existing Task Groups): - Anthropometric Data and Engineering * - Biodiversity: observation and specimen records * - Data exchange and interoperability of heterogeneous data resources for material science and education * - Data on Natural Gas Hydrates * - Data Sources for Sustainable Development in South African Development Community (SADC) Countries * - eGY Earth and Space Science Data Interoperability - Fundamental Constants * - Global Information Commons for Science - GICSI/EU - International Polar Year Data Policy and Management Subcommittee * - Preservation of and Access to Scientific and Technical Data in Developing Countries * Australia and the UK were formally welcomed as National Members of CODATA. Italy has withdrawn its membership. The Officers of CODATA (terms of office in parentheses) are: President - Krishan Lal (India; 2006-2010); Vice-Presidents - Steve Rossouw (South Africa; 2006-2010), Gordon Wood (Canada; 2006-2010); Secretary General - Robert Chen (USA; 2008-2012); Treasurer - Michel Sabourin (Canada; 2008-2012). Ordinary Members of the Executive Board are listed on the CODATA web site www.codata.org. Other activities ---------------- CODATA European activities expanded under the COMMUNIA network signed with the Politecnico of Turin, Italy on the 'Public Domain in the Digital Age'. This is a European funded Thematic Network. CODATA is taking the lead, in collaboration with other partners of the network, on the second international conference in 2009 on Global Science and the Economics of Knowledge-Sharing Institutions (G-SEKSI). The first International Conference, in which CODATA participated, took place in June 2008 in Louvain, Belgium. CODATA built on work that started in 2006 as scientific lead on GEO Task DA-06-01, 'Review of GEOSS Data Sharing Principles'. This culminated in a special side event organized by CODATA in conjunction with the GEO-V Plenary in Bucharest in November 2008, focussing on Implementation Guidelines of the GEOSS Data Sharing Principles prepared by CODATA. The IUCr CODATA Representative continues to work closely with the ICSTI Representative, Professor J. R. Helliwell, on matters of common interest. B. McMahon, IUCr Representative. ============================================================================== _______________________________________________ Epc mailing list Epc@iucr.org http://scripts.iucr.org/mailman/listinfo/epc
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