News | Page 13 | Data Documentation Initiative

First Webinar in DDI Training Series: "Introduction to Metadata for Research Data Management"

Submitted by lyle on Tue, 2021-04-20 22:52

The DDI Alliance Training Group and CODATA are pleased to announce the first webinar in a new series introducing the metadata standard products of the DDI Alliance from different perspectives. "Introduction to Metadata for Research Data Management: A Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) Perspective" will be held Thursday, April 29, 2021, from 2-3.30am UTC.

This workshop introduces the definition and use of metadata in modern research data management. Metadata is a critical ingredient in applying the FAIR principles, but it is not necessarily easy to understand. The presentation will cover the definition of metadata and the ways in which it can be used in systems and will briefly introduce the DDI specifications which embody these perspectives and understandings.

The DDI Alliance has for many years provided popular standards and specifications for modeling metadata and using it in data management ad dissemination in the social, behavioural, economic, and health sciences, and in official statistics. Many of their approaches will apply in other domains as well. Metadata for RDM purposes can be a complex topic - this workshop will introduce a way of understanding and addressing that complexity effectively in systems aimed at FAIR data sharing.

Registration and further details: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/656847561327953932

Seeking DDI Executive Board nominations

Submitted by lyle on Wed, 2021-04-14 23:32

Dear DDI community:

This is an election year for the DDI Executive Board. Four board seats are up for election (terms are four years). According to the Alliance Bylaws: "In election years, nominations for At-Large members will be solicited in April and a slate will be prepared by the Executive Director for discussion at the annual meeting with the election occurring in June. In the event that there are more candidates than positions, the election will be decided on the basis of those candidates getting the most votes."

The responsibilities of the Executive Board include: setting overall policy and budget for the Alliance, providing strategic guidance and review of the Alliance’s activities, and overseeing the management of the financial affairs of the Alliance on behalf of the Members.

I invite anyone interested in serving on or nominating another person to the Executive Board to email me directly with the nomination. The Alliance is committed to inclusive representation and encourages a wide and diverse pool of nominations.

Sincerely,
Jared

Jared Lyle
Executive Director, DDI Alliance
ICPSR, University of Michigan
lyle@umich.edu

New DDI Slack Collaborative Workspace

Submitted by lyle on Mon, 2021-04-05 22:33

The DDI Alliance has a new collaborative workspace on Slack (https://ddialliance.slack.com) that is free to members who would like to join. We encourage you to opt-in for participant-directed conversations about DDI Alliance products, training, conferences, resources, and related topics. The DDI Alliance Slack is free and open to the public, but participants must complete the application form (https://myumi.ch/NxbDy) and be accepted before access is granted.

View our Community Guidelines and How-to instructions to help you set up and use your account.

DDI Webinar for the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative Community

Submitted by lyle on Mon, 2021-04-05 22:22

The DDI Alliance has been invited to present a Webinar introducing the DDI metadata standard and products to the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative community. The Webinar is scheduled for Wednesday, April 21st, 2021, at 14:00 UTC.

This Webinar will be hosted by ASIS&T. Registration for DCMI webinars is currently free, but you will need to use the discount code 'dcmi25' when you register.

More details, including how to register: https://www.dublincore.org/news/2021/02-18-webinar-introduction-to-ddi/

New DDI Alliance Privacy Policy

Submitted by lyle on Wed, 2021-03-17 17:00

The DDI Alliance recognizes and values the privacy of its community members and guests. Accordingly, the Executive Board has approved a new Privacy Policy to provide specific information on how the Alliance collects and processes personal information.

A link to the new policy is found on the DDI Alliance web site footer, as well as under the About menu. More details: https://ddialliance.org/privacy-policy.

DDI Product Suite Logos

Submitted by lyle on Fri, 2021-03-05 11:49

Over the past few years, the DDI Alliance has developed and adopted a broad product line, including Codebook, Lifecycle, Controlled Vocabularies, XKOS, and most recently the Structured Data Transformation Language. The term “DDI” no longer refers to a single metadata standard or schema, but has evolved to refer to a suite of different data management tools. This evolution is being reflected in the ongoing reorganization of the DDI Alliance website (https://ddialliance.org/products) to highlight and describe the different products offered by the DDI Alliance.

The DDI Marketing and Partnerships Group, in collaboration with the DDI Training Group, has developed a series of new product logos to differentiate the components of the DDI product suite (https://ddialliance.org/membership/promoting-ddi/logos). We hope the community will embrace the new logos and use the information on this page to promote the DDI product suite.

2021 DDI Annual Meetings

Submitted by lyle on Mon, 2021-03-01 01:14

Dear DDI community,

Each year, the DDI Alliance hosts annual meetings to discuss Alliance business, learn about activities, and provide feedback on priorities for the coming year. This year, we will host two separate virtual meetings in June, which are described below. We invite anyone who is interested in DDI activities to attend these virtual meetings.

DDI Alliance Annual Meeting of the Scientific Community
June 15, 2021 (Tuesday) 13:00-15:00 UTC

Join Zoom Meeting: https://umich.zoom.us/j/94437207068
Meeting ID: 944 3720 7068
Find your local number: https://umich.zoom.us/u/abon9oB5kV

The Meeting of the Scientific Community will discuss DDI technical and scientific developments, including a Scientific Work Plan for the coming year. The recently reorganized Scientific Board will convene the annual meeting.

DDI Alliance Annual Meeting of Members

June 22, 2021 (Tuesday) 13:00-15:00 UTC

Join Zoom Meeting: https://umich.zoom.us/j/98025859815
Meeting ID: 980 2585 9815
Find your local number: https://umich.zoom.us/u/adYadTCRE4

The Meeting of Members is a forum for Member Organization discussion and feedback, as well as planning for the upcoming fiscal year. The annual Meeting of Members is chaired by the Chair of the DDI Executive Board.

Agendas with summary reports will be distributed the month before the respective meetings. Past annual meeting materials are available on the DDI web site: https://ddialliance.org/annual-meetings. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out. Looking forward to seeing many of you (virtually) in June!

Sincerely,

Jared

Jared Lyle
Executive Director, DDI Alliance
ICPSR, University of Michigan
lyle@umich.edu

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DDI Alliance Panelists at the Government of Canada Data Conference 2021

Submitted by lyle on Fri, 2021-02-12 11:15

Members of the DDI Alliance will be participating in the "Standards in Action: Emergence of Data Standards to Drive Business Outcomes" session of the Government of Canada Data Conference 2021 (19 Feb at 14:00 EST). Cory Chobanik, from Statistics Canada, is organizing and moderating the session. Dan Gillman, from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, is a panelist. The panel will explore the value and how to boost the adoption of common data standards across government.

For program and registration details, visit the conference web page.

Scientific Board meetings + leadership

Submitted by lyle on Fri, 2021-02-05 14:23

The first meeting of the newly elected Scientific Board was held on 3 February 2021. Ingo Barkow, University of Applied Sciences of the Grisons, was selected as the Chair of the Scientific Board, with Hilde Orten, Norwegian Centre for Research Data, selected as the Vice-Chair.

More details about the Board, including a link to the meeting minutes, is here: https://ddialliance.org/scientific-board.

DDI Alliance Accomplishments in 2020

Submitted by lyle on Fri, 2021-01-15 13:46

As we enter 2021, we want to acknowledge the many DDI accomplishments in 2020 made possible by our passionate community volunteers and our 40+ member organizations. Achievements include:

DDI Lifecycle 3.3 public release. The result of six years of work addressing new requirements filed by the DDI community, DDI Lifecycle 3.3 offers better coverage for research and data management including non-survey data collection, sampling, and classification management.

New DDI product: SDTL. The Alliance membership approved an addition to the DDI product suite called Structured Data Transformation Language (SDTL). Designed as another tool to facilitate a DDI-based workflow through the research data lifecycle, SDTL provides machine-actionable descriptions of variable-level data transformation histories derived from any data transformation language (SPSS, SAS, Stata, R, etc.). The same scripts that are used to transform and manage variables and data files can be used to update metadata files, thereby increasing efficiency in the research process and reducing information loss.

DDI-CDI public review. The Alliance announced the public review of a new specification called DDI – Cross Domain Integration (DDI-CDI). DDI-CDI is a model-driven specification that is designed to provide support for integrating data across domain and disciplinary boundaries, describing disparate data sources, and documenting their provenance. DDI-CDI is technology-agnostic and adaptable to any platform or representation, designed to meet emerging needs for the integration of old and new forms of research data. The development of DDI-CDI also spurred new partnerships with open science organizations like CODATA.

International standards. The DDI Alliance is now a category A liaison to ISO/TC46/SC 4, This moves DDI-Codebook and DDI-Lifecycle closer to being recognized as official International Standards Organizations (ISO) standards. DDI work products are now also catalogued in FAIRsharing, a curated resource on data and metadata standards dedicated to making research data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reproducible.

Organizational updates. The Alliance Bylaws were updated to reorganize the Scientific Board and a new Scientific Board was elected. These changes will improve the management and direction of the Alliance’s scientific and technical work activities. The Training Group was refreshed with new co-chairs and many new members. Finally, the Alliance website was reorganized to improve navigation and increase its usefulness for novices and experts alike, assigning responsibility for content to specific working groups.

As we start a new year, we look forward to building on these accomplishments and connecting with many of you on Alliance activities and at meetings in the coming year.