Biodiversity and Ecosystem Informatics - BDEI: Designing an Infrastructure for Heterogeneity of Ecosystem Data, Collaborators and Organizations

EIA-0131958Bowker，加州大学Geoffrey University-San DiegoBDEI：为生态系统数据、合作者和组织中的异质性设计基础设施项目摘要生物多样性和生态系统数据目前正由一系列松散连接的私人、政府和非营利机构以各种格式收集。对这种双重异质性的正常反应是制定和执行元数据(关于数据的数据)标准；在这种反应中，人们试图将数据从其组织环境中抽象出来，以便使其普遍可用。该项目采取了相反的做法，并寻求在其组织环境中建立环境数据的新方法，使其在今天可以更灵活地使用，从而能够更长时间地保持其价值。这一假设基于过去25年在科学研究领域的工作，即正式的数据描述必须被非正式的描述包裹起来，才能有用。对短期数据的非正式描述通过面对面的接触、通过交换研究生、通过会议论文等方式提供。正是这一层在生物多样性和生态系统信息学所特有的高度分散的数据收集工作中丢失了；也正是这一层在数据被包装在正式的元数据中并保存到磁盘时丢失。该项目的目标是开辟一个主要的新数据库查询领域，与生物多样性和生态系统社区的具体问题密切相关，这些问题是由于它们对非常持久和高度分散的数据的需求而产生的。该项目将发展为对元数据和包装数据的叙述模式之间的联系进行更大规模的研究。

EIA-0131958Bowker, GeoffreyUniversity of California - San DiegoBDEI: Designing an Infrastructure for Heterogeneity in Ecosystem Data, Collaborators and OrganizationsProject SummaryBiodiversity and ecosystems data are currently being gathered in a large range of formats by aconstellation of loosely connected private, government and not-for-profit agencies. The normal responseto this double heterogeneity has been the development and enforcement of metadata (data about data)standards; in this response one tries to abstract data away from its organizational context in order torender it universally accessible. This project takes the opposite track, and seeks new ways of groundingenvironmental data in its organizational context in such a way that it can both be used more flexibly todayand so it can retain its value longer. The hypothesis, based on the last 25 years of work in the field ofScience Studies, is that formal data descriptions must be wrapped in informal descriptions in order tobe useful. The informal description for short-lived data is provided by face-to-face contact, byexchanging graduate students, through conference papers and so forth. It is precisely this layer which islost in highly distributed data collection efforts characteristic of biodiversity and ecosystem informatics; itis also this layer which is lost when data is wrapped in formal metadata and saved to disk. The goal ofthis project is to open up a major new field of database inquiry tied precisely to the specific problems ofthe biodiversity and ecosystems communities generated by their need for very long lasting and highlydistributed data. The project will develop into a larger study of the articulation between metadata andnarrative modes of wrapping data.