20220208 Scientific Board Meeting Minutes

Owned by Hilde Orten (Unlicensed)
Mar 25, 2022
3 min read

Attendees

Achim, Carsten, Hilde, Ingo, Flavio, Jared, Wendy

Apologies

Darren, Simon

1. Reports from meetings organised by the Scientific Board (Ingo and Hilde)

  • Meeting of the Scientific Community.

Ingo and Hilde reported shortly from the virtual meeting of the Scientific Community, held January 27th 2022. We are happy that so many community members took part in the meeting and in the discussions around the presented topics. Several of the participants expressed that they liked the format of the meeting and that it would be good to have similar meetings organized twice a year in future. It was agreed at the meeting that two topics per meeting would be enough. An improvement of the meeting format for the next time could be to have a discussant person that prepares and asks questions to the presenters at the meeting.

  • Meeting of WG, SB and EB chairs/co-chairs

An informal coordination call between the WG, SB and EB chairs was held on February 3rd 2022. This is a call with the aim to enhance the coordination between the different groups, which we plan to organize on a quarterly basis. While the meeting on the 3rd primarily was focusing on introduction and the reporting from the groups future meetings will have more focus on collaboration.

Jared also pointed at the importance of collaboration and alignment of goals between the Scientific Board and the Executive Board.

A proposal from Arofan (Chair of the DDI-CDI WG) at the coordination call was that the agenda for the next meeting could be open, so that participants could suggest topics in advance.

2. Update from the working group contacts

XKOS: Carsten reported that XKOS is preparing an update for June.

SDTL: Achim reported that small improvements have been made to the SDTL. Item identifiers have been added. A new idea is to expand SDTL to cover application to statistical analyses. As Achim retires from his official roles in the Alliance by the end of February a new SB contact was assigned. Flavio will take over for Achim’s role as a group contact.

Glossary: Hilde has been assigned as their Scientific Board contact.

3. The work of the DDI URN resolution group (Carsten)

  • Progress of the work

The group is working on a draft document and is progressing towards a version of the document for the SB to look at. The topic was presented at the Scientific Community meeting in January.

  • Procedures for reviewing and approving the draft document

The goal is to have a draft document ready to send to the full Scientific Board in advance of the meeting of March 8th. The full SB could then comment in order to finish the draft. The draft could then be sent for review to the TC and the broader community for review, before being sent to the Executive Board.

4. Advisory members for the Scientific Board, proposal for members

According to the bylaws the Scientific Board can up to two Advisory Members. The purpose and role of advisory members as discussed. Ingo will prepare a draft document for discussion for the next SB meeting. It was pointed out at the meeting that it is important that Advisory members come from the outside of the Alliance and will provide an external perspective on the topics of the Scientific Board. While some ideas for relevant people to look for was presented at the meeting, it was agreed to wait to reach out to anybody till after the forthcoming purpose and roles document has been discussed and agreed. The document should include a proposal for tasks, terms and conditions the Advisory members.

5. Physical SB meeting with event to honor Achim, Chur September 5th to 6th

A physical meeting of the Scientific Board will take place in Chur on the 5th and 6th of September 2022. The Scientific Board will also use this occasion to honor Achim for his work with an event in connection to the meeting.

6. Toast to Achim on his last Scientific Board meeting as official member.

It is a bit overwhelming for us all that Achim will retire from his official positions in the Alliance along with his retirement from GESIS by the end of February. Achim was telling us a little about his interest and involvement in metadata work since the very first WWW conference in 1994. Everybody present at the meeting expressed their appreciation of Achim and his great work for the Alliance. We are really sad that he will his official roles in the Alliance, but is happy that he will still be willing to contribute to specific tasks and give advice.