20241202 Scientific Board Meeting, Chur - Minutes

1.1.1 The TC is currently working on the migration of website content to new systems. The product section of the website is in the reworks, and other pages of the website could also benefit from an upgrade in order for users to make it easier to find what they need.

1.1.2

1.1.3 A user review of the product pages when final was also proposed. Another idea was to use HubSpot analytics to track usage after user experience feedback has been implemented.

1.1.4 Recommendations from the SB regarding signposting and marketing will take place in 2025

1.1.5 Action: Hilde to follow up with TC on this.

1.2.1 What we need here are big lists. The question is where they should be hosted. HubSpot tables, or Google sheet in the short term? Another question is whether this should be provided for the SB businesses or for all of the Alliance.

1.2.2 Action: Darren to follow up on this.

1.3.1 Initial meeting between members of W3C’s Data Exchange WG and representatives from the DDI Alliance has taken place. 

1.3.2 There is agreement on the Scientific Board that collaboration would be a good thing. 

1.3.3 Questions like the below were raised: 

-Which version of the variable cascade to use? 

-Are we trying to get DDI incorporated into other W3C recommendations, or are we trying to get it published as a W3C recommendation?  

1.3.4 How to move forward discussed at the CDI side meeting in Chur. 

1.3.5 A next step in the collaboration is for DDI/UMICH and W3C to get an agreement in place. 

1.3.6 Action: Darren and Jared to follow up.

1.4.1 The new CDI and forthcoming DDI-L v4.0, will have syntax representation libraries for various languages to save developer time and effort. This needs signposting (see 1.1.4). One idea would be to have a developers section at the topline of the website.

1.4.2 Also  the tools page on the website will need to be reviewed. TC will take care of this and make the page as simple as possible.

1.4.3 Ask the community if somebody is willing to oversee submissions of new tools to a database.

1.4.4 Action: Wolfgang to follow up with the TC regarding this.

1.4.5 The question of engaging third parties to adapt support for DDI was also addressed. The following ideas, among others, came up: 

1.4.5.1 Ask out to members to reach out to tools providers they are customers of? 

1.4.5.2 Find contact person to engage with third parties.

1.4.5.3 Create a community engagement group that could focus on this and other.

1.4.5.4 If it is not possible to establish such a group the SB will follow up regarding this goal in small steps.

1.5.1 From January Darren will take over the lead of the CESSDA Interoperability WG. One of the focuses of the group will be on URNs and URIs usage.

1.5.2 One question is how we can pair URN and URIs within the DDI standards.

1.5.3 The DDI Alliance already has an agency registry. A question is whether we would want to extend this to become a repository for variable IDs.

1.5.4 Action: Darren/CESSDA to follow up on this and engage internally within the TC.

1.6.1 A task is to identify markups and make a list. 

1.6.2 One goal is to make simple examples simpler, e.g. to describe 2 rows and 2 columns of a dataset table. 

1.6.3 Provide examples with a markup and an explanation.

1.6.4 Categorise markups for newcomers and advanced.

1.6.5 Signposting on the web becomes important (see 1.1.4).

1.6.6 Ask members/community to produce content. 

1.6.7 Actions: 

1.6.7.1 All to follow up regarding the topic.

1.6.7.2 TC to follow up regarding the creation of new markup examples. 

1.7.1 DDI-CDI is in the center of the Cross-Domain Interoperability Framework (CDIF) developed under the WorldFair project and to be continued as an ongoing activity chaired by CODATA. The SB is interested in Simon’s input on this.  Cross-disciplinary markup examples would be useful. 

1.7.2 Agreed: Ask Simon if he is interested to hold the task, and if not give it to somebody else.

1.8.1 Report from the SB’s UNECE contacts Arofan and Flavio Nov 2024 link. Arofan and Flavio are agreed on use cases and practical examples. 

1.8.2 Actions:

1.8.2.1 TC/Wendy to follow up with Arofan and Flavio on the DDI/SDMX mappings activity. 

1.8.2.2 A report related to the ongoing activities by the end of the period will be fine (end 2025). 

1.9.1 Several initiatives where engagement would be possible are ongoing, or will start in the near future:

1.9.1.1 DDI promotion in South-Korea (Ingo). 

1.9.1.2 IASSIST in Africa (DDI Alliance is sponsor).

1.9.1.3 Worldbank Initiatives (Wolfgang).

1.9.1.4 CODATA’s involvement with the Inspire network

1.9.1.5 RDA/International Data week.

1.9.1.6 Questions: How can we get a metric of the DDI usage in Africa and other regions beyond the traditional audience regions?

1.9.1.7 What can the Alliance provide in terms of use cases and training materials? 

1.9.1.8 Increase visibility of existing materials through the website: 

1.9.1.8.1 No. of participants in WGs from different regions?

1.9.1.8.2 Registries of users:  Create a new list where people can register that they use DDI?1.9.1.8.3 Website map. 

1.9.1.9 Action: Wolfgang to follow up on this.

1.10.1 Dan Gillman is the ISO contact and the work of Dan and team to create a proposal is ongoing. 

1.10.2 Action: Hilde to invite Dan G. for a catch up with the SB in February 2025.

1.11.1 It was pointed out that several useful “deep-dive guides”/whitepapers existed 10 years ago. Since then there has been a shift to content. 

1.11.2 Product groups should be encouraged to write implementation guides.

1.11.3 TC to follow up regarding coverage and presentation style.

1.11.4 Wendy/TC to follow up.

1.12.1 Members (anybody) can apply for DDI funding through the University of Michigan. 

1.12.2 Ideas that came up at the meeting was to explore which areas members need help with, and to provide documentation to use for funding requests.

1.12.3 A concrete example was to look at possibilities provided by the Oscar’s calls of the Horizon Europe 2025 program.

1.12. 4One idea could be to do something related to implementation guides, for example FAIR Implementation guidance for Social Sciences - Codebook and Lifecycle, and reach out to members to explore interest. 

1.12.5 Actions: Darren to explore possibilities for funding via EU’s Oscars funding programme OSCARS | Fostering the uptake of Open Science in Europe  

1.13.1 This is a task of the TC, in collaboration with the SB and the working groups.

1.14.1 This is a task of the TC/Jared (Secretariat) and the proposed new website UEX sub-group (see 1.1.2).

1.15.1 The proposed work on the website/UEX could include how to deal with this, as well as how to integrate videos and other training materials on the website. TC, the proposed new sub-group and the Training Group will be asked to collaborate on this to the extent feasible according to their plans. 

1.15.2 Action: Flavio (not present at the meeting) who is the SB contact for the Training Group and also on the TC, will be asked to contact the relevant groups regarding this. The work is supposed to be ongoing for the next two years.

1.16.1 SB to contact the EB regarding to formulate a formal communication strategy. One goal is to identify missing pieces in the communication internally in the Alliance, and externally.

1.16.2 Action: Hilde and Darren to follow up with the EB on the quarterly calls

1.17.1 The goal here is to facilitate lightweight reporting and to align everyone. This is good for transparency. It would also be good to define a list of support activities that the SB can provide the working groups with, for example specific skills? Setting up review groups etc.

1.17.2 Actions:

1.17.2.1Darren and Wendy to create a reporting form before end of March. This can be a Google sheet/forms with controlled access, for example.

1.17.2.2 Hilde to set up a support activity list, to be reviewed by Darren and later by the full SB.

1.20.1 Goals 1.18 to 1.20 are added to indicate SB’s support of the related tasks.

2.1 Flavio, Simon and Hilde have all served a four year period on the board. We would like to ask if they would be interested to stand as candidates for the upcoming election.

2.2 Action: Hilde to ask Flavio and Simon if they would be interested to stand as candidates for the new election. 

2.3 Anyone can propose candidates for the election. 

3.1 This point is covered above (see 1.1). The question is about how to make more people use DDI. To provide use cases/user journeys is a good starting point. 

4.1 It was agreed to hold the Annual Meeting of the Scientific Community as a virtual meeting, and then try to organise physical community meetings in connection with events when possible, for example IASSIST and EDDI, focusing on what is new and how the community can engage, similar to that of the DatatCite meetings. 

4.2 Action: Hilde and Darren to agree timing for the virtual Annual Meeting of the Scientific Community, preferably to take place before IASSIST (June 3 - 6). Plan this together with the EB.

5.1 The idea of organising topical community meetings in connection with IASSIST and EDDI was discussed. It was agreed to propose a meeting for IASSIST. 

5.2 Action: Wolfgang, Hilde and Darren to prepare abstract for IASSIST DDI Scientific Community side meeting and poster.

6.1 Next steps

6.1.1Hilde to send out minutes from the meeting for approval.

6.1.2 Jared to go through the minutes document to check which items involve contacting members and signposting.

6.1.3 Follow up on actions assigned under points 1 - 6.