3 Annual Meeting 2017
Welcome!
December
21 ESC Webinar
Issue 11 | 2017
16 SWiF Student Workshop
2 The ESC Board
17 Open Data Workshop
13 Scientivity Contest
Are you a LIS student from Europe and want to get involved in our chapter activities? Do you want to share any content in our next newsletter? Do you have any ideas for activities or events that could be organized by the ESC? We are always looking for engaged students who want to participate in our chapter. Feel free to contact us and share your ideas with us!
Newsletter
Want to Participate?
In this winter edition of the ESC newsletter we will present you a variety of topics. Our new board is introduced and you can read about our experiences and achievements at the ASIS&T Annual Meeting 2017 in Washington, DC. In the category "I was at..." students report on their experiences during this year's conferences, workshops and summer schools. We will also present you the submissions to our "Scientivity" contest, in which students had the possibility to submit their research in a creative way. Beyond that, the European Student Chapter and European Chapter promoted ASIS&T within a Student Workshop (SWiF) in Düsseldorf, Germany and the Open Data Workshop in Bonn, Germany. Last, but not least you can read about upcoming conferences and events that you should not miss, as well as our upcoming webinar about survey methods. We hope you enjoy reading this newsletter! Your European Student Chapter
20 Do not miss in 2018...
8 I was at...
We have a new board! Most faces might look familiar to you, but we could also recruit a new active member. Aylin Ilhan is our new chair and has great plans for the following year. As co-chair and thereby chair-elect Maria Henkel will support her. Isabelle Dorsch remains secretary/treasurer for one more year. The position as webmaster and social media manager is taken over by our new member Julia Göretz. Welcome, Julia! Our former chair, Christine Meschede, is our new newsletter editor. Last but not least, we can still rely on Agnes Mainka who fulfills an important liason function between the Student Chapter and the European Chapter. Special thanks goes also to our advisor Rebekah Willson, who is always supporting us. Feel free to contact any of the board member if you have questions or want to participate in the ESC.
Agnes Mainka agnes.mainka@hhu.de
Isabelle Dorsch isabelle.dorsch@hhu.de
Aylin Ilhan aylin.ilhan@hhu.de
Julia Göretz julia.goeretz@hhu.de
THE ESC Board
Christine Meschede christine.meschede@hhu.de
Maria Henkel maria.henkel@hhu.de
On the following pages we give you an impression on this year's Annual Meeting in Washington, DC. Like every year the meeting provided an excellent opportunity to meet other students and experts from the LIS community. The European Student Chapter took the chance to exchange ideas, to make new friends and to take part in competitions. Read about the Student Chapter of the Year Award, the Student Design Competition and the new SIG Social Media.
Members of the European Chapter and European Student Chapter
ASIS&T 2017 (Student) Chapter of the Year
At the ASIS&T Annual Meeting 2017 in Washington DC, the European Student Chapter was awarded with the Student Chapter of the Year Award. The jurors praised our chapter activities like the miniBARcamp at the Annual Meeting 2016 in Copenhagen, Denmark and our efforts in connecting students across Europe. We are proud to receive this award and hope to build further on our success. We will also keep the collaboration with our big sister, the European Chapter, which has also won the Chapter of the Year Award. We are looking forward to a new year with amazing activities, events and contests!
As co-chairs of the Student Design Competition at the ASIS&T Annual Meeting, we wanted to come up with a design brief that tied closely with ASIS&T's mission statement of 'connecting people and information in the physical and virtual worlds'. We set what we hoped would be a stimulating design brief on 'creating connections' - where those students up for the challenge would design the concept for a novel prototype mobile digital information tool with functionality to support creating meaningful connections between people, places, information, and ideas.
Delightful (Student) Design at ASIS&T 2017
Rebekah Willson, winner team (Saguna Shankar, Fabian Odoni, Tjaša Jug, Maria Henkel), Lynn Connaway
by Rebekah Willson and Stephann Makri Student Design Competition Co-Chairs, ASIS&T 2017
Text
We assembled a panel of academic leaders in Information Science and Technology, ready not only to judge the winning team, but also offer insightful feedback. These were Brian Detlor (professor at McMaster University, Canada), Devon Greyson (postdoctoral fellow at the British Columbia Children’s Hospital Research Institute, Canada), Michael Twidale (professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA) and Dan Albertson (associate professor at the University at Buffalo, USA). Then all we needed were students. And they delivered. We had a small number of participants, but the competition was fierce. The students worked feverishly throughout the conference, making plans and forming teams at the kick-off session, meeting with us to get formative feedback on their design ideas, and then putting together final presentations for a room full of judges and on-lookers. The teams did a phenomenal job putting together innovative design ideas and gave absolutely engaging presentations - one of which involved improvised acting and the other surprise audience participation! One of the judges mentioned after the competition how he rarely saw students who focused so well on the purpose of their design. We were delighted with the design idea of the team that won - and even more impressed that there are discussions in the works to turn that idea into an app (which is why we can't tell you much about it!). It was lovely to get a chance to honour the students at the awards luncheon - and even better to be able to award each of them with free conference registration to next year's ASIS&T Annual Meeting in Vancouver! If you're a student coming to ASIS&T 2018 in Vancouver, look out for next year's competition - which we hope will be even bigger and better.
Organizers and participating teams of the Student Design Competition
Besides the celebration of ASIS&T’s 80th anniversary, we could also celebrate the birth of the Special Interest Group Social Media (SIG SM). It is now one of the 23 SIGs of ASIS&T. The SIGs offer a platform to exchange ideas and to keep oneself up to date about certain research topics. Furthermore, some SIGs organize events like workshops or panels at the annual meetings. The mission of SIG SM is to provide a platform for researchers and professionals interested in social media to connect with one another, discuss research in the field, and share their own work. SIG SM aims at covering a wide range of social media platforms and several methodological and theo-retical perspectives. The SIG welcomes everyone interested in social media research to join them. The officers want to thank everyone for the great support, also at the annual meeting. A special thanks goes to Emil Levine! He noticed the lack of a SIG Social Media and brought forward the idea. Currently, SIG SM runs a logo contest and looks forward to your active participation. (You can win a book about Facebook research!) SIG SM was established by ESC chair Aylin Ilhan. The board members are: Co-Chairs: Aylin Ilhan and Isabelle Dorsch Treasurer: Philippe Mongeon Secretary: Nic DePaula Webmaster: Kaja J. Fietkiewicz Communication: Wasim Ahmed If you are interested to read more or want to join: The ESC congratulates and looks forward to hear from the new SIG Social Media!
Conference participants and SIG SM officers celebrating the new SIG at the ASIS&T Annual Meeting 2017.Washington DC.
SIG SM Website SIG SM E-Mail Discussion List SIG SM on Twitter SIG SM Facebook Group
New SIG Social Media
I am: Franziska Zimmer, a master student of Information Science and Language Technology and a research assistant at the Department for Information Science at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf. My research interests are: Social Live Streaming Services, like Periscope, Ustream, and YouNow. I attended: The 80th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T). The conference was held in Crystal City, which is located near Washington, DC, making it a great opportunity to explore one of the most important cities in the US. My contribution was: Isabelle Dorsch and I presented a poster about image indexing of Instagram posts and the relative frequencies of hashtags in image categories, what hashtag categories dominate the users’ indexing activities, and how the hashtag categories per image category are distributed. I really liked: The open and warm atmosphere of the conference. It was easy to make connections with other people. Meeting so many researchers who are interested in the same topics was very nice. Furthermore, the conference was held on October 31st, Halloween, which was a nice touch, since one could experience the atmosphere at this special time in the US. My recommendation for other students attending conferences: Connecting with other researchers is easy at conferences, so do not miss this opportunity. Furthermore, try to use your spare time to visit the area where you are staying, it is a great chance to see new things.
Halloween in Washington, DC
I was at... ...the 80th ASIS&T Annual Meeting in Washington, DC
I was at... ...the International Summer School on Web Science and Technology in Bilbao, Spain
The Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain
I am: Kevin Jasberg. I studied mathematics and physics with focus on education and I am now a PhD student at the Web Science Working Group of Düsseldorf, Germany. My research interest are: Neural representations of decision-making in consideration of missing reliability, often coined as Human Uncertainty. Impact of uncertain user feedback on information systems, especially recommender systems. I attended: The International Summer School on Web Science and Technology 2017 in Bilbao, Spain. My favorite speaker was: Alon Y. Halevy – a really good speaker who gave a vivid presentation in his course. He absolutely knows how to raise attention and to impart knowledge. My contribution was: There was only a small slot for participant’s presentations since it was a summer school and not a real conference. However, each willing participant, i.e. graduate or undergraduate, had the chance to give a 5-minutes presentation of his work or interest. My contribution was about the experimental evidence of the existence of Human Uncertainty, i.e. the lack of reliability when reproducing decisions. I really liked: The city is amazing! There is a lot to see in Bilbao, the city is always clean (how did they manage that?) and people were very lovely. I really miss that place. However, one should be aware of the fact that most people (young and old) do not speak english. So, communication was quite difficult. My recommendation for other students attending conferences: Find a proper balance between attendance of courses and free time for visiting the beautiful surroundings. And one of the most important things when attending a conference: Communication! Talk to as much people as possible for this is the real reason people come there and attendees highly benefit from it.
I was at... ...the Impact School: Science Transfer in the 21st century, Berlin, Germany
I am: Hi, this is Maria, your current Co-Chair! I am a researcher and doctoral student at Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf, Germany. I went to this great event last month and I have to tell you about it because you should not miss it next year... My research interest are: Information Literacy, Libraries and Open Innovation. But I am also into Activity Tracking, Open Science, Knowledge Management and Data Visualization! Scientists and experts from Berlin are discussing the “Ivory Tower” of science and how to escape it I attended: I went to the first Impact School at the Institute for Internet and Society in Berlin. The topic was: “Science Transfer in the 21st Century”. This is not a conference, but a three-day workshop where you meet up with other young researchers from different countries and disciplines, to discuss our impact on media, society, business and policy. It was a chance to learn more about knowledge transfer and do hands-on work with other scientists, entrepreneurs and experts. Brainstorming for our very own business model My favorite session was: There were many good and interesting sessions but my favorite was when we had to create our own business model. It was a challenge to approach an idea from the view of an entrepreneur and not as a scientist. Also, it was a challenge to really concentrate on this one selling point and not get distracted by any other idea that comes to mind...this will be helpful in research, too! I really liked: I really enjoyed the relaxed and friendly atmosphere and the mix of participants. I learned about many different research topics from researchers around the world but also found, that we had much in common. My recommendation for other students attending conferences: You should try to see your research or any project as your business idea sometimes, because it needs proper planning, focus and marketing, too!
I am: Johanna Askeridis, a bachelor’s student in Information Science and Language Technology at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany. I am also a student assistant at the Department of Information Science. I attended: The 22nd Nordic Workshop on Bibliometrics and Research Policy in Helsinki, Finland, a three-day workshop which takes place in one of the Nordic countries on an annual basis. My favorite speaker was: Arto Lanamäki about the Twitter account @RealPeerReview and its misleading upswing impact on altmetric data through negative publicity. “Internet cultures and scholarly communities are different in their social mechanisms of attention and popularity.” My presentation was about: How to measure an author’s visibility in an information service by using a relative approach enabled by personal publication lists. Isabelle Dorsch and I presented a case study about nine ISSI committee authors in the three information services Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar. My recommendation for other students attending conferences: Don’t be afraid of not knowing enough yet, especially if you’re still young. People will be delighted simply by the fact that you’re attending a conference as “just” a student. They all said to me: “Of course you can’t know about everything yet, but this is an amazing opportunity to learn”. Everyone was very open and shared and explained their research to me when I asked. So try to listen and learn, and don’t be afraid of asking questions.
A crisp November morning in Helsinki
I was at... ...the Nordic Workshop on Bibliometrics and Research Policy, Helsinki, Finland
I was at... ...the 3rd International Conference on Library and Information Science
Isabelle Dorsch (left), Aylin Ilhan (middle) and Kaja J. Fietkiewicz (right) attending the LIS 2017
Isabelle Dorsch presenting at the LIS 2017
I am: Hello everyone! I am Isabelle Dorsch, PHD Student and research associate at the Department of Information Science at the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany. My research interest are: Informetrics (especially scientometrics) and social media. Besides, I am also interested in thrilling research beyond my topics. So if you have some interesting research, please show me! I attended: The 3rd International Conference on Library and Information Science (LIS), August 23-25, 2017, Sapporo, Japan. My presentation was about: Together with Aylin Ilhan, we analyzed the photo self-presentation behavior of adolescents on Facebook. The presentation focused especially on pictures, depicting alcohol, sex or smoking. We found out, that the majority of our surveyed Facebook users would not post photos with reference to sexuality, alcohol and drugs, but would more easily accept such images published by other. My favorite speaker was: Dariusz Jemielniak, Kozminski University, Polen He had a really fresh and entertaining talk, not only limited to his topic: Open collaboration? A perception of intellectual property and digital rights. My recommendation for other students attending conferences: Use the chances you receive! So is there some workshop, conference or some other event you can attend, GO and participate. Generally, you can obtain valuable experience. Also don’t be shy to get into a conversation with somebody, since people are there to meet and discuss.
We recently launched our Scientivity contest for students. The task was to submit a piece of research in a creative way. Submissions were due on Friday, December 15th. We received five great submissions and want to thank all participants for taking part and sharing their research with us! We now have the difficult task to pick a winner, which is not easy! The jury, consisting of members from the European Chapter and European Student Chapter, rated each submission based on the criteria 'contents' (50%) and 'creativity' (50%). We will present all submissions on our website and you can get a first impression right below (in the order of their arrival). The lucky winner will get financial support to attend the iConference 2018 in Sheffield, UK but we also have some exciting prizes prepared for the other participants. This was made possible with the support of the ASIS&T Chapter Development Fund and thanks to a generous donation by the Department of Information Science at Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf! Thanks to our supporters and good luck to everyone who participated!
Scientivity
A good combination of photos and research results. A vivid and clear presentation with a personal touch.
Submission
Name: Pussadee Nonthacumjane, Sweden Title: The vital skills of a local studies librarian Form of submission: video/presentation Contents: "The purpose of this presentation is to present the vital skills of the local studies librarian. This study applied content analysis of reviews the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, Local studies librarian website and the Local Studies Librarian Journal." Jury quotes:
The Video was clear, informative and well-structured. A great visual presentation of the topic with concrete examples. A good introduction into the topic which could be great for teaching.
Name: Joanna Mazur, Poland Title: Prohibition of discrimination in digital space: comparative analysis of regulations on automated processing of data Form of submission: presentation/code Contents: "The objective of my research project is to conduct an analysis of regulatory challenges linked to tensions between two values systems, namely values protected by the intellectual property law and values protected by the regulations concerning privacy protection. The solutions, based on algorithms, which determine the rules of personalizing the services offered to individuals, are protected by intellectual property rights." Jury quotes:
I like the variety of different perspectives through the video, the program and the presentation. A unique, interactive way of introducing automated decision making. Indeed, your submission is very creative, immersive and also funny. The topic is very relevant for the field of information science and well explained.
Name: Souvick Ghosh, USA Title: A Universal Model for Fake News Classification Form of submission: video Contents: Different types of Fake News are explained in this video, including false stories, deliberate fabrication, hoaxes and jokes. A model is presented aiming at automatically detecting and preventing the spread of fake news. Jury quotes:
Name: Tjaša Jug, Slovenia Title: Metaadventure. From Storyteller to Bestseller Form of submission: game Contents: "In this game you are a publisher who wants to publish a book with a great content. The World Wide Web offers a great opportunity to market and present your title. But be aware! Your book could get lost in the jungle of different books. To avoid this, you should use rich and high quality metadata, so people to find, identify and select your book. Is your book going to stay unnoticed or will it become a bestseller? In this game, like in real life, you can win by luck or by using your superior metadata skills. Try to be the first to reach the finish and make your book a bestseller!" Jury quotes:
A very creative idea to clarify the topic. In my opinion, the best contribution. A detailed, creative submission with a lot of background information. With the game one can playfully learn about metadata. The design of the game is great as well. An extremely creative submission. I love that you made a game out of your research project! This is a great idea. I would have liked the booklet to be a bit shorter and more exciting though. I love that you made a game out of your research project! This is a great idea. I would have liked the booklet to be a bit shorter and more exciting though.
Name: Muhebera Bizimana, Sweden Title: Reading promotion in Rwandan Primary schools and Role of school libraries Form of submission: presentation Contents: "Aim of the study: To understand the factors and agents influencing the development of reading habits of Rwandan primary school children (6-13 years) in the communities that exist around primary schools: head teachers, teachers, school librarians, parents." Jury quotes:
The goal, the motivation and the background of the study are presented comprehensibly. An important topic is presented, both scientific and societal relevance come clear.
For the eighth time Library and Information Science students from German speaking countries got the chance to present their research projects at the student workshop for information science research (SWiF). Eleven students from Germany and Austria held nine delightful presentations on this year's two-day workshop. SWiF provides a platform for all young researchers who want to present, discuss, collaborate and network with other students. This year, SWiF was held in Düsseldorf, Germany and was organized by Agnes Mainka and Aylin Ilhan from the department of Information Science at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany. The diverse topics ranged from mobile information retrieval to social media activities of politics. Apart from the possibility to present their work, students got the chance to win the best presentation award. With the support of ASIS&T the lucky winner gained a one-year free student membership. In addition, Heinrich Heine University sponsored an Amazon voucher and a scientific research book. We congratulate Lorenz Schmoly from the Karl-Franzens University Graz, Austria for the best presentation on social media and fake news and welcome him in the ASIS&T community. SWiF was originally founded by Katrin Weller, Isabella Peters and Dirk Lewandowski. The two latter latter, not unknown to the ASIS&T community, were also present at this year's event and supported the students with helpful advice. Likewise, in his guest talk Miloš M. Jovanović provided insight in his work at Fraunhofer Institute for Technological Trend Analysis. At the end of a successful workshop with fruitful discussions, Aylin Ilhan, Chair of the European Student Chapter, presented ASIS&T and the ESC and praised the benefits of being a part of the ASIS&T community. We are looking forward to upcoming workshops with such engaged students.
From left to right: Agnes Mainka, award winner Lorenz Schmoly, Aylin Ilhan
Workshop participants, organizers and advisors
8th Student Workshop of Information Science Research
Introduction Do we have a global understanding of what open data is and does open data impact have cultural differences? In this workshop, we discussed the German or Western understanding of open data and its impact and compared it to the understanding and impact in Southeast Asia. Are there common ideas and can we learn from each other? There exist different definitions of the term open data. According to The Open Definition (n.d.), “Open data and content can be freely used, modified, and shared by anyone for any purpose.” This definition refers to different types of data like data of cultural works and artefacts, scientific data and publications, financial data and governmental expenditure, statistics and census data, weather and climate data, as well as environmental data like data on pollution or the quality of water and air. Besides the impact of open data and the possible areas of applications, there are technical aspects which need to be considered. Datasets are only useful if they are accessible and processed easily. It is not enough to just create an open dataset, publish it somewhere on the web and hope that somebody will find it. For this purpose, a number of open data platforms have been created, where datasets can be enriched with metadata, can be indexed by different aspects like license and category. In addition, they give users the possibility to search or browse for datasets. Over time multiple platforms with similar names have emerged, which leads to a confusion where to host and where to search for open data datasets. The datasets itself often do not contain information about licensing, so there is a need for such platforms where additional information (file format, license, date, etc.) can be added. The impact of open data projects has been recently investigated by Young and Verhulst (2016). They tried to categorise the impact of open data in four groups, namely improving government, empowering citizens, solving public problems, and creating opportunities. Looking at these categories we can identify projects in the German-speaking region that fall into these categories as well. The category improving government, for example, covers projects like Maerker Brandenburg (maerker.brandenburg.de) which helps citizens and city services easily to communicate and to fix problems. Citizens are able, for example, to report on broken lights in a dark city area and the city service can directly react on that issue. According to the category creating opportunities, a mobile application called RIS:App has opened new possibilities to easily get access to national laws and judicial decisions in Austria. This has improved the way how advocates retrieve their information. Eventually, the success of the app has helped the developers to become known and successful app developers. Referring to the category solving public problems the OpenStreetMap (www.openstreetmap.org) is used (not only in German-speaking regions) to add geographical data on a map and to share this information with the community. While many are updating the information, the knowledge of the mass eventually leads to richer and up to date information than solely automatically generated maps. Finally, the category empowering citizens can be described as an impact of the project JedeSchule (jedeschule.de). This project enables statistical data on schools and enhances the ways how diverse stakeholder and politicians may interact with each other. The goal is to enhance the transparency of educational institutions and to empower parents and children to make better decisions. Hence, the examples we are aware of and work with originating from our Western understanding how open data and citizen engagement can improve our lives. Whereas, looking at other cultures and their understanding how data may help to solve regional problems may open our minds and help us to identify real opportunities. The Open SOA Workshop was a unique opportunity to discuss open data access and impact in a mixed group with people with a Western and Southeast Asian background.
by Agnes Mainka and Tobias Siebenlist Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany
Workshop on Open Data Global Definitions and Regional Understanding Understandingnderstnading
OpenData hands-on workshop session (Photo by Agnes Mainka and Tobias Siebenlist)
Hence, the examples we are aware of and work with originating from our Western understanding how open data and citizen engagement can improve our lives. Whereas, looking at other cultures and their understanding how data may help to solve regional problems may open our minds and help us to identify real opportunities. The Open SOA Workshop was a unique opportunity to discuss open data access and impact in a mixed group with people with a Western and Southeast Asian background. Method The workshop was designed as hands-on. All participants have been invited to contribute to the discussions and findings. We have focused our discussion on the following two questions: How is the access to open data provided in Southeast Asia and Germany? What is the value added of open data in Southeast Asia and Germany? The aim is to identify whether there are differences in the understanding of open data and its impact and further if we are able to learn from each other in an open discussion as in the workshop format. In total 12 persons have participated. Seven are students, two are PhD candidates/ researcher and the others are activists. The participants have been split into two groups according to their interests in open data. One group that is more interested in the technical side and one group that is more interested in the impact of open data. Discussion and Conclusion Impact of Open Data In the first session, the impact group had the task, first, to brainstorm all open data projects they have been in contact with or which they know personally and second they should identify which impact these projects have for them. After a break, they got another two tasks. First, to identify cultural differences and similarities according to the impact of one of the mentioned projects and second, to discuss opportunities to improve the impact and discover untapped potentials accordingly. An open data project that is known by the most participants is Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). The goal is to make education accessible for everyone through online courses. The impact of those projects is that knowledge becomes decentralised. Now it is possible to attend courses from Harvard and the MIT without being physically in Cambridge. Through MOOCs, everybody with a connection to the world wide web and access to technology may benefit from that. One disadvantage is that there is a technological barrier. The participants emphasised public libraries to overcome the technological gap. The second group focused on ways of the technical accessibility of open data. The first task was to use a SWOT analysis to discuss the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the provision of open data using centralised portals. As there is currently no consistent strategy how to provide open data sets we focused our analysis on a centralised solution. Having one (or only a few) central portal(s) where open data can be published and searched for has many benefits. It would save resources and money if the operation and maintainance of the data platforms could be centralised. Further, people working on different solutions right now could collaborate and share the work. If there would be a single point of access, it would be easy to find and share datasets as well as reduce duplicate data. Regarding the scope of such a portal, it has been the question if such a centralization should be undertaken on country level or with an even broader audience. The ultimate goal has been imagined in creating worldwide standards for the provision of open data. Besides possible benefits, a number of drawbacks have been identified. The coordination and organisation of a centralised solution is difficult especially when the number of involved people increases. It has been questioned who takes responsibility and how a misuse of control could be avoided. Whereas the first task was about the provision of open data datasets the second task focused on the question of standardisation regarding the contents of published datasets. The pros and cons of standards for a fixed set of common fields for datasets as well as how to include additional fields have been discussed and collected. For each argument, a weight has been assigned on a scale from one to three and the sum of both sides has been calculated. In general, the group has decided that there are more pros in having a standardisation as the side has won by five points. One of the central pro arguments is that it would be easy to analyse such datasets, to create software tools that could process all dataset files following such a standard and that these standards could be set by publishing bodies. Another suggestion was to standardise meta data (format and extent) and content of data files could vary. It is questionable who will define these standards and which resources could be used. Furthermore, it is not clear if institutions or people will still publish open data if they do not like the standards. Probably the hardest part would be to convince people from different countries, different cultures and with different work habits to adapt these standards and (re-)publish their datasets along. To sum up, we had a great hands-on workshop with enthusiastic, open-minded and communicative participants without whom it would not have been such a success. The ideas and questions that came up during the session will further enter our research on open data.
The cultural differences between the impact for German or Western people and the impact for people living in Southeast Asia can be huge. Hence, nations like Singapore meet in general the same standards as Western countries whereas Indonesia or Myanmar are less developed in comparison (ITU, 2015). Thus, we do not have to deal with cultural differences but with a big divide in ICT development. Accordingly, the impact of MOOCs decline. To solely participate and learn something is free but certificates are charged. Finally, MOOCs are not open and thus they are not able to help to overcome educational gaps. Further, people that visit personally a school and pay for it, even it may be of lesser quality than a MOOC offered by the MIT, it could be more accepted at the local labour market. Nevertheless, MOOCs may help to empower youngsters in the Southeast Asian region. For example, in Singapore, most young people have to learn what their parents are expecting for them. To join online webinars can help those students to identify their own preferences. Making MOOCS certifications worth to pay, one possibility would be that universities around the world would officially recognise them. Further opportunities are to develop standards that are recognised by employers and to assign certificates for less developed countries free of charge. Ideally, the transformation of MOOCs into real open data would result in a global access of knowledge. Technical Accessibility of Open Data The second group focused on ways of the technical accessibility of open data. The first task was to use a SWOT analysis to discuss the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the provision of open data using centralised portals. As there is currently no consistent strategy how to provide open data sets we focused our analysis on a centralised solution. Having one (or only a few) central portal(s) where open data can be published and searched for has many benefits. It would save resources and money if the operation and maintainance of the data platforms could be centralised. Further, people working on different solutions right now could collaborate and share the work. If there would be a single point of access, it would be easy to find and share datasets as well as reduce duplicate data. Regarding the scope of such a portal, it has been the question if such a centralization should be undertaken on country level or with an even broader audience. The ultimate goal has been imagined in creating worldwide standards for the provision of open data. Besides possible benefits, a number of drawbacks have been identified. The coordination and organisation of a centralised solution is difficult especially when the number of involved people increases. It has been questioned who takes responsibility and how a misuse of control could be avoided. Whereas the first task was about the provision of open data datasets the second task focused on the question of standardisation regarding the contents of published datasets. The pros and cons of standards for a fixed set of common fields for datasets as well as how to include additional fields have been discussed and collected. For each argument, a weight has been assigned on a scale from one to three and the sum of both sides has been calculated. In general, the group has decided that there are more pros in having a standardisation as the side has won by five points. One of the central pro arguments is that it would be easy to analyse such datasets, to create software tools that could process all dataset files following such a standard and that these standards could be set by publishing bodies. Another suggestion was to standardise meta data (format and extent) and content of data files could vary. It is questionable who will define these standards and which resources could be used. Furthermore, it is not clear if institutions or people will still publish open data if they do not like the standards. Probably the hardest part would be to convince people from different countries, different cultures and with different work habits to adapt these standards and (re-)publish their datasets along. To sum up, we had a great hands-on workshop with enthusiastic, open-minded and communicative participants without whom it would not have been such a success. The ideas and questions that came up during the session will further enter our research on open data.
March 25-28 Sheffield, UK
March 21-25 Chicago, IL
References The Open Definition (n.d.). Retrieved from http://opendefinition.org/ Young, A., & Verhulst, S. (2016). The Global Impact of Open Data: Key Findings from Detailed Case Studies. (S. Cutt, Ed.). Beijing, CHN: O’Reilly. Retrieved from http://www.oreilly.com/data/free/files/the- global-impact-of-open-data.pdf ITU. (2015). Measuring the Information Society. The ICT development Index. Geneva, CHE.
Do not miss...
IA Summit 2018
iConference
RDAP Summit 2018
Dr. Tobias Siebenlist I am a researcher at the Department of Information Science at the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf, Germany. My main research interests are (emotional) information retrieval, natural language processing and digital humanities. As a lecturer, I focus on developing software projects with undergraduate and graduate students.
Dr. Agnes Mainka I am a researcher at the Department of Information Science at the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf, Germany. My research interests are smart cities, social media, libraries and open government. As a lecturer, I am working together with students on Open Data projects. Further, I am an active member of the OK Lab Düsseldorf and participate in open government activities together with OKNRW.
Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Ph.D., is a Senior Research Scientist and Director of User Research at OCLC Research. She is the Past President of the Association of Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T) and was the Chair of the American Library Association (ALA) Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Value of Academic Libraries Commitee. Lynn held the Chair of Excellence position at the Departmento de Biblioteconomía y Documentación at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and collaborated with the faculty on user-centered research. Dr. Connaway was a Visiting Researcher in the Department of Information Studies, University of Sheffield scholar and a Visiting Scholar at the Royal School of Library and Information Science, Copenhagen, Denmark. She has received research funding from the IMLS in the US and Jisc and the Arts and Humanities Research Council in the UK. She leads OCLC Research in the digital visitors and residents project and currently is the co-principal investigator of an IMLS-funded project with the University of Florida and Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, to investigate how late primary, secondary, and community college STEM students judge credibility of digital resources in absence of human sources. Lynn also is the project lead on ALA ACRL "Action-Oriented Research Agenda on Library Contributions to Student Learning and Success." Dr. Connaway is the co-author of the 4th and 5th editions of Basic Research Methods for Librarians and of the 6th edition, titled Research Methods in Library and Information Science. She has authored numerous other publications and frequently is an international and national speaker on how individuals get their information and engage with technology and the assessment and development of user-centered library services. Prior to joining OCLC Research, she was the Vice-President of Research and Library Systems at NetLibrary, the director of the Library and Information Services Department at the University of Denver, and on the faculty of the Library and Informational Science program at the University of Missouri, Columbia. To find out more about Dr. Connaway, visit her website.
Lynn Silipigni Connaway
January 23rd, 9:15 am (EST)/3:15 pm (CET)
In this webinar organized by the European Student Chapter, Lynn Silipigni Connaway and Marie L. Radford will talk about questionnaires, how to develop them, and the do's and dont's in doing so. If you are interested in this webinar, send us an email until January 16th. We will keep you informed on how to participate. The webinar is free of charge.
Webinar on Survey Methods
Marie L. Radford
engage with technology and the assessment and development of user-centered library services. Prior to joining OCLC Research, she was the Vice-President of Research and Library Systems at NetLibrary, the director of the Library and Information Services Department at the University of Denver, and on the faculty of the Library and Informational Science program at the University of Missouri, Columbia. To find out more about Dr. Connaway, visit her website.
Marie L. Radford is an interdisciplinary scholar with interests in the library and information field, interpersonal communication, and cultural studies. She is a researcher and consultant in qualitative assessment of library services and programs. Marie L. Radford research focus is on qualitative research, communication within virtual and traditional library contexts, and postmodern approaches to media stereotypes of librarians/libraries. Radford's forthcoming book, Conducting the Reference Interview, 3rd ed., NY: ALA Editions/Neal-Schuman, is authored with Catherine Sheldrick Ross and Kirsti Nilsen. Her latest books are: "Library Conversations: Reclaiming Interpersonal Communication Theory for Understanding Professional Encounters," co-authored with Gary Radford (2017, ALA/Neal Schuman) and "Research Methods in Library and Information Science," co-authored with Lynn Silipigni Connaway (2017, Libraries Unlimited). She received the 2010 ALA/RUSA Mudge Award for distinguished contributions to reference. Radford gives frequent keynote speeches and scholarly papers at national and international library and communication conferences and publishes widely in LIS journals. She is active in both library and communication organizations, including: National Communication Association (NCA) Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) American Library Association (ALA)
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Summer Newsletter 2018
Happy holidays and a good start into the new year!
