ExpeditionWorkshop/ExploringPotentialsAndRealitiesOfDataEnclaves NORC CaseStudy 2009 03 18

Past and Future Collaborative Expedition Workshops    (41OE)

Please note - this workshop has been re-scheduled to June 10, 2009    (41T0)

Collaborative Expedition Workshop, June 10, 2009, at NSF    (41OF)

Draft Title: Exploring Potentials and Realities of Data Enclaves: NORC Case Study    (41OG)

• How to RSVP, Workshop Location/ Directions, Wireless Network availability and Remote Participation    (41OH)
• Draft Workshop Purpose    (41OI)
• Draft Workshop Questions    (41OJ)
• Draft Agenda...[print version]    (41OK)
• Draft Resources    (41OL)
• Workshop Series Background and Co-sponsors    (41OM)

A. Workshop Purpose    (41ON)

This workshop will explore the emerging cyberinfrastructure landscape for high-performance collaboration that includes effective governance mechanisms(technological security (FISMA), statistical protections, enforcing legal requirements, and training) for effective stewardship of sensitive data. The potentials and realities of the National Opinion Research Council (NORC) Data Enclave will be explored as a frontier outpost in the growing challenge of information stewardship that balances structured data access by researchers with privacy and confidentiality concerns.    (41R2)

Researcher access to microdata serves the public good both by leveraging existing public investments in data collection, and by ensuring high quality science through the replication of scientific analysis. The NORC Data Enclave provides authorized researchers with remote and on-site access (at NORC) to microdata using secure methods to protect confidentiality. This responsible stewardship of sensitive data is achieved by implementing technological security (FISMA), applying statistical protections, enforcing legal requirements, and training researchers. The NORC Data Enclave also ensures that valuable data are preserved for the long term by documenting the data using DDI compliant metadata standards.    (41R3)

The Data Enclave has three goals: to promote researcher access to sensitive micro data; to protect confidentiality and to archive, index and curate micro- or meta-data. In addition, the enclave engages the research community in developing a knowledge infrastructure around each dataset through its research collaboratory, which enables geographically dispersed researchers to collaborate and share information by means of wikis and blogs.    (41R4)

This introduction to the NORC Data Enclave will include description of how it functions from both producer and researcher perspectives.    (41R5)

The NIST–Technology Innovation Program (NIST–TIP), which replaced the NIST-Advanced Technology Program (NIST-ATP), currently has 8 teams conducting research using the ATP data within the Data Enclave. These researchers will present research findings, including insights on the contribution of the Data Enclave to their research.    (41OP)

The NORC Data Enclave has been made possible by funding from the Technology Innovation Program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Economic Research Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.    (41OT)

It is likely that how we design our cyberinfrastructure (including sensitive data stewardship and knowledge-sharing environments that influence policy-making, innovation, and agility) will play a pivotal role in the continued vitality and creativity of our 21st century democracy.    (41OY)

Building on best practices from mature distributed science communities, participants will have the opportunity to learn and contribute to unprecedented challenges of scale and complexity, that impact not only scientific discovery and innovation, but also multi-institutional "virtual organizations" forming to address national challenges    (41OZ)

This workshop will provide an example of how to set conditions by which groups that may not have regular opportunities to share information outside of their agency boundaries and jurisdictions can be brought together. This will support the development of a broader vision among stakeholders engaged in virtual organization challenges, from clean energy innovations to climate change mitigation strategies and beyond.    (41P0)

In addition, this workshop will demonstrate an organizing process that can be employed anytime a purpose cuts across organizational boundaries. This is timely for workshop participants who have come to appreciate that building trusted relationships is the essence of eGovernment. How people design the organizing process for potentially “collaborative” settings, existing beyond traditional boundaries, can spell the difference between “multiplicative power” and “no power” arising to achieve high performance results that matter to all.    (41P1)

In addition, as "reducing our carbon footprint" moves from slogan to global imperative, collaboration augmented by "silicon-based" collaborative work environments offers significant dividends. The "physical" carbon-based movement of people, goods, and services exacts a much higher carbon cost, than the "virtual" silicon-based movement of people's artifacts and intents - including ideas, knowledge, and requests/ acknowledgements around goods and services available through the World Wide Web. "Virtual Organizations" are poised to amplify effectiveness and timely results, including greater "buy-in" than is obtained through traditional ways of organizing.    (41P2)

• To be of service, in cross-boundary settings, not only to the region, but to the nation    (41P9)
• To contribute to scientific discovery in service to society    (41PA)
• To learn by doing, to put into practice the results of our own dialogue    (41PB)
• To experience the kind of complex, multidimensional organizational situation that is providing the background for strategic leadership    (41PC)

B. Draft Workshop Questions    (41PD)

• 1. What aspects of organizing "virtual organizations" will most benefit from coordination that includes open dialogue in public settings?    (41PE)
• 2. Given the expressed needs for stewardship of our information assets, including sensitive data:    (41R6)
  • 2.a How do we create commonly understood problem representations and simulations to help multiple disciplines and geographic regions build capacity for joint stewardship?    (41PG)
  • 2.b How can the right information and information structures support effective problem representation?    (41PH)
  • 2.c How can critical information from multiple sectors and domains be right "at hand", "in place", and appropriately accessed, when needed?    (41PI)
• 3. How can effective roles and responsibilities be established for a myriad of professionals from multiple settings who need to respond to uncertainties with effective collaboration in an ever-expanding, data and information-rich world?    (41PJ)
• 4. What is the role of business narratives and case studies in advancing the shared understanding and governance required to mitigate risks?    (41PK)
• 5. How can effective narratives be assembled and presented for large-scale learning exercises and effective communications in real situations?    (41PL)
• 6. How can the artifacts of large-scale learning exercises and real events be preserved with sufficient integrity relative to provenance, completeness, and bias to leverage continuous improvements in readiness?    (41PM)
• 7. How can problem representation and knowledge emerging from multi-disciplinary efforts (e.g. scientific discovery and engineering innovation, public health, natural resources, public utilities, and critical infrastructures) be validated and valued as national assets?    (41PN)
• 8. What are the weakest links relative to the unprecedented scale and mix of people, process, and technology and how can they be remediated?    (41PO)
• 9. Can we see in the future of creative collaborative efforts a future that transcends what has passed?    (41PP)
• 10. What concrete steps are presently possible toward this future, including what institutions have a shared mission for improved law, science, innovation, and public policy as reflected in their strategic plans?    (41PQ)
  • See more than 400 strategic plans rendered in Strategy Markup Language for ease of discovery, understanding, and comparability    (41PR)
• 11. What are the current and future contributions of light-weight aggregator tools for advancing discovery, shared understanding, and organizing that scales across individuals, communities of practice, and institutions? How can these tools help us be individually accountable for collaborative actions relative to shared purpose? Examples in use by this workshop community include: perfSONAR (PERFormance Service Oriented Network monitoring ARchitecture), wiki namesake pages,[http://et.gov Emerging Technology Life-cycle process and Strategy Markup Language (StratML)    (41PS)
• 12. How could lightweight semantics complement open format, robust storage, and fluid search to help integrate disparate information sources that support better national preparedness?    (41PT)
• 13. How could authoritative versions of existing policies, regulations, and legal procedures currently in place, be complemented by a "collective wisdom" version in order to broaden opportunities for suggested improvements, harmonization across boundaries, and creation of "synthetic" documents for easier comparison and constrast across institutions?    (41PU)
• 14. How can public policy stakeholders tap Web 2.0 "build to share" principles being advanced by forward-looking information stewardship organizations in order to broaden common understanding of multi-faceted aspects of national/ global challenges and accelerate discovery of exemplary practices?    (41PV)
  • a) Digital data and information communities advancing sound approaches for electronically stored information. Examples include librarians, curators, web content managers, ontologists, researchers, artists, historians, data managers, and records managers.    (41PW)
  • b) Open Standards bodies and consortia    (41PX)
  • c) Universities and university consortia    (41PY)
  • d) International stewardship associations    (41PZ)
  • e) Virtual organizations    (41Q0)
• 15. How do we build from the best of past experiences and also draw upon generational differences and cyberinfrastructure opportunities in a manner that reinforces strengths? (e.g. tap software engineering techniques – fine grained recording of “Who did what” transparency at the code level)    (41Q1)
• 16. How do we provide the right sets of information flowing into and out of "what if" mission-policy simulations, etc. so understanding flows broadly even when the learning is experiential?    (41Q2)
• 17. What are the conducive conditions for the creativity and governance needed among networked improvement communities so results and implications flow in a timely manner into legal, public policy, and public preparedness channels?    (41Q3)
• 18. If information-flow impediments across domains are similar, would solutions likewise be similar?    (41Q4)
• 19. If solutions are similar across domains and an overall architecture emerges, what metrics do we need to provide analytical accountability and close the IT transactional lifecycle (cybernetic feedback loop) for continuous improvement? Is perfSONAR (PERFormance Service Oriented Network monitoring ARchitecture), an early example of this potential in a global setting?    (41Q5)

General Questions for Workshops in 2009    (41Q7)

C. Agenda    (41Q8)

9:00 a.m. - Check-in and Coffee    (41Q9)

9:15 a.m. - [Welcome and Introductions]    (41QA)

9:30 a.m. - Who is Here and Who is Missing? What is your Sense of Purpose in Relation to the Overall Workshop Goals?    (41QD)

10:00 a.m. - CASE STUDY AND INTRODUCTION TO NORC DATA ENCLAVE    (41QE)

NAVIGATING THE DATA ENCLAVE    (41QG)

DESCRIBING ATP DATA IN THE DATA ENCLAVE    (41QI)

KNOWLEDGE & INNOVATION: FINDINGS FROM THE ATP    (41QL)

12noon - 1:00pm - LUNCH    (41QP)

1:00pm - STARTUPS & STRATEGIC ALLIANCES: FINDINGS FROM THE ATP    (41QQ)

3:00pm - JOINT VENTURES: FINDINGS FROM THE ATP    (41QU)

4:00pm - SUMMARY    (41QX)

4:30pm - DISCUSSION    (41R0)

5:00pm - ADJOURN    (41R1)

D. Draft Resources    (41S9)

1. Transitioning to Virtual Organizations    (41SA)

• Building Effective Virtual Organizations workshop, report from NSF workshop held January 16-18, 2008    (41SB)
• A Collaboration Wizard: A set of factors that lead to success with suggested remedies for deficiencies    (41SC)
• Perspectives on Distributed Computing: Thirty People, Four User Types, and the Distributed Computing User Experience, Lisa Childers, Lee Liming, Ian Foster, Argonne National Laboratory Technical Report ANL/MCS/CI-31, September 2008,    (41SD)
• UMBEL: A Lightweight Subject Reference Structure for the Web, Presentation at the Emerging Ontology Showcase, Sept. 25, 2008    (41SE)
• UNDP report on the Tsunami of 2004 - Communicating Disasters: An Asia-Pacific Resource Book    (41SF)
• Cyberinfrastructure Vision for 21st Century, National Science Foundation, Cyberinfrastructure Council, March 2007    (41SG)
• http://ET.gov - forming virtual communities to accelerate maturation and adoption of emerging technology, Emerging Technology SC    (41SH)
• Papers from Jan 29-30, 2007 conference on Designing Cyberinfrastructure for Collaboration and Innovation    (41SI)
• Balancing Practice-Centered Research and Design, David Woods and Klaus Christoffersen (See page 10 - The Engine of Innovation: Interlocking the Cycles of Research and Development)    (41SJ)
• Information Sharing Environment Enterprise Architecture Framework, version 1.0, August 2007    (41SK)

3. Open Standards Toward Data and Information Sharing    (41SL)

• Semantic Unified Access to Current and Future Internet Measurement Infrastructures, Angel Ferreiro, Thomas Fichtel, Jorge E. Lopez de Vergara, Peter Matray, Felix Strohmeier, Giuseppe Tropea, Udi Weinsberg, 2009    (41SM)
• of possible interest also, is an ongoing event between the Ontology community and the Standards community, in their 3-month initiative entitled: "Ontology Summit 2009: Toward Ontology-based Standards." The initiative is co-organized by NIST, Ontolog, NCOR, NCBO, OASIS, UN/CEFACT, OMG, ISO TC 184/SC4, STI International, ... etc. - see: http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?OntologySummit2009    (41SN)

E. Collaborative Expedition Workshop Series Background    (41SO)