[Air-l] AoIR communal data-database

[Charlie Hendricksen]

I have replied to Nancy's response below inline.

Nancy Baym wrote:
> 
> >Friends,
> >
> >     In point 4 of Nancy's proposal for a data repository there is this
> >statement: "Our intention is that access to such private resources
> >contributed by aoir members
> >would be limited to aoir members."  I see no reasonable justification
> >for restricting access and would not participate in the venture if
> >such restrictions are adopted.
> 
> My assumption was that people would prefer to limit the access to
> their data, otherwise it would fall under that first category of data
> already available on the web. Personally, if I were going to make
> data I'd collected available, I'd like to know that there was a
> limited set of people who would have access to that, and that I could
> get that list on the member website. However, the level of access is
> certainly open for discussion and I'd be inclined to defer to the
> will of the people who were willing to share their data through a
> resource like this. If they want it available to all, then that's
> fine.
> 

Yes! The use of data for other uses such as meta analysis should
usually be contingent on the agreement of the original author.  I
think that the data repository would be most useful as a catalog of
available datasets.  If the metadata pointed to a dataset that might
be of use, then the new user could contact the holder of the data and
arrange for use.  It might be useful (but perhaps embarrassing) to
allow annotation of the metadata.


> The issue of how much of what aoir does under its auspices should be
> available to all and how much should be available only to members is
> a tricky one and there are arguments on both sides. It's a matter of
> ongoing discussion with every idea we come up with. Speaking only for
> myself, my train of logic goes like this --> do we distinguish
> between members and nonmembers? if we don't what does membership
> mean? if membership doesn't mean anything then why join? if no one
> joins there's no budget, eventually no conferences, eventually no
> association. While I believe that aoir should not be an exclusive
> little clique, I do think it's important to provide benefits for
> members that are better than the benefits of not being a member. It's
> not like membership is hard to come by.
> 

If the repository is principally a repository of metadata for
available data, I see no reason why AoIR would lose anything by making
it public.  You might even attract new members.

> Regarding metadata, I concur with Jeremy. If we're talking about data
> that are incomprehensible without being in on the research program or
> that needs a lot of sophisticated metastuff that's more than a
> codebook and explanation could provide, then it's probably not
> appropriate for this. On the other hand, there is a lot of data
> available already on the web that's being used just like this (e.g.
> Pew's data).
> 

A metadata repository need only be as sophisticated as is needed to
eliminate hopefully optimistic requests, and to attract requests for
data that is likely to be useful.  In other words it needs to
eliminate obviously false positives and obviously false negatives. 
Having been involved in a metadata cataloging process, I appreciate
the existence of overly sophisticated "metastuff" (beautiful term!).

> Regarding whether this is too big to be sustained by volunteers,
> maybe a volunteer effort can't sustain this. If this is not something
> people would find adequately valuable to participate in, then it
> won't work. On the other hand, all of AoIR thus far would seem to be
> a lot more than a volunteer effort could sustain, and it seems to be
> working pretty well because people have cared enough to volunteer
> their energies.

Well, I hope that the authors of data can find the time to submit
metadata.  The existence of a well designed metadata core, along with
tools to submit that metadata, and review it before publication, is
important.  Similarly, tools that allow exploration of the metadata
database are essential to the dissemination of that product.  I have
some tools and an unpublished paper that may be useful.

> 
> Nancy
> 
> _________________________________________________________
> Nancy Baym
> nbaym at ku.edu
> http://www.ku.edu/home/nbaym
> Communication Studies, University of Kansas
> 102 Bailey, 1440 Jayhawk Blvd., Lawrence, KS 66045, USA
> VP, Association of Internet Researchers: http://aoir.org
> 
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-- 
            Charlie Hendricksen   veritas at u.washington.edu

            "Information technology structures human relationships."
                            "Models relate concepts."