Communications of the ACM
CLA Scholar Examines Complexities of Data-Sharing in Four Research Projects
University of California, Los Angeles professor Christine Borgman is working with her students to study how researchers handle and share information in a data-intensive setting.
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University of California, Los Angeles professor Christine Borgman and her team are studying how researchers handle and share information in a data-intensive setting in four separate projects in astronomy, biology, and the medical sciences.
The goals of the projects include streamlining the complexities of data practices and challenging dominant assumptions about data sharing. The projects' results will be presented to scientific communities, funding agencies, and other stakeholders with the goal of influencing policy, according to Borgman.
"My goal is to provoke a much fuller and more comprehensive conversation about the diversity of data and practices, the infrastructure required to support them, and the roles and responsibilities of varied stakeholders," she says.
Borgman stresses a need for a major investment in knowledge infrastructures--described by her as "an ecology of people, practices, technologies, institutions, material objects, and relationships"--to support future management, curation, and use of data.
"What excites me about interdisciplinary research is the opportunity to combine disparate perspectives and to learn from each other," she says.
Borgman also has authored a new book examining data and scholarship in a networked world. "Having the right data is usually better than having more data; little data can be just as important as big data," she says.
From UCLA Newsroom (CA)
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