The 3rd edition of the Study Day took place on November 2024 at Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW and addressed the topic of FAIR and CARE principles for arts and humanities data management.
The event was rich both content-wise and experience-wise, as participants came all over Switzerland despite the heavy snow!
After the Official Welcome by Claudia Perret (director of the Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW) and by Rita Gautschy (director of the Swiss National Data and Service Center for the Humanities DaSCH), Linda Ludwig moderated the Round Table about FAIR and CARE principles, in which Iolanda Pensa (SUPSI), Moritz Mähr (UNIBE, UNIBAS) and Lucie Kolb (FHNW) took part to share from their experience.
Glimpses into the discussion about FAIR principles:
the problem of definition of "data" in arts and humanities, and more appropriate terms such as "material" or "source"
the implementation of FAIR principles is negatively impacted by the lack of incentives for academic careers when it comes to publishing research data (and the entire RDM process)
research projects should consider also how their data/sources/material fits into an existing ecosystem
the importance of cohabitation between physical and digital objects
understanding what are the beneficiaries of sharing data openly, which is also linked to data reuse
the role of metadata to guarantee FAIRness: when data cannot be open, metadata can
Glimpses into the discussion about CARE principles:
the importance of understanding in what context originated the CARE principles, and the need to adapt them to the historical and social context in which we live and work. The CARE principles cover a series of ethical issues raised by scientific data.
the CARE Principles open the questions of ownership, power dynamics and social responsibility
sharing data and metadata plays a role for building trust, reciprocity, and raises the question of building socio-culturally aware data models
metadata creation as a political act : potential impact of providing information on those engendered or in a sensitive position
data versioning or blockchain allows for balance between full transparency on the process of metadata creation and opacity (which is freedom to keep some aspects from being public)
The ten data pitches which followed the Round Table were concrete illustrations of the points raises during the Round table.
Glimpses into the data pitches:
applying the FAIR principles is easier from a technical point of view (e.g. VHS datasets, RTS archives) than applying CARE principles (e.g. ideologically problematic material, pornographic material, revealing hidden content, ethics and ideology)
the cohabitation of historical objects (machines such as wax cylinders and phonographs, stereoscopic archives) vs. creating, managing and analysing digital versions (2D or 3D) (virtual reality, 3D reconstruction, recolouring)
the importance of solid and sustainable infrastructures to enhance data reusability, especially after the end of research projects
The Study Day pursued with a presentation of three data stewardship projects with the participation of Katharina Hoffmann (FHNW), Gérard Bagnoud (UNIL) and Simon van Rekum (ZHAW).
Glimpses into the presentations of data stewardship projects :
the complexity of the implementation of a data stewardship project: legal framework, lack of pressure on key players to make the change happen, of skills, of awareness about ORD management, and need to find solutions for specific datasets
the need to have the data stewardship as a certified profession
the need to integrate discipline-specific knowhow into data stewardship : bottom-up approach (which is slow and time consuming process)
sustainability of programs beyond the current project phase
Finally, the event ended with a keynote talk on the DaSCH data curation workflow by Noémi Villars-Ambers, Senior Research Data Specialist at DaSCH. The presentation brought into light the complexity and time-consuming work for data curation in order to have FAIR complaint humanities data, as well as the importance of the collaboration that needs to take place between data curators and researchers.
This recap was made by Cristina Grisot during the wrap up slot of the Study Day.
The vimeo recording of the event will be available here in the next weeks.
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