While we couldn’t perform geospatial tasks without digital data, that data is growing at exponential rates that make it hard to manage. Preservation is a large part of the equation, because digital data is also quite fragile.
Francine Berman, the director of the San Diego Supercomputer Center, knows a good deal about dealing with the data deluge, and making certain that data is preserved and available when it’s needed. Berman outlined her thoughts on data stewardship in a feature in the December issue of the monthly magazine of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) that includes the following Top 10 Guidelines for Data Stewardship:
- Make a Plan
- Be aware of data costs and include them in your overall IT budget.
- Associate metadata with your data.
- Make multiple copies of valuable data.
- Plan for the transition of digital data to new storage media ahead of time.
- Plan for transitions in data stewardship.
- Determine the level of ‘trust’ required when choosing how to archive data.
- Tailor plans for the preservation and access to the expected use.
- Pay attention to security.
- Know the regulations.
In addition to her duties at SDSC, Berman is also a member of the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access that is working on a detailed analysis and report that links the preservation of digital data to economic sustainability. The findings of the task force is scheduled for completion at the end of 2009.
