As the worldwide volume of digital data undergoes exponential growth, Big Data technology allows unexpected value to be derived from existing and new datasets, and increasingly huge datasets to be recorded across all areas of academic research. As data volumes grow, and electronic storage deteriorates, the recoverability of this data is dependent upon curation of electronic archives and replacement of storage media, along with the ability to discover and access the data stored using technologies that may soon be obsolete. Decisions will need to be made about which data is kept, how it is stored, and how it can be accessed, in order that the scientific and human record from the current digital age is appropriately preserved for the future.

With keynote speakers representing disciplines ranging from high energy physics to digital humanities, from bioinformatics to libraries, this two-day conference addressed perspectives from technology, policy and the social sciences on data as our human record.

Download the abstracts and the conference report at the bottom of this page.

Programme

View all keynote talks

14 March 2016

Workshop 1: What should we keep? Lessons from history for the shift to digital

Organiser Dr Anne Alexander, Cambridge Digital Humanities Network

Guest Speaker: Dr. Anthea Seles, Digital Transfer and Records Manager, The National Archives

Workshop 1 Summary: What are the implications for human culture, science and memory of a generalised shift from paper to digital versions of record? Which lessons from the past should future archivists, historians, data managers and digital infrastructure engineers consider in order to build institutions and record-keeping systems fit for purpose in the digital age? How are the constraints imposed by different funding regimes, institutional policies and legal frameworks shaping the emergence of practices aimed at the long-term preservation of digital data? Are the challenges of preservation and access fundamentally different for digital media, or are the continuities with the challenges faced by previous generations of archivists and librarians more significant?

 The following presenters were unable to attend

Workshop 2: Current and Future perspectives on technology for data preservation and sharing

Organiser Professor Val Gibson, Cavendish Laboratory

Workshop 2 Summary: From high-energy physics and astronomy to the social and biomedical sciences, storage and recoverability of digital data over long time periods presents many challenges, which are amplified as data volumes grow. Data preservation and access includes many levels of infrastructure, from the challenges of storing data and ensuring it is readable decades later, to allowing remote access to these very large datasets. The problem also extends into preservation of the software needed to read the data and the machines it runs on.

In parallel with the increasing volume data is the growing movement within research towards open publication of research data, and the recognition that datasets have a value which is not diminished (and often increases) over time. Ensuring that the data are stored, discoverable, retrievable and useable requires among other factors, sufficient metadata, stable storage media, as well as data collection and storage policies that properly address issues of future consent when the data subject can no longer be reached.

This workshop will discuss challenges, case studies and current solutions for long term data preservation and access, including technical infrastructures and standards. We aim to identify priorities for future research and sharing best practices and resources for data storage, sharing and curation.