Symposium on Digital Curation in the Era of Big Data:Career Opportunities and Educational Requirements

Workforce Demand and Career Opportunities

From the perspective of Scientific Data Centers

Margarita Conkright Gregg, Ph.D.Director, U.S. National Oceanographic Data Center

National Environmental Satellite and Data Information ServicesDOC/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Outline

Four Questions to discuss from the perspective of a “Scientific Data Center”

1) What are the most pressing personnel needs in your institution or sector to manage digital curation responsibilities?

2) What types of people with which knowledge and skills sets does your institution need?

3) How do you anticipate these needs changing in the next ten years?

4) What are likely career paths for digital curators, including new hires and existing personnel?

But first, I will put my answers in context:• Who we are and what we do in the context of digital curation and Big

Data• Challenges in the era of Big Data

 

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Space Observations

Ocean Observations

Land Surface Observations

Atmospheric Observations

Broadest Scope of any Agency for

Environmental Data Stewardship

• ~150 Research & Operational Observing Systems

• ~4-5 Petabytes of data/year (~15 Pb total)

NOAA is an Environmental Information-Generating Organization

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• Incomprehensibly large volumes of environmental data from an array of sensors/collectors in an array of different formats - satellite, AUV, drones, multi-beam, side scan, gliders, ADCPs, etc

• Significantly increased data resolution both spatially and temporally

• Outrageous data throughput

• Data quality control, quality assurance, data validation, etc

• Inability to reprocess “big data” as new algorithms or better quality procedures are developed

• Keeping track of the provenance

• Extracting and deriving meaningful information from this vast cloud of data

• Users demanding near-instant access to data, data products, and derived information

• Advanced methods of data discovery, packaging, access, and delivery

Data Management Challenges

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NODC mission: scientific stewardship of marine data and information

• Acquire environmental data from U.S. and foreign sources

• Preserve the Nation’s environmental data assets

• Assemble data into easy to use long-term data sets

• Provide access to environmental data for business, federal, and science users

• Describe the environment

Unique Role of NOAA’s National Data Centers

Who Does All of This??????

Tag Cloud of the Current Federal Job Series at NODC

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What types of people with which knowledge and skills sets does your institution need?

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

SCIENCE

INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

DATA MANAGEMENT

• Web• GIS• System architecture• Programmers• Data base management

• Metadata management

• Standards• Librarians

• Oceanographers

• Meteorologists

• Geologists• Biologists• Modelers• Social

scientists • Economists

Need: • Hybrid scientist/computer scientist/communicator.

• People who can understand and are comfortable interpreting, manipulating, and extracting information from data.

• People who can translate the information into outcomes and can quantify the impact our products 7

What are the most pressing personnel needs in your institution or sector to manage digital curation responsibilities?

• Data mining: The ability to develop and implement automated intelligent tools to help with data analysis, quality control, and modelling.  The data volumes and diversity is ever expanding, the personnel are not so we will need to develop automated help.

• System Architects:  Skills to develop highly integrated and flexible systems to handle large data volumes.  This includes integrating with emerging private and commercial options.

• Need for expertise in developing software for translating proprietary formats to open or archival standard formats (combination library and computer science)

• Combination of the scientists who understands and translates technology advances into our infrastructure

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How do you anticipate these needs changing in the next ten years?

Computer science and Information Technology are becoming the foundations of curation

More emphasis on data knowledge, mining techniques, less on pure IT skills which will become more of a commodity.

More emphasis on Intellectual Property and Digital Rights Management, including the legal requirements for sharing and recognizing data sources

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What are likely career paths for digital curators, including new hires and existing personnel?

• Currently: on the job training– Either scientists learning computers or IT specialists

learning “why” and translating

• A “digital curator” is not currently a federally defined job and therefore has no defined federal career path.

• Challenge: – Recognizing Digital Curators as an important role in a

digital world– How to make Digital Curation an Attractive Career Path

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