Data as Evidence

Friday, November 13, 2009
3:00 pm to 5:00 pm
Tom Moritz

For decades there has been a general recognition that data should be freely and effectively available for use. (The scientific method assumes the availability of data for replication or falsification of results.) A variety of countervailing pressures have impeded such access and use. Recently, the European Union, the US National Academies, the Ecological Society of America, GBIF (the Global Biodiversity Information Facility), the NSF OCI DataNet initiative and have all been exploring new models for full life cycle management of data.

In well funded, "big science" domains, models for data management incorporating community standards, metrics and best practices have evolved to provide for access and use. In small science such models are less well developed. This talk will consider data and emerging developments in data curation and dissemination — focusing on "small science" and on effective applications of data to policy formation and decision making.

Tom Moritz has worked since 1975 as a librarian and knowledge manager in both the public sector and the non-profit private sector, in governmental, academic and museum settings. He has worked as an advisor on knowledge management in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Pacific and Latin America, was a lead organizer of the Biodiversity Heritage Library Project and the now-UNEP-based Conservation Commons. He led in the development and release of the first World Database on Protected Areas. and has successfully participated in grants from the Mellon Foundation, the Sloan Foundation and the US National Science Foundation. In the Fall of 2005, he served as Visiting Assoc. Prof. at the Pratt Institute Graduate School of Library and Info. Science in NY.

Last updated:

March 26, 2015