[CODATA-international] Digital Feudalism

Kathryn Reynolds K.Reynolds at cabi.org
Tue Oct 15 10:16:52 EDT 2019


Hi All,

I have followed with interest this discussion and how it has progressed; I'm particularly impressed by, and agree with, the sentiment expressed regarding the bottom up design of tools and training for research data management. CABI and the ODI are currently working on a Gates Foundation funded project to enhance FAIR data<https://www.force11.org/group/fairgroup/fairprinciples> sharing in their soil and agronomy projects. We are taking a human-centred design approach which largely aligns with the strategy proposed by Kassim below. We're currently working with grantees in India and Ethiopia, as well as with the foundation itself, to facilitate a user-focused approach to design of specific tools and training to increase the availability of agronomy data (especially soil data). Our solution is to enable those involved in a project to know what data they have and how, why and where it should be shared. Agree with Kassim and Kobus that this should ideally be decided at the inception stage of any project and not be an afterthought.

During our pilot project we developed resources to help map personas and data ecosystems to understand the specific barriers to data access:

  *   Smith F, Dodds L, L'Henaff P et al. Understanding personas in agricultural data ecosystems. Gates Open Res 2018, 2:43 (document) (doi: 10.21955/gatesopenres.1114887.1<http://dx.doi.org/10.21955/gatesopenres.1114887.1>)
  *   Smith F, Dodds L, Day C et al. Creating FAIR and open data ecosystems for agricultural programmes. Gates Open Res 2018,2:42 (document) (doi: 10.21955/gatesopenres.1114883.1<http://dx.doi.org/10.21955/gatesopenres.1114883.1>)

In the current phase of the project, we are working extensively in-country to collaboratively produce tools and policies with our stakeholders to help circumvent their specific challenges. In Ethiopia, we have worked with the Ministry of Agriculture to produce a Soil and Agronomy Data Sharing policy designed around the FAIR principles, and are now working with the stakeholders to produce an implementation roadmap that suits their needs. In the Gates foundation, we are conducting user interviews to understand the challenges around monitoring good data management encountered by Project Officers. In India we have found that building trust between stakeholders through comprehensive sharing agreements is necessary to foster comfort around data sharing. By placing the action of building tools in the hands of those that will use them, the aim is to empower our users to understand and enact good data management and sharing in a way that actually WORKS FOR THEM.

Further information about our current project can be found here:

  *   https://www.cabi.org/news-article/cabi-wins-grant-to-help-boost-food-security-in-india-and-ethiopia-through-opening-access-to-data/

I'd be interested in your thoughts and feedback. By strengthening data management practices can we minimise what's been termed here as data feudalism? I think so.

Kathryn

From: CODATA-international <codata-international-bounces at lists.codata.org> On Behalf Of Cerdeira Hilda
Sent: 15 October 2019 12:22
To: Kobus Herbst <Kobus.Herbst at ahri.org>
Cc: BOULTON Geoffrey <geoff.boulton at ed.ac.uk>; Falk Huettmann <fhuettmann at alaska.edu>; CODATA International <codata-international at lists.codata.org>
Subject: Re: [CODATA-international] Digital Feudalism

Dear Colleagues

I have been following this discussion, and although not exactly, it
borders the problems that many physicists working in complex systems find
to find data to analyze, since most of the data is in the hands of
companies which will charge dearly for them.
Once we have focussed on the pŕoblems I can distribute the
information to them

Best regards
Hilda


> Dear colleagues,
>
> I have been following these discussions with interest. I agree with Kassim
> that much can be done at the project inception level to address these
> issues. Of relevance is this fair research initiative :
> http://rfi.cohred.org/<http://rfi.cohred.org/>
>
> Regards
>
> Kobus Herbst
> Director : South African Population Research Infrastructure Network
> (SAPRIN)
> Chief Information Officer : Africa Health Research Institute
> Cell: +27-82-577-4964 Work: +27-31-203-4727
> http://saprin.mrc.ac.za/<http://saprin.mrc.ac.za/>
>
>
>
> From: CODATA-international <codata-international-bounces at lists.codata.org<mailto:codata-international-bounces at lists.codata.org>>
> On Behalf Of Mwitondi, Kassim
> Sent: Tuesday, 15 October 2019 01:21
> To: Kevin McCluskey <mccluskeyk at ksu.edu<mailto:mccluskeyk at ksu.edu>>; Mwitondi, Kassim
> <K.Mwitondi at shu.ac.uk<mailto:K.Mwitondi at shu.ac.uk>>; Falk Huettmann <fhuettmann at alaska.edu<mailto:fhuettmann at alaska.edu>>; BOULTON
> Geoffrey <Geoff.Boulton at ed.ac.uk<mailto:Geoff.Boulton at ed.ac.uk>>
> Cc: CODATA International <codata-international at lists.codata.org<mailto:codata-international at lists.codata.org>>
> Subject: Re: [CODATA-international] Digital Feudalism
>
> Thanks Kevin. Encountering experts that never were, trainees who can't
> cope with the rigour of the course, or conference delegates with hardly
> any understanding or interest in the themes are all commonplace. It all
> goes down to the "motive" behind the decision. I don't mean to digress,
> but those are typical examples of HOW things are done, which determines
> the outcomes.
>
> In an earlier message, I emphasised the need for the recipients, funders
> and experts to have a common understanding of the underlying problem. To
> me, some of the points you (Kevin) raise constitute the elephant in the
> room, we don't want to see. It spells how domain knowledge tends to be
> detached from supporting expertise or vice versa. It is about lacking
> interdisciplinarity. We may continue to shout from roof tops, coining all
> sorts of new terminologies about the imbalance in accessing and sharing
> data. We may keep on blaming IPs, but I strongly believe that the main
> challenge stems from the way we design, implement and manage projects.
>
> We cannot continue to parade with solutions looking for problems to solve.
> Instead, we must understand the challenges of the communities and jointly
> design, develop and implement solutions. Let us bear in mind that any
> project is data consumer and a data generator - that is, during and
> throughout the lifespan of any project data will be required and data will
> be generated. Who will have access to those data attributes and how, are
> questions that must have been raised and probably answered way ahead of
> launching the project.
>
> KSM
>
> Dr Kassim S. Mwitondi
> Sheffield Hallam University
> Faculty of Science, Technology and Arts
> Communication & Computing Research Centre
> 9410 Cantor Building, City Campus
> 153 Arundel Street
> Sheffield, S1 2NU
> United Kingdom
> Tel. +44-114-2256914 (Direct)
> Tel. +44-114-2255555 (General)
> https://www.shu.ac.uk/about-us/our-people/staff-profiles/kassim-mwitondi<https://www.shu.ac.uk/about-us/our-people/staff-profiles/kassim-mwitondi><https://www.shu.ac.uk/about-us/our-people/staff-profiles/kassim-mwitondi<https://www.shu.ac.uk/about-us/our-people/staff-profiles/kassim-mwitondi>>
> ________________________________
> From: Kevin McCluskey <mccluskeyk at ksu.edu<mailto:mccluskeyk at ksu.edu<mailto:mccluskeyk at ksu.edu%3cmailto:mccluskeyk at ksu.edu>>>
> Sent: 14 October 2019 16:08:32
> To: Mwitondi, Kassim <K.Mwitondi at shu.ac.uk<mailto:K.Mwitondi at shu.ac.uk<mailto:K.Mwitondi at shu.ac.uk%3cmailto:K.Mwitondi at shu.ac.uk>>>;
> Falk Huettmann <fhuettmann at alaska.edu<mailto:fhuettmann at alaska.edu<mailto:fhuettmann at alaska.edu%3cmailto:fhuettmann at alaska.edu>>>;
> BOULTON Geoffrey <Geoff.Boulton at ed.ac.uk<mailto:Geoff.Boulton at ed.ac.uk<mailto:Geoff.Boulton at ed.ac.uk%3cmailto:Geoff.Boulton at ed.ac.uk>>>
> Cc: CODATA International
> <codata-international at lists.codata.org<mailto:codata-international at lists.codata.org<mailto:codata-international at lists.codata.org%3cmailto:codata-international at lists.codata.org>>>
> Subject: Re: [CODATA-international] Digital Feudalism
>
> Meanwhile, conversations about making digital sequence information
> databases into a pay-as-you-go resource continue vis a vis the Nagoya
> Protocol to the Convention on Biological Diversity.
>
> While this may be a simplification, there is significant push back from
> "provider" parties who suggest that access to genetic data is not enough
> of a shared benefit and that some monetary benefit sharing should be
> established. This is a significant impediment to open data sharing and
> creates pressure for private rather than public data resources.
>
> The CBD held a fact finding study, and subsequently hosted an ad hoc
> technical expert group to discuss digital sequence information.
> https://www.cbd.int/abs/dsi-gr/2017-2018/default.shtml<https://www.cbd.int/abs/dsi-gr/2017-2018/default.shtml><https://www.cbd.int/abs/dsi-gr/2017-2018/default.shtml<https://www.cbd.int/abs/dsi-gr/2017-2018/default.shtml>>
>
> The output of this first "ahteg" was a weak, non conclusive document that
> spawned a repeat meeting which will be held next winter
> https://www.cbd.int/abs/dsi-gr/2019-2020/default.shtml<https://www.cbd.int/abs/dsi-gr/2019-2020/default.shtml><https://www.cbd.int/abs/dsi-gr/2019-2020/default.shtml<https://www.cbd.int/abs/dsi-gr/2019-2020/default.shtml>>
> Indeed, they could not even agree on what digital sequence information
> was with obstructive participants insisting that meta data was equivalent
> to sequence data.
>
> Moreover, the first "ahteg" included participants who were not technical
> experts. One (representing Namibia and the African bloc) suggested that
> genome sequence databases were "like kiddie porn" and this was only
> challenged by a representative of a ngo- neither the CBD secretariat or
> the facilitator saw that this comment was neither technical or expert.
> Another (representing the "third world network") exhorted the technical
> experts to "just be honest" which was again only challenged by the ngo
> representative. Other "technical experts" to the first ahteg included
> representatives of the international chamber of commerce, the WHO, and
> something called the ABS Capacity Development Initiative
>
> Questions, such as how much data is generated from materials sourced in
> developing nations, who accesses these data sets, and whether the data is
> used for scientific publication (including co-authorship by scientists in
> developing nations), or in commercial products remain un-answered. Maybe
> codata has experts who can look at these types of questions. Certainly
> genbank, entrez, gold, ddbj, riken, and the myriad of organism specific
> genome databases would be impacted by any pay-as-you-go or subscription
> model for access to genetic databases.
>
> In this instance, open access to data is threatened by a desire to monitor
> utilization and tie it to benefit sharing. It has been my contention (not
> shared by everyone) that the solution to the digital sequence information
> problem lies in the data itself. If a party can show that a genetic trait
> is unique to their sovereign territory, then they should have unique
> exclusive rights to the utilization of that information. If, however, that
> specific genetic sequence is present in organisms from many parties
> (countries), then one party should not have exclusive rights to the
> utilization of that information. The key here is that the data on
> geographic distribution of the specific genetic sequence (or variant
> thereof) is the answer to the question of who has the right to control
> utilization of that information.
>
> best regards,
>
>
>
>
>
> Kevin McCluskey
>
> Research Professor, Ret
> Department of Plant Pathology
> Kansas State University
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: CODATA-international
> <codata-international-bounces at lists.codata.org<mailto:codata-international-bounces at lists.codata.org<mailto:codata-international-bounces at lists.codata.org%3cmailto:codata-international-bounces at lists.codata.org>>>
> on behalf of Mwitondi, Kassim
> <K.Mwitondi at shu.ac.uk<mailto:K.Mwitondi at shu.ac.uk<mailto:K.Mwitondi at shu.ac.uk%3cmailto:K.Mwitondi at shu.ac.uk>>>
> Sent: Saturday, October 12, 2019 2:14 PM
> To: Falk Huettmann <fhuettmann at alaska.edu<mailto:fhuettmann at alaska.edu<mailto:fhuettmann at alaska.edu%3cmailto:fhuettmann at alaska.edu>>>;
> BOULTON Geoffrey <Geoff.Boulton at ed.ac.uk<mailto:Geoff.Boulton at ed.ac.uk<mailto:Geoff.Boulton at ed.ac.uk%3cmailto:Geoff.Boulton at ed.ac.uk>>>
> Cc: CODATA International
> <codata-international at lists.codata.org<mailto:codata-international at lists.codata.org<mailto:codata-international at lists.codata.org%3cmailto:codata-international at lists.codata.org>>>
> Subject: Re: [CODATA-international] Digital Feudalism
>
>
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--
A bunch of ladies in their prime(s):
>From 25 March until 28 June 2010, the age of all my children, 3 daughters,
and myself were prime numbers.


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