Preserving electronic data

[Alberto Conti]

Yes, data curation and preservation is indeed a big issue.
At least in the US, one typically "dumps" their data onto an archive  
(provide they accept it, and it's "archive worthy") and they will  
maintain it. This is similar to what you allude to in universities, I  
suppose.
Alternatively, one could partner with entities like Google and  
initiatives that will soon be public like Palimpsest that will host  
users reseach data on Google servers. Amazon might also be looking at  
something similar, even if it's unclear what the scope and range of  
both initiatives is at the moment.

-A


On Nov 11, 2008, at 6:51 AM, Andrew Hopkins wrote:

> Hi all,
>>
>>> Here is a cautionary tale of data preservation from the UK:
>>>
>>> 	http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/25.44.html#subj7
>>
>>
>> Getting into the meat of the link, I find that the problems with the
>> Domesday project came basically from the fact that funding was given
>> to a selection and recording effort, with no thought of funding of  
>> the
>> curation of the stored data.
>
>  Echoing Juan's point, this is exactly the issue that I have seen
> crop up repeatedly with numerous of the smaller astro survey projects.
> Unless there is a dedicated team member who has both the IT skills
> and the continuing position (university or otherwise) to maintain
> a database long-term, there is a real difficulty in maintaining
> long-term viability of data.
>
>  Providing an infrastructure that supports data curation is a vital
> component of any virtual observatory effort.
>
> Andrew Hopkins

Dr Alberto Conti
Community Missions Office
Space Telescope Science Institute
contact | tel: 410-338-4534 | aim: wscience
http://www.linkedin.com/albertoconti