IASSIST: Data In The Middle: The Common Language Of Research

International Association for Social Science Information Services and Technology
International Association for Social Science Information Services and Technology

The 43rd annual conference hosted by the University of Kansas and co-hosted by Kansas University Libraries, Institute for Policy and Social Research, Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank brought together information specialists, data librarians, reference librarians, technology professionals and data archivists from academia, government, non-profit and private sectors in May to share insights and discuss finding, sharing, using, and managing data across disciplines.

Topics ranged from collecting and storing data from Internet based sources, preparing qualitative data, curation, collaboration, and coding, data literacy, CAQDAS, QGIS as well as data bootcamps, and international activities in research data management.

Keynote speakers included, Daniel A. Reed, VP for Research and Economic Development, and University Chair in Computational Science and Bioinformatics and Professor of Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering and Medicine, at the University of Iowa and Jennifer Clarke, Professor in Food Science and Technology, and Statistics, and the Director of the Quantitative Life Sciences Initiative at the University of Nebraska Lincoln.

In Dr Reed’s, ‘Data Writ Large: Technology, Culture and Collision’, he discussed the challenges of big data and deep learning in an age of massive digital data and powerful multilayer classification networks and new data-driven approaches to discovery and future data technologies in the areas of privacy, security and streaming data.

Dr. Clarke’s ‘ Digital Agriculture: The Midwest Big Data Hub and Global Food Security’, gave an overview of several high-impact digital agriculture data projects involving the Midwest Big Data Hub and Great Plains regions and the need for advances in interdisciplinary research, data and computational capabilities to better understand agro-ecosystems as a critical challenge for the 21st century.

IASSIST (International Association for Social Science Information Services and Technology) is an international organization of professionals working with information technology and data services to support research and teaching in the social sciences. Its 300+ members strive to foster and promote a network of excellence for data service delivery, advance infrastructure in the social sciences, and provide opportunities for collegial exchange of sound professional practices.

http://www.iassist2017.org/
http://midwestbigdatahub.org/about/