About Dataversity

TFBIS has funded Local Government Online (LGOL) for a project to establish a Community of Practice for Council Biodiversity Data Managers, over a three year period. LGOL has engaged OnlineGroups.Net to facilitate this project. The project aims to meet the need identified by TFBIS "to co-ordinate efforts better" with respect to biodata management in New Zealand.

Dataversity is the interim name for the community of practice.

Dataversity facilitates conversations among people who are managing biodiversity-related data in local government, in order to facilitate collaboration to improve biodata management. Where this can benefit individual biodata managers, and their organisations, it will improve biodata management nationally, leading to improved management of biodiversity, in line with the NZ Biodiversity Strategy.

The plan for the project includes the formation of a steering team to provide governance and representation for the community, and provides for the appointment of a practice leader. The plan is to hold face to face meetings as well as to facilitate online conversations. It is possible that the project will facilitate initiatives to collaborate to find solutions to common problems. No firm plans will be made, however until the first stage of the project, a requirements assessment, is complete.

The project will be conducted in such as way as to complement, rather than duplicate existing initiatives, and to provide the maximum benefit to participants, and the sector, whilst minimising the impact of participation.

Status

As at November 2007, the requirements assessment phase of the project is in progress. This involves identifying prospective participants and prospective steering team members, as well as existing networks that biodata managers are involved in. It also involves assembling an inventory of biodatabases, and identifying the needs and opportunities that can be addressed by the community of practice project. The information collected in this stage of the project will be made available to community members, so that it can be used to facilitate collaboration, and can be maintained by community participants.

Actions

If you are interested in participating in this project, please do any or all of the following.

• Join the Dataversity Public Announcements online group to be kept informed of the progress of the project.
• Join the Dataversity Private Discussion to participate in discussions about biodiversity data management in NZ councils.
• Contact Project Facilitator Dan Randow.

Biodiversity Data Management in Local Government

Biodata and Biodiversity Management

Local authorities in New Zealand carry out biodiversity planning and management to achieve biodiversity outcomes in their area. Planning and managing biodiversity requires data, to define what is being managed, and to measure the effects of management activities.

TFBIS aims to improve freshwater and terrestrial biodiversity information management nationally, to support the planning and management of biodiversity, to achieve outcomes in line with the Biodiversity Strategy. Dataversity contributes to this by facilitating knowledge-sharing and collaboration to support biodata management in regional and territorial councils.

Data Management Challenges

Biodata management involves collecting, recording, describing, protecting, analysing, reporting on, and sharing data. These activities are time-consuming and difficult. Typical problems that are experienced in managing biodata include the following.

• Lack of information about the methods and standards that were used to collect data.
• Inconsistency in data collection methods and standards.
• Low visibility of data between, and even within, regions.
• Data stored in systems that are unwieldy, inflexible or unstable.

Some specific problems that have been identified by biodata managers are listed in the Want Ads on this site.

The cost of managing biodata can be reduced, and the quality of the resulting data can be improved by using well-developed systems.

Biodata Management Systems

Biodata management benefits from the use of well-developed tools, metadata standards, and processes. The systems used for biodata management include the following.

• Forms and processes for data collection.
• Data dictionaries and metadata standards for describing biodata.
• Locally Managed Databases ranging from spreadsheets, to custom applications.
• Use of nationally managed databases.

Some specific systems that are being used successfully for biodata management are listed in the Showcase on this site.

Dataversity aims to make it easier for biodata managers to access well-developed biodata management tools, by sharing knowledge and collaborating in a community of practice.

Supporting Biodata Management through Community of Practice

Community of Practice

A community of practice is a group of people who associate with the purpose of enhancing their practice in a shared area. Communities of practice are distinct from teams, in that teams consist of people, often of varying disciplines, who collaborate to achieve a single goal. Participants in communities of practice share a single or similar discipline, but are often working on separate projects. Even where community of practice members come from diverse backgrounds, they convene to share knowledge in a single domain, and collaborate to enhance their expertise in a particular area.

Intended Outcomes

The purpose of Dataversity is to support biodiversity data management in local authorities, by facilitating access to knowledge, tools, standards and processes for biodata management. Dataversity aims to facilitate the sharing of existing solutions, and collaboration to find new solutions to solve biodata management problems.

Sharing Existing Solutions

In the short term, Dataversity aims to facilitate the sharing of existing solutions to solve biodata management problems. This could involve adopting local or national systems that are used successfully, to solve similar problems in other areas.

Finding New Solutions

In the medium term, Dataversity aims to facilitate collaboration to find solutions to shared problems, where there are no existing solutions.

The Dataversity project will not fund the purchase or development of biodata management systems, but it will support the formation of syndicates to identify common requirements, access funds (possibly from sources such as Envirolink), and develop or procure new systems that can be used in multiple organisations.

Dataversity also aims to facilitate dialogue with the curators of national systems that leads to enhancements to those systems where that can make them more useful to local government biodata managers.

Events and Activities

To identify opportunities for collaboration, Dataversity encourages conversations and knowledge-sharing about who is doing what, and the successes and problems that exist in biodata management. Addressing complex issues in depth, being candid about challenges being faced, assisting others, and collaborating to solve shared problems all require trust. Trust requires relationships and a culture of collaboration among the participants in Dataversity. At the same time, biodata management is a very part-time activity in many local councils, and biodata managers have little time to spend managing biodata, let alone having conversations about biodata management with their peers in other councils.

To build relationships, conversations, knowledge-sharing and collaboration that will achieve its intended outcomes, participation in Dataversity occurs in the following ways.

Online Groups

Online Groups enable people to hold conversations and share information in groups using email and the Web. There are two Dataversity Online Groups.

• Dataversity Public Announcements, a low traffic announcement group for keeping people informed about progress with the project. To read the message in this group, subscribe to a web feed of the messages, or join this group to receive messages by email, visit its home page.
• Dataversity Private Discussion, a discussion group for local government biodata managers. To join this group, contact the Dataversity Project Facilitator, Dan Randow.

Information Resources

This website contains information resources that are useful to biodata managers.

Informal Meetings

Many Dataversity members already know each other and maintain contact by phone, email and face to face meetings. Dataversity encourages more of these interactions to take place, as members get to know other biodata managers around New Zealand.

Workshops

A national Dataversity Workshop is planned for the first quarter in 2008.

Support for Projects

The Dataversity Facilitators are available to facilitate collaboration on specific projects, when clear shared requirements are identified.

Liaison with External Groups

Dataversity facilitates interaction with representatives from other groups and networks that are relevant to biodiversity data management. This interaction is facilitated by the Steering Team, and by means of Guest Speakerships where representatives from other groups engage in conversations with Dataversity members, online and face to face.

Membership

Membership of Dataversity is restricted to staff of local government organisations (you must have a '.govt.nz' email address) who are actively involved or interested in managing terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity data.

For most members, biodiversity data management is only a part-time role. There is no restriction as to other activities that members are involved in. It is expected that many Dataversity members will be involved in marine biodiversity data management, or biosecurity data management, for example. Although these areas are not the focus of Dataversity, there is considerable potential value in sharing knowledge among them.

Even within Dataversity, there is diversity. Some of its members specialise in terrestrial biodiversity, while others focus on freshwater or wetlands. Some Dataversity members are scientists, while others are planners, or information systems specialists. Despite these differences, the members of Dataversity are bound by a shared interest in a common knowledge domain.

Knowledge Domain

The knowledge domain that Dataversity exists to address includes the following areas.

• Metadata for Biodata.
• Field Data Capture.
• Managing Privacy of Biodata.
• Charging or Paying for Biodata.
• Biodata Management Technology.
• Biodata Quality Management.
• Best Practices in Biodata Management.
• Data Management in Related Fields.

The knowledge-domains relevant to Dataversity are described in more detail in the Knowledge Base on this site.

Steering Team

During the establishment phase of the project, a Dataversity Steering Team will be formed. The Steering Team will have two key roles.

1. To provide governance and leadership for Dataversity, that accurately reflects and protects the interests of its members.
2. To represent the community in interactions with other agencies.

The Steering Team will formally approve the project plan for Dataversity. Until the Steering Team is formed, the project plan, and even the name "Dataversity" are interim.