Chair: Mr. Ulf Dahlsten
Directorate General INFormation SOciety (DG INFSO), European Commission.

e-Infrastructure developments and their value beyond Grids
Dr. Malcolm Read
Joint Information Systems Committee Chair of e-IRG
View Presentation pdf ( 263kB) (left click to view / right click to download)

The theme of e-infrastructure is very broad. It ranges over many layers including: networks, high performance computing, middleware (of which the Grid approach is only one), research data and primary and secondary (e.g. library) resources. The applicability of e-infrastructures is also very board covering all research (science, social sciences, arts etc) but it is also applicable in other areas including: education (learning and teaching, libraries, even e-administration); health; industry etc. e-infrastructure also has the potential to support areas as diverse as government, retail, commerce and society. This talk will cover current plans for developing core e-infrastructure such as Geant, HPC, Grids and content resources. The desirability of joining up infrastructures across different domains in institutions will be discussed and the advantages of interoperable middleware and content infrastructure "layers" far beyond the research community will be considered.

Optical Private Network (OPN) support of e-Science Projects: A GEANT2/NREN Service Model
Prof. Vasilis Maglaris
National Technical University of Athens, Greece
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The deployment of hybrid optical networks, as enablers to high - end users in the e-Science world creates a paradigm shift. The traditional IP-centric approach, based on hierarchical networking (Campus - NREN - GEANT) and peering for global connectivity is being replaced by a combination of IP routed services and switched end-to-end Gigabit light-paths. The former provides ubiquitous, high quality IP service to millions of European researchers and students, while the latter aims at providing configurable links and "private" networks at gigabit speeds to demanding scientific virtual communities. This capability emerged thanks to the dark fibre availability, both within and across national territories, and to advances of switching technologies for optical networks. The European NRENs and GEANT2 recognized the potential of hybrid networking and proceed to its deployment at a Pan - European scale, thus creating the most advanced and wide e-Infrastructure world-wide. This was accomplished in part thanks to the EC partial funding, but mainly, to the foresight of scientific and networking national organizations - funding authorities of Member-States.

End-User implication in the exploitation of digital archives related to Cultural Heritage
Dr. Andrea Granelli
Direttore Istituto di Economia dei Media, Fondazione Rosselli, Presidente Kanso srl
View Presentation pdf ( 186kB) (left click to view / right click to download)

The diffusion of digital archives is creating big opportunities but also new challenges and threats. Information overload, cultural elements seen as "sequence of bits", the database paradigm as a metaphor to visualize digital contents are some examples of bad exploitation of digital archives. New competencies and a new design paradigm are required. Experience design is a new way to group different competencies - technology, economy, aesthetic, human interface, communication ... - in order to design experiences and "tell stories". In the experience design the digital content is no more bound to the screen of a PC but it can (or in fact should) interact with physical space where the end-user is present.

4.2 User needs in IT and Information Infrastructure: the long-term preservation of scientific and cultural data.

In the right conditions papyrus or paper can survive for centuries or in the case of the Dead Sea Scrolls for thousands of years. It takes hundreds of years for languages and handwriting to evolve to the point where only a few specialists can read them. In contrast, digital information would never survive: it requires ongoing active management. Vital interests are at stake if we would no longer be able to access substantial parts of the digital records of science over time. In all fields of science the building up of digital data collections has become a part of daily life.
This session will focus on the challenges of digital preservation. Speakers will describe the Task Force for Permanent Access to the Records of Science and the proposed creation of cross-sectoral Alliance of European organizations to develop research and a persistent information infrastructure for European research, and examples of collaborations which may assist in forming parts of this infrastructure.

Chair: Prof. Richard Boulderstone
Director e-Strategy, British Library, UK.

Creating a pragmatic pan-European framework for permanent access to the records of science
Dr. Peter Tindemans
KB Task Force on the Preservation of Science
View Presentation pdf ( 135kB) (left click to view / right click to download)

Vital interests are at stake if we cannot any longer access substantial parts of the digital records of science. Libraries, conventional archives and information experts have driven one strand of activities in the context of digital cultural heritage. In all fields of science the building up of digital data collections has become a part of daily life. Yet many technologies for permanent access are lacking, the 'digital library' and the 'science' communities are largely apart, and strategic action of major stakeholders is by and large absent in Europe. A critical mass of major European research organisations, libraries, archives and publishers will work the next 3-5 years with national governments and the EU to create a truly public-private partnership to provide a framework for accelerating and coordinating long-term access activities. Communities that produce science, 'vertical' community-based and 'horizontal' digital archives are central to this. The Alliance will initially collaborate with a limited set of critical communities in order to gain a maximum momentum. Its members will continue to invest their own resources and fund a European coordinating organisation. It is expected to create a 100 M€ fund, similar to the USA Congress support to the Library of Congress.

Earth Observation data and knowledge preservation at ESA or: from bit archiving to Earth Science long term applications
Dr.Luigi Fusco
European Space Agency
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The presentation will introduce the following points to describe the Earth Observation community issues for data preservation: Earth Observation and Earth Sciences (the space missions, the ground data instrumentation and the science community); organisation of EO space community in the world and in Europe; the user community: science, environmental institutions and value added industry; the ESA infrastructure for EO data acquisition / archiving / dissemination; sizing the EO data handling problem (the archive volume growth and the user demand). The presentation will finally present more precise views on the future European infrastructure for EO data exploitation (GMES ongoing architecture, applications and services development), the GEO and the GEOSS perspective, as well as on the key requirements for a dedicated Earth Science Research Infrastructure.

Mind the gap: the DPC's UK Needs Assessment survey
Dr. Maggie Jones
Executive Secretary Digital Preservation Coalition, UK
View Presentation pdf ( 185kB) (left click to view / right click to download)

A brief overview of the formation of the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) followed by a description of the UK Needs Assessment survey will be presented. This is one of the DPC's key initiatives and aims to present a national picture of what is already happening in the UK regarding digital preservation, and also provide information required for planning and accelerating the digital preservation agenda in the UK. While focussed on the UK, the follow-up to the Needs Assessment will inevitably need to work within a broader context, as this is clearly a global issue. Cross-sectoral and cross-national boundaries cooperation and collaboration will be key to ensuring a successful outcome.

4.3 User needs in IT and Information Infrastructure: user needs in data curation.

Experiments and instruments currently being built will dramatically escalate the current rates and volumes of scientific data creation. Data generated from sensors, satellites, high-performance computer simulations, high-throughput devices, scientific images and so on will soon dwarf all of the scientific data collected in the whole history of scientific exploration.
The focus of this session is on how the value and use of this growing body of research data can be supported by appropriate curation. Data curation is about maintaining -and adding value to- a trusted body of digital information for current and future use. Implicit in this definition are the processes of digital archiving and digital preservation but it also includes all the processes needed for good data creation and management, and the capacity to add value to data to generate new sources of information and knowledge. Speakers will present examples of national and European efforts to promote appropriate models for data curation and opportunities to develop appropriate European collaboration and infrastructure.

Chair: Dr. Dany Vandromme
Director, RENATER, France.

Adding value to open access research data: reflections on the process of data curation.
Dr. Liz Lyon
Director, UK Office for Library Networking (UKOLN), University of Bath, UK
View Presentation pdf ( 954kB) (left click to view / right click to download)

This presentation will consider how the growing volumes of datasets from science, engineering, social science and arts and humanities research, can be created, managed, used, and re-used for maximum benefit for the wider community. Some of the mechanisms for adding value will be described such as annotation, linking and knowledge extraction methodologies; illustrative exemplars will be drawn from a range of disciplines. The role of data curation procedures and approaches in these contexts will be discussed, and some of the technical and infrastructural issues and challenges highlighted. These may include facilitating interdisciplinary research, embedding in workflows and aspects of a more socio-cultural nature.

Thematic Development Programmes and self-archiving: the DANS way to involve users
Dr. Henk Harmsen
Head of the Development & Acquisition Department and Deputy Director of DANS
View Presentation pdf ( 130kB) (left click to view / right click to download)

DANS (Data Archiving & Networked Services) aims to create the ideal conditions in the field of research data: a single, transparent data infrastructure of outstanding international quality. DANS intends to be the foremost national facility for research data. In future, researchers will be able to turn to DANS for data, regardless of where those data have been produced or where they are stored and made accessible. They will also be able to rely on the quality and continuity of up-to-the-minute data. A selection of the data will be harmonised and standardised in close collaboration with researchers , who will play a decisive role in developing DANS by participating in decentralised "thematic development programmes" (TDP's). Such programmes will serve to configure the data infrastructure in a particular discipline or on a particular theme. The purpose of the TDPs is to make databases of national and/or international significance more accessible, and/or to enrich them by harmonising them with other databases or by adding data from other databases.#

Increasing the value of data by storage through e-Infrastructures
Prof. Manuel Delfino
Director, Port d'Informació Científica (PIC), Spain
View Presentation pdf ( 562kB) (left click to view / right click to download)

Be they large or small, public or private, institutions have always stored and archived data due to various requirements, for example those related to legal or accounting rules. Increasingly, additional data is being generated and stored in order to form an information basis from which to derive knowledge needed for an institution to function properly or improve its competitivity. The value of these data is related to the increased value generated for the institution, which is not modified if the storage is outsourced or performed under a "utility" scheme. In contrast, if the information is curated under an "e-Infrastructure" scheme, where it can be shared with others in a controlled fashion, the value of the data themselves can be increased with little additional expenditure, thereby generating additional assets for the institution while maintaining the benefits of "utility" schemes. Specific examples will be discussed which have been prototyped with hospitals and university researchers.

4.4 User needs in IT and Information Infrastructure: scholarly communication.

The growing European research base must have ready and efficient access to information of all kinds including experimental data sets, journals, theses, conference proceedings and patents. This is the life blood of research and innovation. Much of this type of information is now in digital form and is supplied through a range of libraries, data centres, and publishers. The transition to digital formats, increasing investment in research, and associated increases in the volume and range of research outputs will have major impacts on scholarly communication.
Speakers in this session will examine researchers' information needs and scholarly communication from a range of perspectives, and discuss the information components needed to systematically collect, and make available digital information; ensure quality; tie into international efforts; and to best support the growing needs of researchers and scientific communication.

Chair: Prof. Lynne Brindley
Chief Executive, British Library, London, UK

The global virtual scholar
Prof. David Nicholas
Director, School of Library, Archive and Information Studies, University College London, UK:
View Presentation pdf ( 76kB) (left click to view / right click to download)

The presentation will report on three years of research, which examines and profiles the information seeking behaviour of the global virtual scholar. Using deep log analysis methods, the CIBER team have accumulated and made sense of the digital fingerprints of hundreds of thousands of virtual scholars using the following digital libraries: ScienceDirect, Blackwell Synergy, OhioLINK, OUP, IoP and EmeraldInsight. The presentation looks at the implications and significance of the findings in regard to European scholarly information provision.

DARE to go Europe
Dr. Leo Waaijers
Platform manager ICT and Research, SURF, NL
View Presentation pdf ( 188kB) (left click to view / right click to download)

"While moves in the United States to make scientific research results available - for free - at the click of a mouse have generated intense debate, European research organizations have quietly been forging ahead. Slowly but surely, they are starting to build and connect institutional and even nationwide public archives that will, according to proponents, be the mega-libraries of the future, allowing anyone with an Internet connection to access papers produced by publicly funded research." Science, April 2005. SURF's Dutch national DARE programme (2003-2006) aims at better access to results of scientific and scholarly research. During the first year a nationwide network - DAREnet - of OAI based institutional repositories could be set up. A second milestone was reached with the Cream of Science that produces the complete oeuvre of over 200 Dutch top scientists. Today, a new project - HunDAREd Thousand -aims at a growth of DAREnet from 50.000 to 150.000 publications at the end of next year. The EU could accelerate this development not only by making their programs eligible for projects that aim at better access to content, but also by developing a European Charter for scientific communication stating the responsibility of publicly funded research institutions to give open access to its results. Could it be the Charter of Nottingham?

What influences research productivity: a survey of microbiologists and immunologists
Prof. Robert Campbell
President, Blackwell Publishing, UK
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An internet based survey of microbiologists and immunologists (883 respondents) looked into their attitude towards research and what has helped them to be more effective. Conjoint analysis indicated what researchers think are the real liberators and differences between Western Europeans and North Americans. Our conclusion was that, to help researchers be more productive, administrators should give them more time and space to talk to colleagues, provide research leadership and assist them with preparing grant proposals.

Conclusions of Parallel Session 4
Mr M. Campolargo
DG INFSO, EC
View Conclusions pdf ( 202kB) (left click to view / right click to download)