Play 12 - Create templates to support metadata usage
Support play for intermediary organizations: Create templates and guides to support metadata standards and documentation.
Metadata, as a tool for #findability, #interoperability, and understanding, may be one of the first technical components that data stewards learn and have to make decisions regarding. Yet, there are few if any succinct and useful metadata guides written for community environmental data stewards, specifically. This support work is essential: transparent data provenance is vital in any type of environmental regulation. There is an opportunity for intermediary organizations to create a suite of metadata support, pulling from existing resources, and adapting the metadata formats and standards to fit the needs and contexts of community environmental data stewards. This suite could entail:
- A guide to different metadata standards: Depending on the data, different standards might be more suited than others. A guide could lay out existing standards for various data types or agencies.
- A guide to crosswalks: To improve #interoperability, intermediary organizations can provide information on how to use crosswalks or conversions to make sure that datasets with different metadata can be used together. For example, if an organization is collecting air quality data and recording the data in a 12 hour format, but an institution uses a 24 hour format, a key for conversion can be included in the documentation.
- Documentation templates: Data stewards can record their standards, crosswalks, and conversions in a streamlined documentation format that can be stored alongside their data and available to the public. Intermediary organizations could create a template for this type of document.
🌱 Each play stems from a takeaway from an case study, workshop, or other learning source.
Takeaway: The technical design of a data system can, and should, reflect the data user’s needs to unlock the value of the data.
The technical aspects of data management can often be the most difficult to tailor to stewards’ needs. Data storage requires a level of digital literacy above the average person’s, digital infrastructure can be expensive, and customized systems or features require even more funding. Open source solutions may be available, but less findable or usable to the average user. Oftentimes, environmental data stewards are left with clunky or unnecessary technical systems that don’t correspond with their data sharing or use needs. Recognizing this difficulty and misalignment, we’ve outlined methods to determine the highest priority needs in a technical model and make decisions accordingly, as well as an opportunity for intermediary organizations to support interoperability of any technical data system.
Source: Community Data Playbook (Full report)