Download Presentation of Margarita Conkright (NOAA / CCSP). From "Climate

Symposium on Digital Curation in the Era of Big Data:
Career Opportunities and Educational Requirements
Workforce Demand and Career Opportunities
From the perspective of
Scientific Data Centers
Margarita Conkright Gregg, Ph.D.
Director, U.S. National Oceanographic Data Center
National Environmental Satellite and Data Information Services
DOC/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Outline
Four Questions to discuss from the perspective of a “Scientific Data Center”
1) What are the most pressing personnel needs in your institution or sector
to manage digital curation responsibilities?
2) What types of people with which knowledge and skills sets does your
institution need?
3) How do you anticipate these needs changing in the next ten years?
4) What are likely career paths for digital curators, including new hires and
existing personnel?
But first, I will put my answers in context:
• Who we are and what we do in the context of digital curation and Big Data
• Challenges in the era of Big Data
2
NOAA is an Environmental Information-Generating
Organization
Broadest Scope of any Agency for
Environmental Data Stewardship
• ~150 Research & Operational Observing
Systems
• ~4-5 Petabytes of data/year (~15 Pb total)
Atmospheric
Observations
Land Surface
Observations
Ocean
Observations
Space
Observations
3
Data Management Challenges
•
Incomprehensibly large volumes of environmental data from an array of
sensors/collectors in an array of different formats - satellite, AUV, drones, multibeam, side scan, gliders, ADCPs, etc
•
Significantly increased data resolution both spatially and temporally
•
Outrageous data throughput
•
Data quality control, quality assurance, data validation, etc
•
Inability to reprocess “big data” as new algorithms or better quality procedures are
developed
•
Keeping track of the provenance
•
Extracting and deriving meaningful information from this vast cloud of data
•
Users demanding near-instant access to data, data products, and derived information
•
Advanced methods of data discovery, packaging, access, and delivery
4
Unique Role of NOAA’s National Data Centers
NODC mission: scientific stewardship of marine data
and information
• Acquire environmental data from U.S. and foreign sources
• Preserve the Nation’s environmental data assets
• Assemble data into easy to use long-term data sets
• Provide access to environmental data for business, federal,
and science users
• Describe the environment
Who Does All of This??????
Tag Cloud of the Current Federal Job Series at NODC
5
What types of people with which knowledge and skills
sets does your institution need?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Oceanographers
Meteorologists
Geologists
Biologists
Modelers
Social scientists
Economists
SCIENCE
• Metadata management
• Standards
• Librarians
DATA
MANAGEMENT
INFORMATION
MANAGEMENT
• Web
• GIS
• System
architecture
• Programmers
• Data base
management
INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY
Need:
• Hybrid scientist/computer scientist/communicator.
• People who can understand and are comfortable
interpreting, manipulating, and extracting
information from data.
• People who can translate the information into
outcomes and can quantify the impact our products
7
What are the most pressing personnel needs in
your institution or sector to manage digital
curation responsibilities?
• Data mining: The ability to develop and implement automated
intelligent tools to help with data analysis, quality control, and
modelling. The data volumes and diversity is ever expanding, the
personnel are not so we will need to develop automated help.
• System Architects: Skills to develop highly integrated and flexible
systems to handle large data volumes. This includes integrating
with emerging private and commercial options.
• Need for expertise in developing software for translating proprietary
formats to open or archival standard formats (combination library
and computer science)
• Combination of the scientists who understands and translates
technology advances into our infrastructure
8
How do you anticipate these needs changing
in the next ten years?
Computer science and Information Technology are
becoming the foundations of curation
More emphasis on data knowledge, mining techniques,
less on pure IT skills which will become more of a
commodity.
More emphasis on Intellectual Property and Digital
Rights Management, including the legal requirements
for sharing and recognizing data sources
9
What are likely career paths for digital curators,
including new hires and existing personnel?
• Currently: on the job training
– Either scientists learning computers or IT specialists
learning “why” and translating
• A “digital curator” is not currently a federally defined
job and therefore has no defined federal career
path.
• Challenge:
– Recognizing Digital Curators as an important role in a
digital world
– How to make Digital Curation an Attractive Career Path
10