[open-science] data repository primer?

Wed Oct 17 02:26:59 UTC 2012

Please point me toward one or more short introductions, for a computational and scientific audience, to current options for data sharing and archiving. Why I ask:

I attended a conference today for users and developers of an atmospheric model. Mostly it was presentations of research results, but we also had a long general meeting about the model, its development, and (mostly) the need for related tools and infrastructures. One topic was the need for better data sharing and management: we currently tend to physically ship a lot of physical hard drives after searching our social networks for folks with needed datasets. One response is to start a torrent network, but we also need ways/places to archive (preferably searchably). I gave a quick OTTOMH talk about some repository options which I'm aware (pangaea.de, figshare.com, thedatahub.org) and gave props to OKF.

I'd like to follow that up with pointers to more information (seed the discussion, to continue the torrent metaphor :-) and would appreciate your advice regarding appropriate sources of information on the topic. (Evangelism is OK too: while definitely international, this is a mostly-US group which is generally unexposed to open-science norms.)

TIA, Tom Roche <Tom_Roche at pobox.com>