CODATA-ICSTI Portal Specification DRAFT
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CODATA-ICSTI PORTAL ON PERMANENT ACCESS TO SCIENTIFIC DATA AND INFORMATION RESOURCES
Technical and Operational Specifications
Contents |
Portal Mission
The primary task of the CODATA-ICSTI Portal on Permanent Access to Scientific and Technical Data and Information is to raise the visibility of issues and activities related to the long-term preservation of, and access to, scientific data and information internationally. A secondary task is to establish a network for researchers, archivists, and information technology professionals interested in scientific and technical (S&T) data and information preservation and access, especially in developing countries, to find and share information about projects and about each other. The operational portal will provide information about, and links to:
• Scientific data and information archiving, preservation, and access procedures, technologies, standards, and policies;
• Discipline-specific and cross-disciplinary archiving projects, activities, and institutions; and
• Expert points of contact in all countries, with particular attention to those in developing countries.
• Links to national and trans-national initiatives.
CODATA and ICSTI Background [TO BE ADDED]
Boilerplate mission statements, URLs, and relation of portal to the organizational missions.
Portal Actors, Tasks, and Responsibilities
Actor: Portal Steering Committee
Tasks & Responsibilities
• Primary contacts for initial funding
• Establish Editorial Committee; recruit new editors
• Hire Site Editor
• Review Portal operation periodically
• Resolve management or operational issues
Notes
• Made up of CODATA and ICSTI members (volunteers)
• Need to establish membership terms.
• Keep small and balance discipline, gender, and geography over time.
Actor: Portal Editorial Committee
Tasks & Responsibilities
• Seek out and recommend Portal content: events, projects, institutions, etc.
• Communicate with Site Editor to develop project memory.
• Recommend new editors and steering committee members.
Notes
• Editorial committee envisioned being three people so that content can be approved by majority vote.
• Balance discipline, gender, and geography over time.
• Rotating terms; requires some uneven initial terms.
• Possibly offer a small honorarium for service; e.g., 500 USD / year.
Actor: Portal Site Editor
Tasks & Responsibilities
• Keep Portal content fresh; work closely with editorial committee.
• Proofread and copyedit portal content.
• Communicate with Steering Committee about content and operations.
• Develop and document project practices.
• Be a community broker and user advocate.
Notes This is expected to be at least a half-time position for someone who can develop some expertise with the content, but more importantly, develop working relationships with editors, steering committee members, and portal users.
Actor: Portal Host Organization
Tasks & Responsibilities
• Provide server hardware, administration, including backup and failure recovery.
• Provide Portal software administration.
• Possibly provide Portal software updates.
Notes Need cost estimates from potential host sites.
Actor: Portal Users and Visitors
Notes Not sure what to put here right now.
Portal Functional Capabilities
The anticipated capabilities required for a successful portal include a dynamic website supporting frequent content changes, and that allows collecting, sorting and presenting a large amount of information from a variety of sources to a variety of users. The portal must provide the following functions:
2.1. Creation and update of lists of entries containing links to S&T information and data from many different sources
2.2. Creation and update of descriptions, annotations, and editorial content with, and about, the links
2.3. Organization of portal content into categories and subcategories. Portal information and entries must be able to appear in more than one category. Categories must be able to be added, deleted, and modified.
2.4. Support for remote editorial control or editorial board capability; e.g. entry modifications including adding and deleting entries, reclassification of entries, modification of descriptive content, etc.
2.5. Content search by specific categories, keywords, dates, etc.
2.6. Monitoring the persistence of the URLs: flag broken URLs, etc.
2.7. Support limited bandwidth capabilities and dial-up modem access.
2.8. Support timely publication and announcement of new content and newsletter capability (e.g., RSS content syndication is one possible solution)
2.9. Support asynchronous topic and content discussion (e.g., listservs, signups / signouts, and weblog/wiki capabilities are possible solutions)
2.10. Monthly usage reports based on page traffic, type of user (academic, gov’t, etc.), session lengths, etc.
2.11. Support for collaboration (POTENTIAL FUTURE CAPABILITY – NEEDS DEFINITION).
Portal Operational Capabilities
In addition to the functional requirements the portal must be administered and supported as a long-term on-line digital resource. Operational support includes:
3.1. Daily system backup and retention.
3.2. Timely response to system problems, such as network interruption, hardware or software system failure.
3.3. System administration and maintenance; including, but not limited to, operating system upgrades, network and security updates, system logging.
3.4. Maintenance releases and system upgrades scheduled and tested during known low-usage times established by traffic analysis.
==Portal Estimated Costs and Expenses
Activity or Materiel Cost Estimate Notes Portal Hardware, software, installation, operation, maintenance Hardware: 2500 USD Software: 500 USD Installation: 3-5 workdays Operation: 2 days / month Maintenance: ? Portal Site Editor: keep portal content fresh and manage network of portal participants ~ 0.5 FTE Cost depends on where Assoc. Ed. Is located. Portal Editorial Board member Honorarium: 500 USD/year Development of initial portal content: Initial content data entry to be done by USNC
Portal Implementation Schedule: Activities, Milestones and Timeline -TBD
Provisional Steering Committee Formation
Portal Specification Document Review and Release
Fund Raising
Appointment of Steering Committee Establishment of Steering Committee Meeting Schedule
Appointment of Editorial Board
Selection of Portal Hosting Site
Selection of Portal Hosting Software
Hiring Portal Editorial Associate NEED TO DEFINE WORK ACTIVITIES
Population of Portal Initial Content
Portal Launch Marketing plans?
