[DDI-SRG] [Alliance-experts] Call for input by Sep. 26, 2008: goals and projects for DDI-UOG

Wed Oct 1 07:03:49 EDT 2008

Hi Stefan,

Sorry for the late reply. Last week I was travelling and then I caught a 
bad cold.

Here are my thoughts, probably nothing really new:

Descriptions on DDI / slides / posters / glossy brochures

These materials should have different focus for for different target 
groups: archive/data librarian, researcher, questionnaire 
designer/survey manager, organisation head/manager/large scale business 
level, software developer, metadata people.

These materials are useful for information stands at conferences etc. 
for short presentations on DDI. Additionally they can be provided at the 
web site.

The descriptions should have not more than one or two pages.

The posters should be provided in landscape and portrait format. The 
place for posters is often restricted.

With the slides everybody of the DDI Alliance should be able to make a 
10 minute presentation on the main features of DDI.

The current brochure is on a very general level which cannot answer many 
questions.

Levels of information

One issue should be especially focused on: people can often not make a 
difference between the content (documentation on data), the data, the 
metadata structure and the software application. For the common user 
this seems to be often one "object". For example: some people think DDI 
provides access to data. Clarification for this issue would be a great 
help in communication the purpose of DDI.

Kind of data

DDI is known as format for social science data. But it can be used for 
other kind of data as well, when the similar data/metadata structures 
and the requirements are similar. This should be more promoted in all 
materials and perhaps related examples mentioned.

Diagrams

A diagram on data life cycle related to DDI 3 modules/schemes seems to 
be important. Something similar is already available in one of the 
workshop materials. The data life cycle approach is very important for 
DDI 3. Therefore the illustration of the data life cycle and the 
relationship to the DDI structures should be improved.

Organisational issues

Overall it would be great, when all material is organized and developed 
like a tool box, where the single items can be combined in different 
ways. For example: a specific presentation can be based on a general 
slides package, on some technical details from the developer package.

Copyright issues

A general copyright policy should be developed for using and citing 
these materials. Author statements should be clarified. For example 
similar to the XML Schemas: copyright at the DDI Alliance and a readme 
document, where all supporting people and their roles are mentioned. The 
official DDI documentation is under a Creative Commons License. I think 
this would be a good choice for the outreach materials.

Technical issues

All diagrams, posters, logos should be provided in a scalable technical 
format (or at least in several fixed size pixel formats). This way they 
can be easily reused for different purposes. For example: this is 
important for the data life cycle diagram. In the current official 
documentation the DDI logo doesn't look professional (in a technical 
manner).

The DDI logo is currently available only in two fixed size pixel files 
and one scalable TIFF file. But the TIFF seems to have technical 
drawbacks (regarding transparency?). It cannot be easily included in 
documents.

All documents should be available in a reusable source format (like 
Powerpoint, Word etc. and in a PDF version.

Using a wide margin on documents helps to deal with different paper 
formats (US and DIN).

A common storage for all files should be provided. Either publicly 
available on the web site (which I would recommend) or with restricted 
user access for Alliance members.

For slides it seems to make sense to use the older Powerpoint format 
2003. The new one is not already everywhere used.

All documents should use a common layout and fonts.

Web Redesign

Finding the right information on the Alliance web site seems to be still 
not easy for people. The navigation seems to be not always clear. It 
should be considered to invent a so-called crumb trail for each page 
like "About the Alliance > Charter". This way users know on each page 
where they are  in the hierarchy. Additionally a site map with the 
titles of all pages in hierarchical or alphabetical order can be a help.

BTW: On the Dublin Core conference I met Andreas Gros from KIM and the 
Max Planck Digital Library.

On this conference I presented a poster on DDI. The description on DDI 
is available in the proceedings at page 206
Proceedings of the International Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata 
Applications, 22-26 September 2008
http://www.univerlag.uni-goettingen.de/content/list.php?q=dublin+core&cat=result&details=isbn-978-3-940344-49-6
The draws heavily on already published documents on DDI.

Achim

Kramer, Stefan wrote:
> Dear DDI Alliance members,
> 
> A gentle reminder to please send us any suggestions for DDI-UOG activities by Friday.
> 
> Sincerely,
> Stefan Kramer & Kate McNeill
> DDI-UOG Co-chairs
> ddi-uog-chair at icpsr.umich.edu
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: alliance-experts-bounces at icpsr.umich.edu [mailto:alliance-experts-bounces at icpsr.umich.edu] On Behalf Of Kramer, Stefan
> Sent: Friday, September 12, 2008 16:57
> To: alliance-experts at icpsr.umich.edu
> Subject: [Alliance-experts] Call for input by Sep. 26, 2008: goals and projects for DDI-UOG
> 
> Dear DDI Alliance members,
> 
> Kate McNeill and I, as the co-chairs of the DDI Usability and Outreach Working Group (DDI-UOG), have just asked the members of the group for their ideas for projects and goals that the DDI-UOG should be working on over the next year (i.e. through 2009), in order to refine and prioritize the DDI-UOG goals discussed at the DDI Alliance Expert Committee Meeting on May 31.
> 
> We appreciate the suggestions you've sent us thus far and would like to again invite the input of you, the other DDI Alliance members, on projects you would like our group to consider doing.  We will do our best to consider undertaking your ideas (given limited time and resources, of course).  Please send any ideas you may have for projects to ddi-uog-chair at icpsr.umich.edu by Friday, Sep. 26, 2008.  Of course, we welcome your ideas at anytime, but those submitted by then will get the most consideration for our work.
> 
> Then in October, we will prioritize the goals and projects, so that the DDI-UOG members can select those projects that are the highest priority and can be accomplished within the next year.  We hope to have that process completed by the end of October, so that the different DDI-UOG project groups can start their work in November.
> 
> Sincerely,
> Stefan Kramer & Kate McNeill
> DDI-UOG Co-chairs
> ddi-uog-chair at icpsr.umich.edu
> 
> 
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