{"id":162,"date":"2016-11-10T10:38:00","date_gmt":"2016-11-10T10:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/highly-relevant\/?p=162"},"modified":"2018-09-18T11:27:57","modified_gmt":"2018-09-18T10:27:57","slug":"research-data-alliance-uk-workshop-birmingham-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/highly-relevant\/2016\/11\/10\/research-data-alliance-uk-workshop-birmingham-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Research Data Alliance UK Workshop, Birmingham 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

I attended the first Research Data Alliance workshop held in sunny Birmingham which was designed to bring together practitioners from across the UK to find out more about the work of the RDA. \u00a0It was also a chance to see how we might be able to contribute and benefit from what the organisation has to offer. \u00a0Despite already being a member of the RDA Interest Groups for Archives and Records Professionals<\/a>, I confess to having been more of a casual observer than an active participant. \u00a0So it was a brilliant opportunity to find out more about exactly what the Research Data Alliance is, how it works and what it hopes to achieve.<\/p>\n

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Rachel Bruce from JISC introduced the event by outlining some of the ways in which JISC are working with the RDA across broad areas of Research Data Management and then handed over to Mark Parsons, the charismatic Secretary General of the RDA. \u00a0Parsons is passionate about data, about connecting people and about creativity. \u00a0He\u00a0gave examples of technology “leapfrogging” and how local networks can come together to solve global issues. \u00a0He used an illustration from the New York Magazine on how Willie Nelson is using local networks to take on corporate agricultural firms in the battle for the rising (legalised) marijuana market.<\/p>\n

\"Willie
Willie Nelson: not actually personally present at the event…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He also introduced ideas around how networks and connections lead to creativity and again referenced Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing’s Frictio<\/a>n\u00a0(this is the link<\/a> if you’re lucky enough to be a Lancaster University person!) as well as Steve Johnson: “Chance favors the connected mind”:<\/p>\n