DataCite in Buenos Aires, a recap of the csv,conf,v7

The DataCite team had an intense week in Buenos Aires for the csv,conf,v7 and we tell you (almost) all about it in this blog!

What is csv,conf?

csv,conf is a community-organized event by and for datamakers from all around the world. Participants get together to discuss open data, and how it can be used to solve problems across research, journalism, government, and beyond! Attendees learn about ongoing work, share skills, exchange ideas (and stickers!), and kickstart collaborations. csv,conf,v7 took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina on April 17-19 and it was a special one because it was the first time it was hosted in the southern hemisphere.

The event is completely organized by a team of volunteers with the generous contributions of sponsoring organizations and the support of friend communities.

Pre-conference sessions

*Sonia Barbosa kicks off the Dataverse training workshop*

April 17 and 18 were dedicated to pre-conference sessions. On Monday, we participated in the Dataverse training workshop. Sonia Barbosa (Dataverse, USA) shared the history and features of the Dataverse platform, with a focus on metadata curation. With the help of Gustavo Durand, Sonia provided an excellent hands-on introduction to setting up a Dataverse collection, adding a new resource with domain-specific metadata, and registering a DOI. Amber Leahey (Scholars Portal, Canada) presented the Dataverse Data Explorer, a web application that allows users to view categories and summary statistics, see charts of the data, and conduct cross-tabulation analysis. Alejandra Tenorio Robles and Jesús Herrera de la Cruz (CIMMYT, Mexico) presented CYMMT’s open-access repository of research software, studies, and datasets, which makes genetic profiles and many other research outputs related to wheat and maize available.

On the morning of April 18, we hosted the DataCite Connect event, the first-ever in-person meeting dedicated to our Latin American community. The 2-hour meeting was short but very lively and participants learned about DataCite strategic activities for 2023, played bingo and got to know each other, and discussed in groups how to continue advancing DataCite’s open infrastructure in the region. In the afternoon, together with ORCID and ROR we hosted the “PIDs and Open Science in Latin America” event. With more than 70 research stakeholders from the region and a very international line-up of speakers, presentations, and discussions focused on Latin America’s leadership in open science and how local institutions and consortia are leveraging PIDs to develop a more open and robust research infrastructure for all.

csv,conf

The csv,conf officially kicked off on April 19. We heard keynotes from Dr. Laura Ación (Metadocencia) who spoke about the important role of communities of practice in developing and promoting open science and Karthik Ram (University of California, Berkley) who explored how to cultivate a sustainable and successful Open Source Ecosystem (OSE).

Other presentations throughout the day covered various topics, such as data visualization with Dashbuilder, investigating police misconduct and migratory patterns, building digital democracy solutions in Kenya, managing administrative data at the source, and participatory approaches to making data by the people for the people.

It’s not a csv,conf without the llamas!

The second day started with the DataCite presentation “Open research needs open (meta)data” where we spoke about the importance of open metadata to improve transparency, trust, and integrity in research. We also heard keynote speaker Giuseppe Sollazzo (NHS AI Lab) on how to tell stories with data and lessons learned. And, during her keynote, Dr. Alex Hanna (The DAIR Institute) explored the labors of AI and proposed shifting the frame for a critical perspective of technology and its practices of unrestricted data mining, exploited labor, and the use of images without meaningful consent.

Mary Hirsch speaking at the session “Open research needs open (meta)data”

Additionally, Fernanda Campagnucci shared her work on Querido Diário, an open-source project that aims to free municipal records in Brazil. Katie Hoeberling discussed supporting data integration for environmental and climate justice, while Apoorv Anand presented a community-driven initiative to crowdsource background details of high court judges in India. Other speakers addressed topics such as bias auditing, tourism statistics, and urban mobility, emphasizing the role of open data in creating more equitable and accessible societies.

Overall, the presentations and speeches throughout the two days emphasized the importance of open data, collaboration, and community building in the field of data science and open-source projects. They highlighted various methods and tools for managing and visualizing data and showcased examples of how data can be used to address important social issues and promote greater access and equity. For full details and schedule of the Keynotes, activities, and speakers, check the site of the event here.

Takeaways

csv,conf,v7 was an exciting and successful celebration of openness and DataCite is proud to have supported the event as a sponsor.

The event brought together more than 200 participants from a broad range of disciplines, perspectives, and geographies. This environment was the perfect context to co-locate events and enable participants to share ideas (and stickers!), get inspiration, and kick-start new (and hopefully fruitful!) collaborations.

More importantly, csv,conf offered a lot of space (and llamas) to facilitate connections and conversations.

We look forward to csv,conf,v8!