December 2012

In this issue:

  • RDSI SHARE.EDU data sharing feasibility study
  • CSIRO Data Access Portal released to open source
  • RDSI Office Manager Required
  • AARNet Announces Cloud Storage Service
  • RDSI continues to complete milestones
  • ANDS Online Services Release 9
  • About this newsletter

RDSI SHARE.EDU data sharing feasibility study

RDSI is about to evaluate a secure drop box like system on its Australian network.  Users who participate in the trial will receive 100Gb of free storage to share with their colleagues for the duration of the trial.  The SHARE.EDU trial will enable users to store and share information in a cloud based environment. Trial participants will be asked to provide feedback on their user experience.

The feasibility study will start in January 2013 and run for several months.

To participate just go to http://www.rdsi.uq.edu.au/share-edu and fill in the registration form. On completion of your registration RDSI will email out your free SHARE.EDU account details with a guide of how you can offer feedback.  In order to make use of this service you must have at least one other collaborator with whom to test and share your data.

For further information, please email comms@rdsi.uq.edu.au

CSIRO Data Access Portal released to open source

In 2010, CSIRO Information Management & Technology commenced a program, known as the CSIRO Research Data Service (RDS), to establish capabilities to facilitate the capture, description, access and retrieval of CSIRO’s research data assets. The RDS was developed and launched through a series of projects that put in place the necessary people, processes and technology to:

ensure research data under CSIRO custodianship is securely stored, easily located and, where appropriate, accessible to others for reuse;

manage data in an increasingly collaborative research environment;

respond to government and funding body requirements to share data arising from publicly funded research.

The RDS has been established to enable CSIRO’s researchers, partners and the public to discover, manage and share research data assets.  The service is underpinned by its primary technology enabler, the CSIRO Data Access Portal.

It is with great pleasure that we are announcing the release of the CSIRO Data Access Portal source code to open source.

The CSIRO Data Access Portal is supported by the Australian National Data Service (ANDS) through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy Program and the Education Investment Fund (EIF) Super Science Initiative, as well as through the resources of CSIRO Information Management & Technology and the CSIRO eResearch Program.

The CSIRO Data Access Portal has been built iteratively using Agile principles to ensure that it meets the needs of the broad range of research domains within CSIRO. Data collections provided through the CSIRO Data Access Portal are now being accessed by researchers worldwide. Since the initial release in 2011, there have been thousands of searches and downloads of data. For CSIRO scientists, the CSIRO Data Access Portal provides an important means of protecting, disseminating and preserving our scientific results for the future.

By carrying out this open source release, we hope that other organisations can benefit from the extensive work and resources provided by CSIRO and ANDS to develop this system.

The source code and associated documentation are now available on SourceForge and can be found at: http://sourceforge.net/p/csiro-dap/

We look forward to hearing about any future success stories.

RDSI Office Manager Recruitment

The Research Data Storage Infrastructure Project requires an experienced, motivated and skilled office administrator to provide high-level administrative, organisational and management support for the RDSI project.  Duties and responsibilities include supporting the Director of the RDSI project and the RDSI Project Manager; overseeing daily management of RDSI; overseeing the coordination of events and report preparation; undertaking finance and HR management, and travel organisation for the team.

This is a full-time, fixed term appointment at HEW Level 7. The remuneration package will be in the range $72,743.74 p.a. – $79,562.49 p.a., plus employer superannuation contributions of up to 17% (total package will be in the range $85,110.12 p.a. – $93,088.11 p.a.) effective as at 1 January 2013.

To discuss this role, please contact Nick Tate on +61 7 3365 2019 or email office@rdsi.uq.edu.au

For further details and application process, click here

Applications for this role are invited with a closing date of 7 Dec 2012 11:55pm

AARNet Announces Cloud Storage Service

AARNet announced the upcoming cloud storage service CloudStorPlus at the eResearch Australasia conference in Sydney in October.  This service will offer all researchers at AARNet-connected institutions 100GB of personal cloud storage free of charge.  CloudStorPlus complements AARNet’s existing CloudStor file transfer service.

Based on Open Source ownCloud technology, with a Hadoop-based backend, CloudStorPlus will utilise storage servers connected to the AARNet backbone in Brisbane, Canberra and Perth, and also using NeCTAR Research Cloud infrastructure in Melbourne.  Researchers will be able to synchronise folders from their own computers to the service, allowing easy off-line access to cloud storage, and they will also be able to access files live via a web application or mobile device.

AARNet anticipates launching the service early in 2013.  For further information please visit http://www.aarnet.edu.au/communities/research/eresearch-overview/cloudstorplus-information.aspx.

Contact us at eresearch@aarnet.edu.au if you would like to participate in trials of this service.

RDSI continues to complete milestones

The University of Melbourne, in partnership with Monash University, on behalf of the Victorian universities is set to lead a Primary Node in Victoria.  This announcement marks the eighth and final node to come on board the RDSI project as identified in the project plan.  The completion of this milestone perpetuates RDSI’s goal of facilitating storage for Australian researchers.

Setup of the nodes is now well underway and some storage is expected to be available as soon as the end of the year.   RDSI will continue to work through 2013 to ensure it continues to complete future milestones and project objectives.

The RDSI project aims to develop a national network of distributed data stores where research data could be readily accessed, analysed and re-used and to support the retention and integration of nationally significant data assets. This will support enhanced research outcomes through greater access to, and sharing of, research data.

For further information about the RDSI project, visit www.rdsi.edu.au

ANDS Online Services Release 9

ANDS Online Services Release 9 is now live, which includes new functionality in Research Data Australia and the ORCA Registry, as well as changes to the RIF-CS Schema. The full list of changes is on the ANDS Services News page.

Release 9 sees a number of new spatial functionalities in researchdata.ands.org.au including:

  • Improved spatial search: When searching by location, users can now draw their search area directly on the map. Search results are ordered by the size of each record’s spatial area, smallest to largest, and whether the area falls wholly or partially within your specified search area.
  • Support for adding Australian place names: Users will be able to query the Gazetteer of Australia 2.0 to provide spatial location resolution for place names. This feature can be used during record creation to query a place name and display it on a map.

For more information on these and other updates in Release 9, please visit the ANDS Website.

About this newsletter

The eResearch newsletter is normally published the first business day of each month, and submissions are due two business days prior to that. Please send items to newsletter@eresearch.edu.au. Each item should be no more than 150 words plain text, plus a link to further information.  Note: The next newsletter will be published on 1 February 2013.

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