iSamples to iPlaces Workshop: Managing Place-based Research Data, Samples, and other Outputs

Moorea, 24–28 February 2025

Overview

The in-person workshop will focus on publishing data and metadata (including legal and social information such as government permits and community consent) related to place-based scientific sampling. How can digital infrastructure help encourage ethical practices and improve provenance tracking? The goal is to generate greater interdisciplinary value from material samples in science, and to maximize their benefits to broader society.

Venue

UC Gump Station, Moorea

Participants

See the list here

Outline Schedule

Day 1 (Monday) is structured with the whole group participating. Day 3 (Wednesday) will also engage the whole group and provide an opportunity for exchanges with invited guests.

The other days are ‘unconference’ format with whole group touch points from 11am to 1pm (including a working lunch)

• Breakfast - on own (time for personal work)

• Morning - breakouts

• Working Lunch - together in 11–1pm (Gump Station classroom), lunch provided

• Afternoon - breakouts

• Dinner - together 7pm Monday (Gump) and Wednesday (TBD restaurant) otherwise on own/small groups

Reception - Monday 5pm (Gump House)

Sessions 1–2 (Day 1)

Session 1: 10am - 1pm

• Intros - Add an Intro slide to a slide deck

• Updates on grants (what topics and how many updates?)

  • Budget reports from all PIs + remaining tasks

  • Updates from each PI’s

    • UArizona: new directions for ML-enhanced metadata interface project; update on vocabs and SESAR migration

    • Berkeley - iPlaces and GEOME

    • NMNH

    • JSON LD and coding

    • Paper on vocabularies

  • Review deliverables

• Check in on related activities

  • UArizona: relevant grant writing in progress

  • Parquet implementation

• State and stability of iSamples API and UI

  • Updating model and sustainability discussion

• What have we learned? What have accomplished?

  • Outcomes to report in papers

Break: 1–3pm

Session 2: 3–5pm

Use Cases - Linear steps to run through different systems with view to making sampling (field sites, field stations) and resulting material samples (formal and informal collections) potentially open to additional uses within and across disciplines:

• Cross disciplinary work of iSamples (more general)

• Collection example - planning stage to get a permit (variation on level detail), the permit is attached to sampling campaign, and automate reporting on the end

• Island Sampling Day 2022 example (could have a geo focus)

• Review processes that are used with tribal groups and adoption of iSamples to larger community

• Material science

• AI & data curation

• User Needs - ease of use; Identify needs and work on solutions;

Reception: 5:30pm

Group Dinner: 7pm

Sessions 4–5 (Day 3)

• Use cases

  • Tetiaroa Archeology example - know

  • Bird sampling

  • Review permitting side of things

Unconference Sessions (Days 2,4,5)

Paper writing

• Lessons learned, success, challenges, etc.

• Roadmap for iSamples implementation

  • iPlaces

  • SESAR

  • Sustainability of software/infrastructure

• AI and data curation—AI and information retrieval—AI for model mapping

  • From Ben Bostick: “I would like to think about how to actually get scientists to participate and engage in a data and AI standard. It takes a community to adopt something to make it useful. Another subject that I find important to include that relates to the principles we started with is that there is conflict between individual privacy, privacy for intellectual property, and benefit for inclusion in an AI. To what extent does data used to underlie an AI need to be public or citable? This relates to this conflict between privacy, IP, community benefit and community privacy.”

Other topics

• Interdisciplinary/cross-disciplinary value to sell iSamples (could make people aware of pre-sampling events) Tie to DMP -> Project applications is intended sampling ->

• GEOME specific meeting with Libby, John D., Chris?

• Review vocabularies - material and sample type

  • Discuss vocabulary governance

  • ID future directions

  • Consider how to extend vocabularies

• Resources needed to continue running system - Cyverse

  • Solid plans for building the system needed

• Future- what is the pitch?

Sponsors

This workshop is funded in part by:

• iSamples

• Sampling Nature Research Coordination Network, a project funded by NSF Award 2129268

Logistics

Arrival Tahiti (recommended hotels if overnight needed). Hotel options

• Kon Tiki (Right across the street from the ferry)

• Hotel Tahiti Nui

Ferry Logistics: Transfer to Moorea (35min car ferry from downtown Papeete). There are a few ferry companies. You can buy tickets at the counters directly. Schedules:

• https://www.terevau.pf/en/schedules/

• https://www.aremitiexpress.com/en/home/

• https://www.vaearai.com/tahiti-moorea/

Transfer from/to ferry to/from Gump Station (book taxi)