Towards a Step Change in Managing Research Data at Western Sydney University: Assessment of the Active Data Management Ecosystem

This paper describes the approach taken by Western Sydney University in the assessment of a turnkey research data management platform. Key recommendations from the Active Research Data Management Element of the Research Data Management Framework developed by the Australian Research Data Commons were implemented. WSU-derived research data are currently stored across many different silos and there is consideration of management of data through research data management plans. However, the use of metadata is not consistent and often non-existent. WSU trialled the use of the Idea package provided by Cloud Services provider Intersect, which is based on Mediaflux, for the management of research data throughout the full data lifecycle from collection to archiving. The Active Research Data Management Element provided useful insights into the assessment of Idea in the areas of data management, use of metadata, automated data workflows, research data governance and the criteria for platform selection

Metadata: A Case Study at Western Sydney University: Assessment of Metadata Schema for Active Research Data Management

Western Sydney University has engaged Cloud Services provider Intersect to provide access to Mediaflux on an Intersect research data management platform called Idea . Idea has been designed with the intention of managing research data throughout the full data lifecycle from collection to archiving. WSU-derived research data are currently stored across many different silos and there is consideration of management of data through research data management plans. However, the use of metadata is not consistent. As part of the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) National Data Assets Initiative, the ARDC funded a collaborative multi-university Institutional Underpinnings project to develop a national Institutional Research Data Management Framework (the Framework). Several essential Elements to the Framework were developed, one of which is the Active Research Data Management Element . The intention of this Element is to provide “institutions with guidance to ensure that research practice is efficient and impactful, and that research data is managed according to requirements such as those outlined in The Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research”. Our approach at Western Sydney University in implementation of the Active Research Data Management Element of the Framework was to take the turnkey Idea platform, configure using a default metadata schema and engage with researchers in ingesting live research project datasets. This case study evaluates the metadata schema to reflect active research datasets uploaded directly from a data source to the Idea research data repository. The Idea platform provides the ability for researchers to curate, manage, protect and disseminate research data. It will also provide the capacity for handling data from research instrument platforms as increasingly, the University’s research infrastructure requires a component that automates metadata creation and storage for aspects of the research cycle

GravityBubbleVis : an immersive and interactive visualization for live Internet activities

Understanding or discovering pattern and abnormality in live internet datasets is problematic due to their size and complexity. This paper presents a real-time interactive visualization for delivering and analysing behaviours in internet traffic. GravityBubbleVis provides powerful, flexible, yet simple visualizations which animate all activities of a domain in both normal and immersive environments. Based on our experimental designs, the gravity bubble metaphor is applied to provide a clear view of activities whose layouts were constructed dynamically by force-directed algorithms. The system consists of multiple phases, including data collection and processing, data classification, visualization and interaction. We also provide multiple supporting tools to enable the visual analysis including attribute mapping, control, filtering and advanced interaction in the immersive environment