Infrastructure at risk: the replacement cost of scientific databases

Session: Transforming Earth and Planetary Science Through Data and Data Management: In Honor of MSA Distinguished Public Service Medal Awardee, Kerstin Lehnert

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Abstract:

Catastrophic federal funding cuts have recently exposed the degree to which scientific data infrastructures are at risk. Over the last year, multiple data resources in the Earth and environmental sciences have been taken offline without concrete plans for replacement or archiving. While data rescue efforts can salvage the data files themselves, they cannot recover the services, communities, and broader impacts that data infrastructure provides. 

In this talk, I'll synthesize several recent projects in which my collaborators and I have tried to demonstrate the value not just of data, but of data infrastructures -- and how we've tried to make our infrastructures more sustainable for an uncertain future. Specifically, I'll reflect on lessons learned from a "replacement cost" exercise with the Neotoma paleoecology database; efforts to make the 20+ year old System for Earth and Extraterrestrial Sample Registration (SESAR) financially, technically, and socially sustainable; and a study of the causes and consequences of technical debt in memory institutions. These projects have all had many contributors, including Natalie Raia, Jack Williams, Jessica Blois, Simon Goring, Alli Rayburn and perhaps most notably, Kerstin Lehnert, the founder and director of SESAR. I will reflect on what's lost beyond data files when a system is taken offline, and outline points of collective action for our community going forward.