A Transformative Concept: From Data Being Passive Objects to Data Being Active Subjects

The exploitation of potential societal benefits of Earth observations is hampered by users having to engage in often tedious processes to discover data and extract information and knowledge. A concept is introduced for a transition from the current perception of data as passive objects (DPO) to a ne...

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Main Authors: Hans-Peter Plag, Shelley-Ann Jules-Plag
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2019-10-01
Series:Data
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2306-5729/4/4/135
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author Hans-Peter Plag
Shelley-Ann Jules-Plag
author_facet Hans-Peter Plag
Shelley-Ann Jules-Plag
author_sort Hans-Peter Plag
collection DOAJ
description The exploitation of potential societal benefits of Earth observations is hampered by users having to engage in often tedious processes to discover data and extract information and knowledge. A concept is introduced for a transition from the current perception of data as passive objects (DPO) to a new perception of data as active subjects (DAS). This transition would greatly increase data usage and exploitation, and support the extraction of knowledge from data products. Enabling the data subjects to actively reach out to potential users would revolutionize data dissemination and sharing and facilitate collaboration in user communities. The three core elements of the transformative DAS concept are: (1) “intelligent semantic data agents” (ISDAs) that have the capabilities to communicate with their human and digital environment. Each ISDA provides a voice to the data product it represents. It has comprehensive knowledge of the represented product including quality, uncertainties, access conditions, previous uses, user feedbacks, etc., and it can engage in transactions with users. (2) A knowledge base that constructs extensive graphs presenting a comprehensive picture of communities of people, applications, models, tools, and resources and provides tools for the analysis of these graphs. (3) An interaction platform that links the ISDAs to the human environment and facilitates transaction including discovery of products, access to products and derived knowledge, modifications and use of products, and the exchange of feedback on the usage. This platform documents the transactions in a secure way maintaining full provenance.
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spelling doaj.art-927f4b2623764fc4b95846c217633ad72022-12-22T02:55:17ZengMDPI AGData2306-57292019-10-014413510.3390/data4040135data4040135A Transformative Concept: From Data Being Passive Objects to Data Being Active SubjectsHans-Peter Plag0Shelley-Ann Jules-Plag1Department of Ocean, Earth, and Atmospheric Science, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 23529, USATiwah UG, 53547 Rossbach, GermanyThe exploitation of potential societal benefits of Earth observations is hampered by users having to engage in often tedious processes to discover data and extract information and knowledge. A concept is introduced for a transition from the current perception of data as passive objects (DPO) to a new perception of data as active subjects (DAS). This transition would greatly increase data usage and exploitation, and support the extraction of knowledge from data products. Enabling the data subjects to actively reach out to potential users would revolutionize data dissemination and sharing and facilitate collaboration in user communities. The three core elements of the transformative DAS concept are: (1) “intelligent semantic data agents” (ISDAs) that have the capabilities to communicate with their human and digital environment. Each ISDA provides a voice to the data product it represents. It has comprehensive knowledge of the represented product including quality, uncertainties, access conditions, previous uses, user feedbacks, etc., and it can engage in transactions with users. (2) A knowledge base that constructs extensive graphs presenting a comprehensive picture of communities of people, applications, models, tools, and resources and provides tools for the analysis of these graphs. (3) An interaction platform that links the ISDAs to the human environment and facilitates transaction including discovery of products, access to products and derived knowledge, modifications and use of products, and the exchange of feedback on the usage. This platform documents the transactions in a secure way maintaining full provenance.https://www.mdpi.com/2306-5729/4/4/135data discoverymetadataknowledge basegraph dataintelligent semantic agents
spellingShingle Hans-Peter Plag
Shelley-Ann Jules-Plag
A Transformative Concept: From Data Being Passive Objects to Data Being Active Subjects
Data
data discovery
metadata
knowledge base
graph data
intelligent semantic agents
title A Transformative Concept: From Data Being Passive Objects to Data Being Active Subjects
title_full A Transformative Concept: From Data Being Passive Objects to Data Being Active Subjects
title_fullStr A Transformative Concept: From Data Being Passive Objects to Data Being Active Subjects
title_full_unstemmed A Transformative Concept: From Data Being Passive Objects to Data Being Active Subjects
title_short A Transformative Concept: From Data Being Passive Objects to Data Being Active Subjects
title_sort transformative concept from data being passive objects to data being active subjects
topic data discovery
metadata
knowledge base
graph data
intelligent semantic agents
url https://www.mdpi.com/2306-5729/4/4/135
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