Coming Soon: DCN Retrospective Report

Edit: The report is now available open access through Michigan Publishing Services.

The Data Curation Network has been active since 2016, thanks to planning and implementation grants from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. We officially transitioned to a member-funded model in July 2021.

In March 2022, as a capstone to our grant-funding period, members of the DCN gathered together in Washington D.C. to participate in a retrospective discussion about the development, activities and impact of the DCN. Through discussions and activities, attendees were asked to consider our experiences in developing, operating and growing the DCN. Our discussion was wide ranging and included identifying and unpacking our successes, an examination of the structures we developed to operate the DCN, as well as the challenges we faced and what we might have done differently in hindsight.

Later this month, through Michigan Publishing Services, we will publish an open access retrospective report capturing these conversations. We hope that the insights described will be of use to other collaborative, community-based efforts. 

Over the next few weeks, we will share some of our favorite sections of the report! Today, DCN Director Mikala Narlock has chosen the following section (which you may have seen quoted in recent presentations at DLF 2022 and CNI 2022): 

“In the DCN, trust is the foundation of our work—specifically, what we term “radical interdependence.” Radical interdependence is more than cooperation—it is relying on others outside of your organization to complete work for our individual institutions; it is providing and receiving learning opportunities; and it is leaning on one another for support when necessary. It is about collaboration, trust, vulnerability, and accountability, not from a punitive perspective, but from an intrinsic desire to show up for and serve one another based on clear expectations,  commitments, and the shared goal of advancing the field. It is about pooling our resources, our knowledge, and our interests, to better accomplish our work and advocate for the role of data curators. It is about recognizing the interconnectedness of the work we are all doing.”