DataUp Research Data Tool: What It Was and Who Built It
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DataUp was an open source research data tool from the University of California Curation Center (UC3) at the California Digital Library, built to help researchers document, manage and archive tabular data. Its partners included DataONE and Microsoft Research Connections, and Outercurve's Research Accelerators gallery hosted it.
What was DataUp?
DataUp was a tool for research data management. The Library of Congress's Signal blog described it as "an open source tool helping researchers document, manage, and archive their tabular data" within the scientist's workflow. Tabular data means information laid out in rows and columns, such as the spreadsheets researchers use to record measurements.
The California Digital Library (CDL) is the University of California's shared digital library service. UC3, its curation group, was the team behind the tool.
What did DataUp do and who was it for?
DataUp aimed to move a researcher's spreadsheet from a private file toward a documented, preserved dataset. The Library of Congress description covers three jobs:
- Documenting data, so that people outside the lab can understand it.
- Managing data while a project is running.
- Archiving tabular data, the step that ends in a repository upload.
Its audience was working scientists. The Library of Congress framed the tool as part of the researcher's own routine, not a separate archiving project run by librarians.
Partners and timeline
The partners were the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Microsoft Research Connections and DataONE. The CDL page does not say what each contributed.
| Fact | Date | Source |
|---|---|---|
| CodePlex Foundation founded | 10 Sep 2009 | Wikipedia |
| Foundation renamed Outercurve | Sep 2010 | Wikipedia (linked above) |
| Bill LeFurgy includes DataUp in his top ten digital preservation developments of 2012 | 14 Jan 2013 | Library of Congress blog (linked above) |
| CDL post by Ellen Meltzer congratulates its UC3 colleagues on the listing | 16 Jan 2013 | California Digital Library |
| Research Accelerators page for DataUp captured by the Internet Archive | 11 Oct 2014 | Internet Archive (see Sources) |
| Outercurve directors file articles of dissolution | 22 Apr 2017 | Wikipedia (linked above) |
Where did DataUp rank among the 2012 developments?
DataUp was one of ten items on LeFurgy's 2012 list, and the only one that was a software tool for individual researchers. The other entries were broader: ten LIBER recommendations for libraries starting research data management, the Digital Preservation Network, which launched in early 2012 with more than 50 members, and the End of Term Web Archive, which captured U.S. government websites between the two Obama administrations.
LeFurgy described the list as covering "tools for helping with outreach, program assessment and research data management," according to the CDL post. DataUp was the research data management entry.
How DataUp relates to Outercurve
Outercurve did not create DataUp. The foundation hosted it in its Research Accelerators gallery, one of four galleries named on its Wikipedia page, alongside the ASP.NET Open Source Gallery, the Data, Languages, and Systems Interoperability Gallery and the Innovators Gallery. That hosting rests on the archived gallery page listed under Sources.
The foundation's stated aim was to "enable the exchange of code and understanding among software companies and open source communities." Microsoft launched it as the CodePlex Foundation, and its by-laws changed and its board expanded in November 2010, two months after the rename.
For that background, read from CodePlex to Outercurve, the historic impact of Outercurve and CodePlex and how CodePlex hosting worked. Another research project in the same setting was ChronoZoom; the foundation's wider catalog appears under other Outercurve projects.
Is DataUp still available?
None of the sources reviewed states its current status. The UC3 pages at the California Digital Library are the place to check.
FAQ
What is DataUp?
A UC3 and California Digital Library tool for documenting, managing and archiving tabular research data.
Was DataUp an Excel add-in?
The sources available describe DataUp as a tool for tabular data and do not mention Excel, so an add-in format is unconfirmed.
Who built DataUp?
The UC3 group at the California Digital Library, with the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Microsoft Research Connections and DataONE named as partners.
Did Outercurve create DataUp?
No. Outercurve's Research Accelerators gallery hosted it; the California Digital Library credits UC3 as its builder.
Sources
- California Digital Library, UC3: news post by Ellen Meltzer, 16 January 2013.
- Library of Congress, The Signal: "Top 10 Digital Preservation Developments of 2012," Bill LeFurgy, 14 January 2013.
- Wikipedia: Outercurve Foundation.
- Internet Archive capture of the Research Accelerators page for DataUp: web.archive.org, 11 October 2014.