ICSTI 2012 GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Washington DC, USA
Technical Activities Coordinating Committee (TACC) Meeting Minutes
Sunday 14 October 2012
Chair: Brian HITSON (DOE/OSTI)
Attendees
Pam Bjornson, CISTI
Richard Boulderstone, British Library
Jan Brase, TIB/DataCite
Todd Carpenter, NISO
HeeYoon Choi, KISTI
Craig Emerson, ProQuest
Dennis Gannon, Microsoft
Herbert Gruttemeier, INIST
John Helliwell, IUCr
Hye Sook Jang, KAMJE
Ji Seon Jeong, KAMJE
Lorrie Johnson, OSTI
Tae-il Kim, KAMJE
Oh Hoon Kwon, KAMJE
Bo Young Lee, KAMJE
Choon Shil Lee, KAMJE
Tony Llewellyn, ICSTI
Elisabeth Maître-Allain, ICSTI
David Martinsen, ACS/IUPAC
Tae-sul Seo, KISTI
Roberta Shaffer, ICSTI/LOC
Jerry Sheehan, NLM
Frank Stein, IBM
Carol Tenopir, University of Tennessee
Kirsi Tuominen, VTT
Lance Vowell, OSTI
Walter Warnick, OSTI
Sun Jeong Yoon, KAMJE
Qiao Xiaodong, ISTIC
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Introductions/Opening Remarks
Brian Hitson, TACC Chair, welcomed members to the meeting. Following introductions, Mr. Hitson
summarized the upcoming agenda, and asked for approval of the minutes from the March 2012 meeting.
Minutes were unanimously approved by members.
Update on Current/Ongoing Projects
Todd Carpenter, NISO, provided an update on the status of the data equivalence project. He indicated
that partners were working on a proposal for funding and that plans were underway for a two day
symposium, likely to take place in the second quarter of 2013, in conjunction with the CNI meeting.
Technology Briefings/Demos
Dennis Gannon, Microsoft Research, “Data Management in the Cloud”
Mr. Gannon presented an overview of Microsoft Research’s work with data management in the cloud,
beginning with background on the data explosion in science, and the requirements from funding agencies
that data be made public. Universities, in particular, approached Microsoft for assistance in this area, and
Microsoft Research has a strong interest in building tools for scientists. Over 100 global data centers have
been established to date, and the MS cloud research engagement initiative with the National Science
Foundation will incorporate over 90 projects worldwide. Mr. Gannon also provided specifics on various
partnerships and collaborations, along with details on Microsoft’s Azure Marketplace and the research
tools available.
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Frank Stein, IBM, “The Technology behind IBM’s Watson – Natural Language Processing and
Machine Learning”
Mr. Stein discussed IBM’s Watson project, which pitted the machine “Watson” against human
contestants on the Jeopardy game show. Challenges and key technologies encompassed natural language
processing, information management, machine learning, distributed computing, and massively parallel
processing. Mr. Stein presented some possible next steps for the Watson technology, including rich
problem solutions in the medical field (diagnosing a patient based on symptoms and past medical
history), and applications in technical support and enterprise knowledge management fields.
Lance Vowell, U.S. DOE/OSTI, “Semantic Search in Energy Sciences”
Mr. Vowell’s presentation focused on OSTI’s semantic search and keyword to concept mapping. Using
its extensive energy subject thesaurus, OSTI has developed an ontology-based, faceted search application.
This technology will be deployed in a new OSTI database, set for release in 2013.
Semantic Search Vowell_rev2.pptx
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Project Participation Opportunity
Carol Tenopir, University of Tennessee/CIBER, “Trust and Authority in Scholarly
Communications”
Dr. Tenopir presented an overview of the University of Tennessee/CIBER project, which is currently
engaged in Phase 1, focusing on how academic researchers use and trust scholarly communications.
Phase 2 will concentrate on government and laboratory researchers, Phase 3 on communication in small
countries, and Phase 4 on mobile communications. Phase 1 techniques include deep log analysis, focus
groups, critical incident interviews, and surveys. Dr. Tenopir indicated that they would welcome
participation by ICSTI members, and VTT, IUCr, TIB, DataCite, and OSTI all expressed an interest in
participating in the project. Mr. Hitson and Dr. Tenopir will follow up with those organizations, and other
ICSTI members are invited to participate as well.
ICST.TACCTenopir10.
14.2012rev.pptx
Summary/Conclusions
Mr. Hitson thanked the speakers for their interesting and informative presentations, and members echoed
their appreciation. Copies of the presentations will be made available in the meeting minutes.
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