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This study explores the risks in networked data sharing in biodiversity research, focusing on issues of trust, credibility, and reliability. It discusses the challenges of accessing and utilizing diverse sources of information, emphasizing the importance of recognizing and addressing epistemic community perspectives in data sharing practices. The study also presents findings from the CalFlora study, examining current practices, concerns, and design alternatives in biodiversity digital libraries. Conclusions highlight the critical role of trust and the need to accommodate diverse practices in knowledge networks.
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Trust and Epistemic Communities in Biodiversity Data Sharing Nancy Van House SIMS, UC Berkeley www.sims.berkeley.edu/~vanhouse
Argument • Networked info >> ready access to unpublished information • Information from outside own epistemic community • Accessed by people from outsideown epistemic community • Issues of trust and credibility • Of info • Of sources • Of users
Risks in Networked Data • Unreliable info • Erroneous info • Undetected duplication > belief that a species is prevalent >> not preserving a population of a rare species • Chasing after erroneous reported sighting of a rare species • Confusing naturally-occurring and cultivated populations • Accurate but not credible info • Discounting significant sighting as amateur’s error • Inappropriate use of info • Private landowners destroying specimens of a rare plant to avoid legal limits on land development • Collectors (over-)collecting specimens of rare or valuable species • Cacti, orchids, floristic materials, mushrooms
CalFlora Study • Empirical study of a partially user-designed, state-level biodiversity digital library consisting of occurrence data of varying quality from multiple sources: • What are the current practices around occurrence data? • How do various kinds of participants use occurrence data? • What are the concerns about networked data of: • information producers • Information users • What design alternatives have been considered? • How have various participants evaluated these alternatives? • A study of the practices of an epistemic community, the development of a knowledge space
Conclusions • Information systems as sociotechnical networks • Often invisible to the participants who see them as merely technical • Trust as always a critical issue in knowledge • DLs need to accommodate practices • Incl. practices of trust and credibility • Networking as • Foregrounding taken-for-granted practices • Making new practices possible • Creating new knowledge spaces • Making linkages and equivalences across different kinds of knowledge • Empowering users to make own linkages, assessments for different purposes • Using concepts of knowledge spaces, epistemic cultures to understand and contribute to system design to fit use