This week Allyson Lister, Content and Community Coordinator for FAIRsharing at the University of Oxford, joins Rory for an exciting discussion spanning her role, work on ontologies and semantic data, as well as a world first announcement! More on that in the episode!
This week, the RDA / EOSC Future Domain Ambassadors program goes Live!
In today's episode, Allyson describes her journey and how she got involved in her unique field, and shares some of the motivations and inclinations that led her to pursue her research interests. Rory mentions the Oxford E-Research Centre, and Allyson delves into the focus, involvement and scope of the organisation. Allyson goes into some of the deeply interesting technologies employed, including use of Nvidia GPUs and AI.
Rory brings up the role of Data Stewards at the Oxford E-Research Centre, and Allyson goes on to mention TU Delft's invaluable work, as well as Esther Plomp, a previous guest on the show! Allyson gives us a crash course in semantic data and ontologies, and describes some of the work being done to improve sharing and make data more computationally accessible.
Rory asks about the use of ontologies in connection with research tools, and how to make the connection between them seamless and machine actionable, to better facilitate researcher workflow. Allyson shares some of the practices employed at FAIR Sharing and how ontologies are enabling interoperability, as well as diving into some of the tools and efforts to assist in FAIR assessment.
Allyson describes how her roles integrate and complement each other, and elaborates on FAIR Sharing, it's role and it's purpose, as well as how it fits in with the work conducted at the E-Research Centre. Core among these values is collaboration, and Allyson mentions work conducted in partnership with stakeholders such as GOFAIR, the RDA, and FORCE11. To round off this exciting discussion, Allyson describes some of the exciting work being done and the need to showcase curators and encourage the relationships that have developed in this blossoming field.