{"id":3636,"date":"2024-03-31T23:50:57","date_gmt":"2024-03-31T23:50:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wds-ito.org\/Staging_001\/?p=3636"},"modified":"2024-04-01T00:04:57","modified_gmt":"2024-04-01T00:04:57","slug":"farewell-see-you-soon-reflections-on-my-time-with-the-wds-ito","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wds-ito.org\/Staging_001\/farewell-see-you-soon-reflections-on-my-time-with-the-wds-ito\/","title":{"rendered":"Farewell & see you soon: Reflections on my time with the WDS-ITO"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s been almost exactly 20 months since I started my position as a research associate with the World Data System International Technology Office (WDS-ITO). I came from a fast-paced research support role in knowledge translation that was quickly growing to encompass information management as project after project was added to my portfolio, and I threw my application to the WDS-ITO in the hopes it would be a life raft out of a stress-infused spiral. It felt like a long shot – I didn\u2019t have a background in information technology or management, and my experience was firmly in science communication, education, and research. I had never heard of the FAIR principles<\/a> before, let alone the WDS<\/a>, and was only starting to hear the words \u201cResearch Data Management\u201d thanks to the announcement of new requirements from the funding tri-agency here in Canada<\/a>. Certainly someone with some knowledge and background in information science, research infrastructure, and data science would be a better fit to lead the Global Open Research Commons project described in the job description<\/a>. We\u2019ve joked since that I \u201crage applied\u201d to the ITO, and it\u2019s only funny because it\u2019s true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I cried when I received the email from then-ITO director Karen Payne that I was selected for an interview. I didn\u2019t know what I was getting myself into, but I had taken an interest in the underlying field of work that supports researchers and was committed enough to enroll in an MLIS program<\/a> even before encountering the WDS-ITO job ad. It was clear in the interview process that I was familiar with conducting research but wasn\u2019t so strong on the foundational knowledge. I\u2019m not sure what Karen thought of the interview and why she felt that someone completely new to this field would be a good fit, but I will always be grateful for being given this chance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Most of my work with the WDS-ITO was focused on the Research Data Alliance<\/a> Global Open Research Commons (RDA GORC) project, specifically for the GORC International Model Working Group (GORC IM WG<\/a>). I\u2019ve written a lot about the project over the course of my position, and so I encourage you to read some of those posts<\/a> as I won\u2019t be recounting everything here. My role started as a facilitator and support, coordinating the WG and doing background literature review. This evolved into mapping ideas together so I could better understand the material, which led to a running list of attributes, which led into preliminary versions of the model. We formed task groups in the WG to work on specific parts, and I spent enormous amounts of time with the absolutely incredible individuals who participated. I would gladly do 5am meetings forever to continue working with the GORC IM WG.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Karen unfortunately stepped down as director of the ITO<\/a> a little less than one year ago, and we were without leadership for much longer than anyone anticipated. My colleague Chantelle kept her polar projects<\/a> running and I stepped into a co-chair role for the GORC IM WG. The next six months were intense as we pushed to keep the ITO and our projects running. The GORC IM WG published our deliverables in October 2023 during International Data Week in Salzburg, Austria<\/a>, and I\u2019d never felt more proud of a group or project than of the GORC IM WG members and deliverables during that week.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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With the deliverables delivered, the GORC IM WG has been working on adoption of the model itself and planning what will come next. With Reyna Jenkyn\u2019s hired as the new ITO director<\/a> and new directions on the horizon, the past few months have been filled with forward-facing contemplation. What should happen next for the ITO, and the projects it supports? While I strongly believe in the goals and mission of the WDS, in this time of change a dear colleague shared an opportunity to work with the Digital Research Alliance of Canada<\/a>, and felt that I would be a good fit given the success of the GORC IM WG. So, I jumped from my life raft.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

My time with the WDS-ITO has been nothing short of life changing. I knew I wouldn’t continue in astrophysics research when I completed my PhD in 2020, and I didn\u2019t really have a purpose to rally behind. Now I do have a purpose and passion for my professional life in supporting the building, development, implementation, and expansion of research infrastructure and the concepts that propel it thanks to my experience with the ITO. I am looking forward to focusing on the Canadian research community in my new position as a project manager with the Alliance while also staying active in international projects, including the RDA GORC groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is farewell to my role with the WDS-ITO, but not goodbye to the area of work. I\u2019ll continue to co-chair the GORC IM WG and help get more GORC and other RDA groups off the ground, many of which will have WDS representatives. In the short term, I\u2019ll see you at the upcoming RDA 22nd Plenary in May 2024<\/a>, and in particular at the GORC IG\/WG combined session<\/a> (Breakouts 2 & 14), the Health Data Commons: GORC international model profiling towards FAIR convergence BoF session<\/a> (Breakouts 1 & 10), and the Community-based catalogue of requirements for trustworthy Technical Repository Service Providers Working Group session<\/a> (Breakouts 4 & 13) – don\u2019t forget to register<\/a>!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Thank you to everyone at the WDS, Ocean Networks Canada, and the University of Victoria for your ongoing support and camaraderie. Farewell, and see you soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CJ Woodford is leaving the WDS-ITO, but will continue to work in the research infrastructure and data sphere. He will be at RDA P22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3637,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[132],"tags":[136,139,134],"class_list":["post-3636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-blog","tag-conference","tag-gorc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wds-ito.org\/Staging_001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wds-ito.org\/Staging_001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wds-ito.org\/Staging_001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wds-ito.org\/Staging_001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wds-ito.org\/Staging_001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3636"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wds-ito.org\/Staging_001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3642,"href":"https:\/\/wds-ito.org\/Staging_001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3636\/revisions\/3642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wds-ito.org\/Staging_001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wds-ito.org\/Staging_001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wds-ito.org\/Staging_001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wds-ito.org\/Staging_001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}