NDSA:Values Statement

Notes from Organizing Workshop, Review of Day One: Changes Recommended for Framing Documents

The Mission and Values subcommittee presented the values statement and the rationale that went into creating it. Particular attention was given to crafting a statement that clearly did not exclude any organizations for participating in the Alliance in at least some capacity. The entire group reviewed the draft values statement (see Appendix B). "Stewardship" was identified as the central, defining value and it was proposed that "Stewardship" become the first value listed. There was some conversation about the term "Diversity," specifically that it could be misunderstood out of context. This conclusion was reinforced by the small group conversations. It was determined that perhaps "Inclusiveness" was a better term for this value. Ultimately, the group concluded that the power of the values was in relation to one another, no one value alone could represent the shared understanding of the Alliance.

Small Group Discussion Topic: How can the alliance demonstrate these values?

• In working groups
• In NDSA communication
• In alliance meetings

The group agreed about he basic values of the Alliance. Discussion indicated consensus around the importance of:

• Align the NDSA work with the missions and interests of the members
• Raising public awareness
• Identify and reach out to marginalized and underserved digital preservation communities, specifically small and local communities
• Clarify the idea of “exchange;” not just sharing and reuse of resources among the NDSA but reaching out beyond this group to the broader community we're trying to serve
• Sustainability needs to be built into the values statement in a more prominent way
• “Diversity” includes inclusion of organizations and heterogeneity and diversity of approaches
• Stewardship as THE mission; collaboration, exchange and inclusion support the mission of stewardship; perhaps stewardship includes matching orphan collections with institutions willing to steward them
• Articulate the distinction of NDSA from other initiatives and the benefits of participating in the NDSA

Comments were also made from some individuals about the value of the following activities as well:

• Work with researchers (scientific) to raise awareness of the reproducibility of scientific results
• Conduct gap analysis of current capacity to develop a research agenda
• Leverage Web 2.0 communication channels to disseminate knowledge about existing capacities
• Pair with high tech companies that are doing innovative things in data management and figure out how to motivate them to work with us, but also make sure that it's a mutually-beneficial relationship, perhaps an advisory group (possible models: FACA/NGAC?)

Specific changes to the draft included:

• Changed order to place “Stewardship” at the top.
• Changed “citizens” to “generations”.
• Under “Stewardship” in second sentence, changed “entrusted keepers of digital content” to “actively committed to ensuring sustained access to the digital content”.
• Under “Stewardship” in last sentence, changed “actively oversee the administration of digital resources” to “support the management of digital resources”.
• Changed “Diversity” to “Inclusiveness”.
• Under “Diversity (Inclusiveness)” in last sentence, changed “challenge that extends beyond the boundaries of domain” to “pervasive challenge&rdquo, and the structure of the last part of that sentence.
  
  

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With respect to exchange, there was substantial commentary during the meeting on the need for transparency of operations and open source/open (in the sense of CC-Atribution) documents. A commitment to both should be put in the exchange section to make it more meaningful. E.g.:

"As an organization, we commit to being transparent in our operations and decisions, and to releasing works produced by the organization (such as software, standards, and publications) under open licenses." --Micah altman 19:48, 17 January 2011 (UTC)