D-Lib Magazine / Special Issue on the Research Data Alliance

Editorial

Laurence Lannom

Corporation for National Research Initiatives

The January/February issue of D-Lib Magazine is largely devoted to the Research Data Alliance (RDA), a new organization that we feel will be of great interest to our readers. As you will discover as you go through the issue, RDA has gotten off to an extremely strong start, catching and helping to propel the wave of activity in what our guest editorial refers to as `the collection and analysis of previously unimaginable quantities of data`. RDA is intended to be a bottom-up organization bringing together scientists and data practitioners to discuss, plan, and help build the infrastructure needed to bridge disciplinary and operational boundaries and mine the potential riches of the data flood. We do not, of course, know precisely where this will lead or whether RDA will achieve its most ambitious goals. We do know, however, that in the relatively brief time since its foundation, RDA has already brought together disparate groups and begun to build consensus in various areas.

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Building Global Infrastructure for Data Sharing and Exchange Through the Research Data Alliance

Synthesis of Working Group and Interest Group Activity One Year into the Research Data Alliance

Data Type Registries: A Research Data Alliance Working Group

Improving Access to Recorded Language Data

Opening and Linking Agricultural Research Data

Organizational Status of RDA