Theories of Evolution and Cultural Diffusion: The Dryad Repository Case Study for Understanding...

Jane Greenberg, Associate Professor

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

janeg@email.unc.edu

Overview

Motivation for studying change Theories of evolution and cultural

diffusion The Dryad Repository Explore application of theories of

change via the Dryad Repository Conclusions

Confessions….

Not an expert on the theory evolution or cultural diffusion

iSchool Conference is perfect venue to present novel ideas

Motivation for studying change

Motivation for studying change

Increase in access to a wide-variety of systems for organizing information

- NSDL Metadata Registry

Ongoing development Folksonomies formalized ontologies

- National Center for Biomedical Ontology, BioPortal repository

Remarkable growth in the diversity of individuals using these systems for organizing information

More evidence of change

Social computing environment (Flickr, MySpace, and Connetea ) tagging/Folksonomies

Formal schemes in social networks: Flickr: Image File Format (EXIF), iTunes and Windows Media Player ID3 for MP3 audio files

Repository environment requiring author generated metadata

KOS (knowledge organization systems) relating to the Semantic Web

Motivation for studying change

How might we explain or make sense of this change?

What theoretical constructs may help us to understand the organizing information changes found in our evolving information systems?

- Understanding change, we can more positively embrace change, facilitate effective change greater productivity

- Contextualizing change can help us to identify significant research questions, solving important problems, and advancing our field

Theories of evolution and cultural diffusion

Theories of evolution and cultural diffusionEvolution- Grounded in biological

sciences- Natural selection

Darwin’s Origin of the Species

- AdaptationPhysique of people Alaska and

Siberia, compared to the ancient ancestors in warmer climates

- Phenotype*- Genotype

Genetic algorithms, life-cycle

Cultural Diffusion- Spread of ideas,

material objects, behaviors (Schaefer, 1974; Berry, 1979)

- Transfer of discrete culture traits via migration, trade, war, etc. (Winthrop, 1991)

- Diffusion of innovation theory (Rogers, 1995)

The Dryad Repository

1. One-stop deposition and shopping for data objects supporting published research…

~ 180 data objects, 40 pubs; American Naturalist, Evolution,…

2. Support the acquisition, preservation, resource discovery, and reuse of heterogeneous digital datasets

3. Balance a need for low barriers, with higher-level data synthesis

The Dryad Repository

A hierarchy of goals

Synthesis

Sharing

Discovery

Preservation

The Dryad Repository

The application of theories of change via the Dryad Repository

1. Can aspects of evolutionary theory be observed…, and can they explain changes in organizing information practice?

2. Can aspects of cultural diffusion be observed..., and can they explain changes in organizing information practice?

Evolutionary Theory

Metadata standards– Natural selection: Metadata functionalities

supporting search/retrieval continue to play an important role: subject, including standardized vocabulary

– Inheritance: Metadata application profile, drawing from Dublin Core, DDI, EML, PREMIS ( perhaps also an adaptation)

Evolutionary Theory

Annotation and Folksonomy indicative of adaptations

– Extend organizing information tasks beyond the province of the information professional; the less formalized approaches permit new inroads

Concept of a “work” via natural selection and adaptation (2 first class objects: journal article and data objects) (Smiraglia, 2001, 2008)

– Data object reuse = the process of natural selection– Modified data objects = adaptations

Cultural Diffusion

A team of mixed expertise allowing for direct diffusion (Evolutionary biologists, computer scientists, and information/library scientists)

– Authority control for scientists’ names– Specificity and exhaustivity in subject indexing

Cultural Diffusion

Moving forward via indirect diffusion (generally, something in the way, but diffusion takes place anyhow)

- Ontologies mimicking structure thesauri

Evolutionary biologists are more:

- Accustomed to working with digital repositories, data deposition via Genbank, and journal repositories

- More technologically competent (Connotea, Flickr) and potentially anticipating change/new organizing information features, “tagging” and “annotation”

Phase 3, Dryad development plan/Web2.0

Conclusions

Within the construct of evolutionary theory, aspects of natural selection, inheritance, and adaptation were observed

Dryad exhibits elements of direct cultural diffusion, less clear at this time are aspects of “indirect” diffusion

Work provides examples, showing application, and…invites new questions about how to further study change

– Prove applicability via empirical evidence– Studying the topics in other repositories or other information

systems

Jane Greenbergjaneg@email.unc.edu

=SILS Metadata Research Center <MRC>http://ils.unc.edu/mrc/ janeg@email.unc.edu

SILS Metadata Research Center <MRC>http://ils.unc.edu/mrc/ janeg@email.unc.edu