Data Access in a Cyber World Making Use of Cyberinfrastructure.docVIP

TRANSACTIONS ON DATA PRIVACY 1 (2008) 2 —16 Data Access in a Cyber World: Making Use of Cyberinfrastructure Julia Lane*, Pascal Heus** and Tim Mulcahy*** * National Science Foundation ** Open Data Foundation *** NORC/University of Chicago Abstract. The vast amount of data now collected on human beings and organizations as a result of cyberinfrastructure advances has created similarly vast opportunities for social scientists to study and understand human behavior. It has also made traditional ways of protecting social science data obsolete. The challenge to social scientists is to exploit advances in cyberinfrastructure to develop new access modalities that not only provide access but preserve data and create scientific communities. This paper outlines an approach that draws on both advances in the social science and the computer science literatures. 1 Introduction “So voluminous is the data surrounding CIOs that it could almost be likened to a tsunami that will engulf business. In fact an IDC study entitled ?The Expand‐ ing Digital Universe? estimated that the current size of that universe was 161 billion gigabytes. Moreover, it anticipated that the volume would grow six fold by the end of this decade to 988 billion gigabytes. In effect, that represents a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) in global data of 57 percent in over four years.” Surviving the Ditigal Tsunami, CIO Magazine, Dec 13, 20071 The vast amount of data now collected on human beings and organizations, such as businesses, illustrated by both the picture and the quotation has made traditional ways of protecting social science data obsolete. The availability of data due to data security breaches exacerbates the challenge: PrivacyR estimates that over 223 million data records of U.S. residents have been exposed CIO refers to Chief Information Officer; for more information on IDC see 1 2  Data Access in a Cyber World: Making Use of Cyberin