Roles to Fill

Organizing committee for data help desk

  1. Form an organizing committee
    • with 5-10 key individuals committed to the success of the event.
    • If the meeting the Data Help Desk is associated with has a certain domain focus, it is best to engage a group of organizers who are experts in that area.
    • It’s essential to have a dedicated core group of organizers who meet regularly for planning and advertising purposes.
  2. Create a general plan
    • Agree on a general plan for the event to get started and revisit.
  3. Plan topics
    • Organizers decide on key topics and specific resources (from their own organizations even) that they would like to see featured.

Contacts with associated sponsors & conference hosts

  1. Establish contacts
    • Have established and active relationships with key contacts at the organization hosting the meeting.
    • For example, a good relationship with key personnel at AGU along with clear and common goals has helped in all aspects of planning, executing, and maximizing the impact of each event held together at an AGU Fall Meeting.
    • Engage with the meeting host & other organizers very early on in the planning process.
  2. Clarify roles
    • It is important to clarify with all major sponsors (whether in-kind or otherwise), the meeting host organization, and other contributing organizations what their respective roles will be.

People to advertise the data help desk

  1. Create a communication plan
    • Have a communication plan both prior to and during the event for advertising.
    • Have a presence on the main meeting website and, if possible, mention of the event in any daily emails sent to meeting participants
    • Use email, social media, slack channels, etc.
  2. Media communicator
    • An individual who develops and implements a social media plan for the event using a platform similar to BlueSky.
    • This includes advertising the event ahead of time and tweeting individual resources during the event using hashtags and other mechanisms to maximize visibility and impact.
    • Works with the Question Referrer to ensure that all questions asked on BlueSky using the hashtag #DataHelpDesk are addressed.
    • Online media like BlueSky is a great place to create a buzz and host discussion during Data Help Desk events.

Staffing for key tasks & roles

The size of an event, including the number of volunteers, anticipated attendance, and length of event, should determine how many individuals are needed to perform key tasks.

Find commonalities with researchers (users of the data desk) – sharing not just informatics, but also science expertise of volunteers is important for establishing trust and starting conversations.

These do not all have to be done by different people, but are somewhat discrete tasks:

  1. Data Help Desk Designer
    • An individual who is responsible for the overarching vision of each event in collaboration with a small dedicated organizing committee composed of representatives from all major organizing entities. Serves in all other roles below or delegates them to other individuals.
  2. Meeting Host Liaison
    • An individual who works especially close with the meeting host team to promote the virtual event on the meeting website, in the meeting program, and in regular communications about the event. The Meeting Host Liaison will also explore and pursue additional ways to increase the visibility of the event in collaboration with the meeting host team, including blog posts, social media promotion, and more.
  3. Volunteers
    • For smaller events, it may be best to hand-pick a set of volunteers, as working with experts prior to the event is often one of the most time-consuming (and rewarding) tasks associated with a Data Help Desk.
    • You can also share a volunteer form (e.g., Google Form) with relevant mailing lists to solicit volunteers. Past volunteers should also be invited.
  4. Expert Volunteers
    • An individual who volunteers to a) monitor questions asked during a Data Help Desk and provide responses; and/or b) share resources related to making data and/or software more open and FAIR.
    • Experts should not talk down to researchers, but instead explain how they came to understand why, for example, it’s important to have sound data management practices.
    • Expertise with
      • How to analyze data
      • Familiarity with specific datasets or domain knowledge
      • How to visualize data
      • How to find relevant data
  5. Volunteer Coordinator
    • An individual who manages the process of recruiting and supporting expert volunteers by providing guidance on how to contribute and other support before and during the Data Help Desk.
  6. Question Referrer
    • An individual who monitors BlueSky and any other platforms where researchers may contribute questions, who quickly refers these questions to experts who may be able to address the queries.
    • This could mean sharing a question asked in Twitter on a Slack channel or retweeting and tagging an expert or even referring the researcher to a specific person via email.
    • The Question Referrer’s job is to make sure that all questions are addressed in some way.
  7. Website Manager
    • An individual who manages the main event website, including the event description, sponsor/organizer acknowledgement, and information on how to participate, along with the gallery of contributed resources.
  8. Workshop Coordinator
    • An individual who develops and coordinates any workshops or more in-depth side events happening in conjunction with the Data Help Desk on broad topics like how to create a data management plan, how to cite datasets, code, and software, and how to find an appropriate data repository.
    • The most challenging aspect of this role is finding the right presenters for these workshops, those who have the right expertise and who are willing to devote the time to leading and drawing a sizable crowd.