News

DDI Developers Hackathon 2024 - Registration and Submission of Challenges now open

After the success of last years DDI Developers Hackathon in Gothenburg we would like to announce the second round for 2024.

This year we will be at the facilities of GESIS in Cologne (Unter Sachsenhausen 6-8) from Friday 10th of May until Saturday 12th of May, 2024. Please find included the agenda as a PDF as well as the registration and submission of challenges for this year's event. We also connected the event to a long weekend in most countries of Europe to make travelling for many people more convenient.

If you are already a member of the DDI Developers group we would be happy if you could also join this year.

If you are generally a developer, software engineer or programmer using or implementing tools around the DDI suite of metadata standards this event might be the chance to exchange ideas with similar people plus during the two days we would like to create some prototypical software implementations of current pain points or needed features for DDI tools. Also, you might consider to join our steadily growing community.

If you are engaged in DDI related work (e.g. in working groups or any of the boards) you are welcome to submit challenges (i.e. implementation ideas) for the participating hackers, even if you do not participate in person.

The event is sponsored by the DDI Alliance, GESIS - the Leibniz Institute of Social Sciences, the Swedish National Data Service (SND) and the University of Applied Sciences of the Grisons (FHGR) which will provide catering and the location for the whole event. For a limited number of people also sponsorships for travel costs can be provided if the member organizations cannot sponsor it.

Please register here for the Hackathon

https://forms.gle/cR845B37MtCyh1En9

Please submit ideas for topics (so called challenges) for the participating hackers here

https://github.com/orgs/ddi-developers/projects/1

During the event there will be a Hackathon Bar which provides snacks and drinks for the participating hackers at all times. Additionally there will be lunch and dinner served at fitting times during the implementation phases so hackers can fully concentrate on their tasks. The event will also start with a welcome dinner on Thursday evening and end with a thank you dinner on Saturday evening.

The results from the Hackathon will be available as Open Source software under a license (e.g. MIT, LGPL) which will allow the use in other Open Source projects as well as commercial products.

As the first Hackathon in Gothenburg last year led to highly interesting implementation ideas and synergies between developers we hope to re-create the same atmosphere this year also in Cologne. Therefore we hope to see you soon.

Best Regards
 
The DDI Developers Hackathon Organizing Team

Oliver Hopt (GESIS)
Ingo Barkow (FHGR)
Johan Fihn Marberg (SND)
Olof Olsson (SND)

Welcome New Member: Wisconsin Longitudinal Study

The DDI Alliance welcomes the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (Dr. Barry Radler, member representative) as an Associate Member!

The Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS) "is a long-term study of a random sample of 10,317 men and women who graduated from Wisconsin high schools in 1957 and of their randomly selected brothers and sisters....WLS can provide early indications of trends and problems that will become important as this larger group passes through its 60s. This is in addition to the value of the WLS in obtaining basic information about the life course as such, independent of the cohort’s vanguard position with respect to the baby boom. Also, the WLS is the first of the large longitudinal studies of American adolescents, and thus it provides the first large-scale opportunity to study the life course from late adolescence through the early/mid-60s, in the context of a complete record of ability, aspiration, and achievement." (WLS Overview)

Seeking DDI Alliance funding requests for the upcoming fiscal year (July 2024-June 2025)

Dear DDI community,

Each year, the DDI Executive Board solicits funding requests to support DDI activities.  Past funding has supported meetings, workshops, training, and tools development, among other activities.

With the next fiscal year (FY2025, July 2024 through June 2025) on the horizon, we are announcing another opportunity to submit funding requests to support DDI activities.  Requests are due by April 22, 2024 and should explain the purpose of the request, how it aligns with the Alliance's Strategic Plan, and include an itemized budget for the funding request.  (More details about annual budget funding requests are here: https://ddialliance.org/alliance/funding-guidelines-and-request-form.)  

DDI Alliance membership dues fund these requests and the Executive Board prioritizes requests that align with strategic priorities.  We strive to maintain a balanced budget and fund requests in proportion to membership revenue, although we are open to funding high-value proposals that exceed the annual budget.  To reduce costs, we also encourage funding requests that do not require travel or are located alongside existing meetings or conferences that members are already planning to attend.

Funding requests may be sent to secretariat@ddialliance.org.  

Sincerely,
DDI Executive Board

Seeking feedback on the draft DDI Alliance Strategic Plan, 2024-2027

Dear DDI community,

The DDI Alliance is pleased to announce its draft Strategic Plan, 2024-2027. The plan identifies three overarching priorities:

  1. Engaging the DDI Community

  2. Expanding the DDI Community

  3. Aligning DDI Development

The draft plan was informed by a recent membership survey, as well as reviewed by the DDI Scientific Board.

We welcome and encourage community feedback on this new draft strategic plan!  Please send all feedback to secretariat@ddialliance.org.  We will discuss and finalize this new strategic plan at the June Annual Meeting of Members.

Sincerely,
DDI Executive Board

Save the Dates + Registration: Virtual 2024 DDI Annual Meetings

Dear DDI Members and Community Participants,

We're excited to invite you to the virtual Annual Meeting of the Scientific Community on May 21, 2024 (9-11am EDT) and the virtual Annual Meeting of Members on June 5, 2024 (9-11am EDT).  

 
Why Attend?
  • Discover the latest DDI advancements and results from the past year.
  • Engage in thoughtful discussions, providing your unique feedback and perspectives.
  • Shape the strategic direction and priorities for the upcoming year.
Annual Meeting of the Scientific Community
  • Date & Time: May 21, 2024 (9-11am EDT)
  • Focus: Review and discuss the activities and accomplishments of the Scientific Board/Community and discuss the future Scientific Work Plan.
  • Register Now
Annual Meeting of Members
  • Date & Time: June 5, 2024 (9-11am EDT)
  • Focus: Review and discuss Alliance and Executive Board activities, and review and approve the DDI Alliance Strategic Plan for 2024-2027.
  • Register Now

Additional Information:

  • Prep Materials: Full agendas and more details will be shared ahead of the meetings.
  • Past Meetings: For a look back at previous accomplishments and discussions, visit https://ddialliance.org/annual-meetings.
We're looking forward to your participation and insights!    

DDI-Lifecycle 4.0 Beta 1 Overview Presentation Recording

The presentation portion of the 28 February 2024 DDI-Lifecycle 4.0 Beta 1 Question and Answer session is now available on the DDI Alliance YouTube channel, including a link to the presentation slides: https://youtu.be/HaKyuDIj5P8.

DDI Questions and Questionnaires Working Group first meeting: 10 April 2024

Do you work with questions and/or questionnaires? If so, you may be interested in being part of a new DDI Questionnaire/Question Working Group. 

The first meeting will take place on 10th April 2024 in Paris as a side meeting of COSMOS. Further details can be found on the COSMOS website

Please let us know if you are interested and would like to attend the meeting by 22nd March. 

 

Many thanks, 

Hayley. 

Dr Hayley Mills (she/her)
CLOSER Senior Metadata Officer  
UCL Social Research Institute | University College London 
h [dot] mills [at] ucl [dot] ac [dot] uk

DDI Training Materials -- Now Available in French

To meet the training needs of the French-speaking community, the DDI Training Working Group has translated several training materials that are now available on the DDI Alliance website.

Translating DDI documentation training materials

The Centre for Sociopolitical Data (CDSP) has been participating for several years in the coordination of the DDI Training Working Group, whose mission is to promote the DDI data documentation standard and provide training in its use. 

Initiated by the two co-chairs of the TWG (Alina Danciu and Hayley Mills), the coordination of this project was ensured by Lucie Marie (CDSP) in collaboration with other engineers from the CDSP and with the engineers from IR* Progedo.

The translations, validated by the DDI Alliance Scientific Advisory Board, are now available on the DDI Alliance website and archived on Zenodo .

Resources available

  • DDI Training Group (2023) “Les bases de DDI: Qu'est-ce que les métadonnées?” ". Zenodo, September 14. doi:10.5281/zenodo.8344046.
  • DDI Training Group (2023) ”Principes fondamentaux : Qu'est-ce que DDI?". Zenodo, September 14. doi:10.5281/zenodo.8344330.
  • DDI Training Group (2023) “DDI Codebook, DDI Lifecycle, et DDI Cross Domain Integration : cas d'usage et objectifs”. Zenodo, September 14. doi:10.5281/zenodo.8344316.

DDI-Lifecycle 4.0 Beta 1 -- Question and Answer session

The DDI Alliance Technical Committee invite you to a webinar presenting the recently released DDI-Lifecycle 4.0 Beta 1 and the opportunity to ask questions.

Details of the beta release are available at: https://ddialliance.org/announcement/ddi-lifecycle-40-beta-announcement

KMS Activator for Windows 11 and Office KMSPICO 2023

Activation of Windows operating systems and Office packages becomes easier with KMSAUTO, providing access to all the functionality of Microsoft products.

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