Because good research needs good data

IDCC 2019 - The Theme Tune

IDCC 2019 – The Theme Tune

by Bruce Stephens & Gavan McCarthy 2019

Watch & listen on flickr channel

Lyrics

To amuse you tonight, all you conference folks,
I searched very hard for Digital Curation jokes.
... There weren't any!

Instead, we have this Digital Curation ode,
Sung in a very simple doggerel mode.
It may be no good but who cares?
You'll digitise it and preserve it forever!

Now, if you are a digital curator,
You want to preserve things and stuff for later,
In this millennium – and for many more millennia to come!

But climate change is the long-term issue for me.
We don't want everybody's home to be girt by sea.
So, be the first person on your block chain
To reduce power consumption.

CHORUS (2 times)

IDCC two thousand nineteen.
Best IDCC that you’ve ever seen.
Oooooooooooooooh! We love Digital Curation.

An Englishman and a digital curator walked into a bar.
And the Irishman and the Scotsman weren't very far
Away, when the barman said, "I'm sorry,
But I can't serve you without a Data Management Plan"

Of course, the band, tonight, has a Data Management Plan.
And we'll share it with you when we can.
We promise. We really will. Honest! True!
No kidding! Very soon!

It's amazing nowadays how much data you can store.
Exabytes, zettabytes, yottabytes and more!
But this ageing band you see here tonight
Is down to only 1 gig of memory!

I started out floppy, then I went to hard.
Now my disk is solid state. So avant garde!
Translated from French, that means waaaay 'out in front'.

You say darta, I say dayta.
Beeta version, or is it bayta?
Metta darta. Meet our dayta.
So, we can settle on some good schemata.

Become a Digital Curator my teachers told me.
So, that's what I studied at university.
Though unfortunately, when I got a job, I just couldn't hack it!

Metadata is a redundant Graeco-Roman word,
Because data-about-data is still data, so I've heard.
So, what in the bloody hell is the 'meta' for?

Digital curation mitigates digital obsolescence,
Keeps information accessible for our future reference.
And the digital age won't end because we've run out of digits.

It's a dayta day problem storing zeroes and ones,
But future reinterpretation depends on what comes.
Not to mention potential problems of migration, emulation and storage.

Christine Kenneally gave a premier paper,
About the impact on lives by the data curator.
And if you haven't already done so,
'Find & Connect' with her at the conference.

Patricia Brennan and the NLM,
Want advanced management strategies from beginning to end.
To leverage up-stream investment in curation at the point of data generation and down-stream strategies to locate, re-use, and enrich data resources.

Tomorrow, Clifford Lynch and Nancy McGovern,
Will lead you all in a panel discussion,
On community inclusivity & collaboration.
So, you'd better come prepared!

Melbourne Uni, GALE, Figshare, Ex Libris, Springer Nature,
And Donna McRostie the conference creator.
Now that we’ve mentioned you all in our song,
We hope our check-sum is in the mail.

CHORUS

Digital Creation - Creation???

Digital Cremation - Cremation???

Digital Crustacean - Crustacean???

Digital Croatian - Croatian???

Digital Frustration - Frustration???

Digital Cessation - Cessation???

You're all digital sensations!