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Digital Object Life-Cycle Ecosystem (DOLCE)

The DAC Data Management Services team uses the Digital Object Life-Cycle Ecosystem (DOLCE) framework to assure robust ingest and metadata registry services as the base level requirements for core REDI services. Core capabilities currently include data ingest, assurance, management and storage. Future capabilities such as browsing, searching, exporting/downloading, and visualization are currently in development.

The overall goal of DOLCE is to create policies and services that enable DAC to support accessibility to and discovery of digital objects throughout the phases of their lifecycle (see figure 2, above). These phases include:

  • Generation - The creation of new data through direct observation, development of new models, or other primary research activities.
  • Processing - Cleanup or other refining of data products including activities such as data transformation, removal of personally identifiable information, encryption, or compression.
  • Description - Creation of robust metadata to facilitate long term discoverability, access, and reuse.
  • Analysis - Use in scientific analysis to inform interpretation and gain meaningful insights from the digital objects. This includes using datasets for statistical analysis, as input for machine learning algorithms, to develop visualizations, and as input for modeling activities.
  • Storage - Both short term storage for immediate access and long-term preservation.
  • Sharing - Making the data available beyond the lifespan of its current project for reuse by other researchers in the short term or in the future.

Guiding Principles

DAC follows best practices generally accepted for free and open source software (FOSS), data management (FAIR Principles), and other standards. We encourage our users to familiarize themselves with these: