This wiki contains information relating to DataSHIELD - both about the different softwares that are involved, and around the community that has developed around the software.
The community is governed according to the Constitution which was agreed at the DataSHIELD conference in 2022. The latest version is available to download from the Constitution page.
One of the core concepts behind the Community organisation is transparency. Individual Voting Members and members of Core Groups and the Steering Committee are publicly listed:
The DataSHIELD Community is organised into Themes; there are six altogether, three relating to technical aspects of the project and three relating to process aspects of the project:
Themes are the way the day-to-day work of the community is organised. Themes are classified as either 'Process' or 'Tech' related - the Theme Leads belong to the relevant Core Group as noted below.
Themes have dedicated sections of the wiki related to their activities, where each Theme states its agreed purpose, working practices and how it will communicate with other Themes. The Themes also have a dedicated section of the forum, which should be used as the primary means for communication.
There are two Core Groups for the DataSHIELD community: the Tech and Process Core Groups. The primary objective of the Core Groups is to provide coordination across the different Themes. The Technical Core Group is responsible for overseeing the Themes which are categorised as having a predominantly technical purpose, whereas the Process Core Group focuses on overseeing Themes with a non-technical purpose. These bodies have responsibility for ensuring that Themes are complementary to each other and do not overlap or duplicate work. They are also responsible for arbitrating decisions or conflicts between different Themes within their domain; problems may be escalated to the Steering Committee if required.
The Steering Committee provides overall leadership to the DataSHIELD Community and has day to day responsibility for the project. More information is provided on the following page: