FAIR Principles Evaluation
We evaluated the existing CSV and new JSON structures using the FAIR Principles.
FAIR Principles
- Findability
- Accessibility
- Interoperability
- Reuse
Existing Mural CSV Export
Findability
- Data objects have UIDs (sticky note data objects).
- Metadata to describe each data object.
- Ex: Each “sticky note” object includes metadata of Text, Color, Size, Link to (external URL), Last updated by, and Tags. But no UIDs for metadata in the CSV.
Accessibility
- There is also an API for access (free and enterprise versions of API) and UIDs from the CSV can be used in the API.
- API includes an authentication protocol (SSO).
- Data type parameters have their own unique identifiers on the API end but are not included on the CSV for elements other than sticky notes.
Interoperability
- Language used to describe the data and metadata are consistent with the terms used within the Mural application.
- Some terms such as "size" and "color" are standardized.
- API tool provides multiple programming languages, but not inherent to the CSV.
- API’s query parameters reference their linking terms in their metadata, but not inherent in the CSV.
Reuse
- The CSV has limited qualities for resuse, but the API allows for more resuse.
- Mural allows users to use multiple coding language options to access data using API.
- Provenance: metadata includes items such as “‘last updated by” and references the “workspaces” and “murals” the data came from.
New JSON Structure
Findability
- Data objects (session, Mural board, sticky notes, export info, recommendation contents) have their own distinct UIDs.
- Important metadata for the Mural board and sticky notes that can aid the functionality of the recommendation system, and key metadata regarding recommendation content.
- Mural: board id, URL
- sticky note: text, topic
- content: title, URL, topic
Accessibility
- New structure can be accessed through the recommendation API, multiple call functions can be used to access these data.
- The metadata can be saved to the backend of the mentoring system.
- Authentication for appropriate user access is managed through the mentorship platform and the API will be confiugured to be available to only the appropriate users.
Interoperability
- Data use a formal, accessible, shared, and broadly applicable language for knowledge representation.
- Python, JSON, CSV
Reuse
- The API will allow users to access sticky note information multiple times.
- If users edit/delete/change their sticky notes, the API will still run and provide different recommendations based on their inputs.
- Session history will be saved in the new structure.