archival hospitality

Most qualitative data repositories follow an ethic of data accessibility (or availability), as in the FAIR principles (data should be findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable). PECE works to do more than make data accessible by enacting an ethic of archival hospitality and hospitality.

Accessibility is an ethic predicated on narrowness, specificity, known needs; it is fundamentally utilitarian. A researcher searches for data she needs, finds it through its metadata, accesses it in the repository or archive that contains it, acquires it, logs out. These data are presented in lists of discrete items, isolated and self-sufficient.

PECE conceptualizes data as fundamentally relational, connected to the questions and contexts that created it, open to new questions and contexts. In the PECE model, archives should be hospitable: inviting, making a researcher want to linger, continue in conversation, and playfully expand it. Relations among data are made visible to encourage roaming, exploration, play.