With another hat on I've been reading the recent report from the European Commission's High-Level Expert Group on Scientific Data - "Riding the Wave: how Europe can gain from the rising tide of scientific data".  It captures the current state of research's digital landscape very well, offers a compelling vision of the value of scientific digital data twenty years hence, and recommends a number of key policy steps for the EU to consider.

I recommend it.  It's a good read - not perhaps in the same way that Patrick O'Brian's Jack Aubrey novels are a good read - but it does underline the increasingly digital nature of research across all disciplines, and the increasing importance of efficient and effective software tooling to manage the bits.  More grist to our collective mill!