IPYDIS News

Data Policy in other languages

2008-06-26T17:26:16+00:00

I was intrigued to find a Spanish translation of the IPY Data Policy on the Spanish National Polar Data Center web site. See http://hielo.igme.es/documentos/politica_de_datos_ipy.pdf

Anyone know of the Data Policy being translated into other languages?

-m.

How to Cite a Data Set

2008-05-21T17:27:29+00:00

We must recognize the intellectual effort data providers invest in collecting and preparing IPY data sets.

The IPY Data Policy requires that “users of IPY data must formally acknowledge data authors (contributors) and sources. Where possible, this acknowledgment should take the form of a formal citation, such as when citing a book or journal article.” New guidelines to help data managers and users develop appropriate citations for data sets are available through the IPYDIS at http://ipydis.org/data/citations.html.

How are other centers promoting data citation? Are these guidelines helpful? How could they be improved?

Preserve or perish,

-m.

Data Archiving

2008-06-11T21:38:34+00:00

As I have been contacting and engaging with the various partners in the IPYDIS, much of our attention has been on sharing metadata with some discussion of interoperability. We have scarcely begun to address the big problem of long term preservation of the data. Yet this will be central to the IPY legacy.

A few DIS partners have asked about data archiving, and a number of World Data Centers are contributing. Yet as I said to one IPY colleague, this is a problem for all of humanity. It is much bigger than IPY. It is incumbent upon us all to learn more about data archiving for the long term and sahre thos experiences across IPY, which may serve as an example for the rest of Earth system science.

A colleague asked for some general information on data archiving and preservation, and I provided the following references. Perhaps they are of use. What other resources are out there? What are individual projects doing to ensure the long term preservation of and access to their data?

Here’s some background material on data archiving.

The benchmark is:

CCSDS (Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems). 2002. Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS) CCSDS 650.0-B-1 Issue 1. Washington, DC: CCSDS Secretariat. Available at http://public.ccsds.org/publications/archive/650x0b1.pdf.

Stemming from this is the PREMIS (PREservation Metadata: Implementation Strategies) http://www.oclc.org/research/projects/pmwg/
This contains more details on implementation. It is largely oriented to the library community, but NSIDC has been exploring it for developing more complete preservation metadata describing fixity, provenance, and context.

Cornell University developed a nice online tutorial on digital preservation. See http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/dpm/.
This is a good place to start.

Finally, my colleague, Ruth Duerr, recently gave a lecture on “preparing for ingest” which was really about all the things you need to think about when acquiring a data set for archiving. See ftp://sidads.colorado.edu/pub/ppp/conf_ppp/Duerr/Preparing_Data_for_Ingest.ppt

-m.

Geospatial Interoperability Return on Investment Study

2008-06-09T17:14:29+00:00

This may be of general interest. A colleague of mine was looking for studies that demonstrate the costs and benefits of standardization. He found this interesting
study from NASA entitled “Geospatial Interoperability Return on Investment Study”. See http://www.ec-gis.org/sdi//ws/costbenefit2006/reference/ROI_Study.pdf. This suggests that we would gain efficiency by trying to create some interoperability standards across IPY.

-m.

Article on metadata sharing and operational data

2008-05-13T16:27:45+00:00

Operational Data Coordinator, Øystein Godøy, writes a nice summary of the current state of data sharing in IPY for Meta, a magazine published by the Norwegian Metacenter for Computational Science.

A select quote: “In many ways, IPY is two years too early when thinking of data management systems and the current development of large, global and truly interoperable systems.”

http://www.notur.no/publications/magazine/pdf/meta_2008_1.pdf

-m.

IPY Data Management Webcast, 6 May

2008-04-28T20:53:35+00:00

Securing the Legacy of the International Polar Year
Mark Parsons, National Snow and Ice Data Center

Tuesday, May 6, 2008, 1:30 pm, MDT
webcast live at:
<http://webcast.unidata.ucar.edu/ramgen/archive/050608ipy.rm>
- 720x480 at 225kbps
- Requires RealPlayer 8 or better
The seminars will be captured and archived for later viewing.

Unidata Seminar on IPY Data Management, 6 May 2008

2008-04-28T20:44:47+00:00

Securing the Legacy of the International Polar Year
Mark Parsons, National Snow and Ice Data Center

Tuesday, May 6, 2008, 1:30 pm.
Unidata Conference Room, FL4, 1318

Abstract

We are in the midst of one of the most exciting international and interdisciplinary science projects that many of us will encounter in our professional careers - the International Polar Year. Scientists in the natural, social, and health sciences are collaborating on some 228 endorsed projects in both the Arctic and Antarctic during a two-year period (March 2007-March 2009) of intense field observations. These science projects address crucial issues at a critical time in the evolution of the Earth system. A common thread in all projects is how we manage the data for collaboration now, during this IPY, and in the future as new science topics and issues emerge.

The International Polar Year Data and Information Service (IPYDIS) is a global partnership of data centers, archives, and networks working to ensure proper stewardship of IPY and related data. The National Snow and Ice Data Center acts as a coordination office for the IPYDIS to ensure the long-term preservation of broad, interdisciplinary, and non-expert access to IPY data. The IPYDIS tracks the data flow for IPY and helps researchers and data users identify data access mechanisms, archives, and services. The IPYDIS also provides information and assistance to data managers on compliance with standards, development of a union catalog of IPY metadata, and other data management requirements for IPY. It provides a general communication forum for all matters related to accessing, managing, and preserving IPY and related data. The IPYDIS is guided by the IPY Data Policy and Management Subcommittee, which develops the overall IPY data strategy and policies. The IPYDIS also supports and participates in the Electronic Geophysical Year (eGY), which promotes a modern e-Science approach to issues of data stewardship: open access to data, data preservation, data discovery, data rescue, capacity building, and outreach.

This presentation reviews current activities and future challenges for the IPYDIS in creating a sustained polar data system. Ultimately, we seek to create a data preservation and access “utility” a core infrastructure of science that is simple, predictable, reliable, extensible, accessible, and durable. But just like with existing utilities, such as water, electricity, and communications, the basic simplicity on the surface belies deep complexity, structure, planning, and professionalism. Creating that level of infrastructure requires great collaboration around standards, maintenance, and professional development and certification. We must bridge cultural barriers between scientific disciplines, between data managers and researchers, between libraries and data centers.

Unidata seminars are webcast live at:
<http://webcast.unidata.ucar.edu/ramgen/broadcast/seminar.rm>
- 720x480 at 225kbps
- Requires RealPlayer 8 or better
The seminars will be captured and archived for later viewing.

DADDI search interface now live

2008-04-15T22:41:31+00:00

The Discovery, Access, and Delivery of Data for IPY (DADDI) search system is now
available to all IPY data users. This interface provides access to Arctic data from the
four DADDI project partner organizations in addition to all IPY data harvested by the
Global Change Master Directory. The DADDI search system does not replace the GCMD
but augments it by providing a different search and presentation interface, including
filters and faceted search options. Direct links to data are included in the DADDI search
output where sufficient information is provided from the data source.

We hope the DADDI search interface can be a significant discovery and access mechanism
for IPY data. To fulfill this goal, the DADDI project participants seek to broaden its scope
through increased collaboration and (meta)data sharing. Please contact
if you are interested in sharing IPY-related data or metadata.

Access the DADDI search system at http://mercury.ornl.gov/daddi.

Enhancements coming soon include an improved spatial search of the Arctic and
visualization of selected Arctic data sets.

Enjoy!
Julia
--
Julia Collins
National Snow and Ice Data Center
CIRES, University of Colorado, Boulder
449 UCB
Boulder, CO 80309-0449
Voice: 303-492-6405
E-mail:

New article on IPY data management

2008-04-09T16:42:19+00:00

Ellsworth LeDrew, Taco de Bruin, and I recently published an article on “Securing the Legacy of IPY” in IEEE’s new online magazine, Earthzine. See:
http://www.earthzine.org/2008/03/27/securing-the-legacy-of-ipy/

-m.

Space Task Group SAR Workshop, 5-6 Mar 2008, St. Hubert Canada.

2008-04-03T21:43:54+00:00

Details from the Workshop can be found at: http://bprc.osu.edu/rsl/GIIPSY/index_files/STGSARWorkshop.htm

In summary, Ken Jezek writes:

I thought the meeting was very successful at setting the stage for coordinated SAR acquisitions. Guided by the objectives of solving an important science problem, filling IPY data gaps, and involving interagency cooperations, the workshop adopted several several acquisition themes:

* C-Band coverage (3-day snapshots) for the Arctic Ocean during the remainder of IPY (background missions, operation data acquisitions, etc.).
* Winter Pole to Coast InSAR coverage of the Antarctic in high-resolution mode (3-4 consecutive cycles in ascending and descending).
* Greenland and Major Canadian Icefields of InSAR acquisition over 3-4 consecutive cycles of high-resolution in winter.
* Supersites (where possible using what exists already): determine acquisition parameters (frequency, resolution, etc.) for multi-polarisation and polarimetry data collection.

We still are working on how to translate these themes into agency acquisition plans. For example, the acquisition spread sheet that GIIPSY proposed was helpful in identifying acquisition objectives but proved too detailed to be useful as an implementation device. Instead, mission planners requested brief, summary documents from which they could develop coordinated plans. I have posted a template I put together for the Antarctic on the web site. You can see who was tasked with helping with other themes in the minutes and we urge you to contact leads with your comments and suggestions. Comments are welcome especially in view of the upcoming STG-3 meeting.