The Polar Information Commons (PIC) has made remarkable progress in the months since receiving a small initiation grant from ICSU. We have stimulated interest and initial participation from several polar data centers and seek to expand that partnership.

With support from NASA and conference organizers the PIC will host a prominent informations commons area at the IPY Science Conference in Oslo, consisting of:
1.  A central workstation cluster to demonstrate, in a hands-on fashion, the PIC tools, processes, and systems, and to allow interested users to badge and submit their data within the PIC system.
2.  Surrounding displays from cooperating polar data centres, to emphasize the variety and capabilities of the various portals for IPY data and their collective involvement with PIC.
3.  The International Programme Office display, with our rich array of polar information consisting of books and maps for distribution and flyers, charts, maps, resources, stamps and coins and links for perusal and download.
4.  A 3-dimensional data sculpture developed by art students from the Netherlands.
5.  Selected images from the “Polar Heritage” display produced by Christian Morel (tentative).
6.  A friendly and comfortable location for people to explore and learn about PIC formally and about IPY polar information generally.

We envision full-time staffing of the PIC and the IPO nodes.  We plan informal and scheduled demonstrations of PIC itself.

We offer the opportunity for polar data centers to demonstrate their data systems and engage with their user communities. If you are interested in exhibiting, please contact , David Carlson, or Kathleen Cass. Some limited travel support will be available to assist data centers who might not otherwise attend.

This is a great opportunity to carry the data legacy of IPY forward. Please let us know of your interest as soon as possible.