GIS and Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) for Scientific Research Special Interest Group

Allison Gaylord writes:

We’ve finalized the report from the exploratory Special Interest Group (SIG) meeting.  Please see attached.  

ESRI has designated Jeff Donze as a point contact to help us get a research SIG off the ground.  Jeff has agreed to assist in organizing our next meeting at the annual ESRI conference.  However, we do not want this forum to be limited to ESRI users and would like to see the discussion furthered at other major scientific meetings such as the American Association of Geographers and the American Geophysical Union, etc. 

We’ve identified the issues surrounding data publication as an initial focus area for the group since this seems be an overarching issue among the scientific user community.  We discussed the possibility of prototyping portal software that could assist in either facilitating the peer review or ranking of premium data (much like other products are rated on the web.)  This could evolve into a pilot project or extension for an existing portal such as GeoSpatial OneStop or possibly the Marine Portal, etc.  The participation of community leaders will be key to the success of such an effort along with sustained funding support.   

We hope to further this discussion via a list serve in the weeks to come. Please contact Allison for more information