Minutes (Version 0.1 of 2011- 5- 6 3:49)

Agenda:

1 Acceptance of Agenda, Minutes of T4 (see draft minutes ), and Action Items (see AI List ).

2 Report from the STC meeting
A brief report is available here .

3 Activity 1 (Links with major scientific research enterprises)
This activity, which is currently more or less stalled needs to be revisited. The goal of this activity is to identify major scientific research enterprises and, if their activity is valid for GEO and GEOSS, to bring them closer to GEO and GEOSS. Originally, the goal was to motivate those enterprises considered relevant to GEO to become a Participating Organization (PO). However, in the meantime, the GEO EXCOM has indicated that they would like to limit the number of POs and consider the current number already as too large.

With this new development, it seems important to reconsider the goals of Activity 1 and to review the current approach, which is to first develop an inventory and then start actions. After the goals of the activity have been clarified, it may be a good idea to populate the matrix of SBA and sub-areas with known enterprises and thus identify gaps. Subsequently, we could target these gaps. Only in cases where highly relevant enterprises are identified, the option of a new PO should be considered. Most likely, this will be restricted to those SBAs, where currently very limited science participation is available.

4 Any other business

5 Date and Time of the Monthly Telecons
The next telecon is proposed for Monday, May 30, 2011 at 13:00-14:00 UTC.

6 Summary of Action Items

Notes:

1 Acceptance of Agenda, Minutes of T4 (see draft minutes ), and Action Items (see AI List ).

Action Item ST2-T4-2: All ST-09-02 members will provide information about major scientific conference to info@geo-tasks.org. Responsible: All, Deadline: 2011-05-31:

Bente Lilja Bye commented that she had sent some conferences related to Health and Agriculture to Russell Lefevre. Ian McCallum asked if Bente Lilja Bye had any systematic approach for identifying such conferences that could be more broadly applied. Bente Lilja Bye s

2 Report from the STC meeting

Ian McCallum briefly summarized notes from STC-16 in Sydney provided by Hans-Peter Plag.

Activity 2.1: Ian McCallum stated that EGIDA was helping to draft the GEOSS data citation standard. He agreed that guidelines is a better term. Furthermore, EGIDA will continue to improve these and work towards ver. 2.0, addressing the various shortcomings of the current guidelines.

Action Item ST2-T5-1: EGIDA will continue to improve the citation guidelines and work towards ver. 2.0, addressing the various shortcomings of the current guidelines. Responsible: Ian McCallum, Deadline: 2011-05-31.

Activity 2.2 GEO-LABEL: Bente Lilja Bye currently working on a review of existing geo-labels which will be useful for all groups currently

Action Item ST2-T5-2: Bente Lilja Bye will produce a review of existing geo-labels. Responsible: Bente Lilja Bye, Deadline: 2011-07-31.

Joan Maso stated that GeoViqUA http://www.geoviqua.org is beginning to explore the possibilities of a Geo-label. They are in particular exploring automated possibilities to apply such a label. He raised the concern of, if we indeed decide for a complex label, how to supervise such a thing and that we should avoid making a label that is complicated to apply.

Bente Lilja Bye to communicate with Veronica Guidetti (GeoViQu) regarding the Geo Label.

Activity 3.2 (Support Outreach): Douglas Cripe noted that an attempt was made to initiate a slide library two years ago. However, the Secretariat declined, preferring to provide material on a case by case basis. At the STC-16 in Sydney, Australia asked for slides with notation for general usage.

Ian McCallum agreed that such a set of slides was very useful to provide. In fact this would follow along the data sharing principle of GEOSS – materials should be made available for people to easily take and use in their own presentations.

Activity 4.3 Transition from research to operational: David Halpern noted that this Activity’s description was not particularly clear. Ian McCallum noted that the fact that the ST-09-02 has no channel into the GEO Plenary is potentially serious and should be followed up.

Action Item ST2-T5-3: Hans-Peter Plag will provide further clarification of the discussion around Activity 4.3 at the STC-16 in Sydney. Responsible: Hans-Peter Plag, Deadline: 2011-05-25.

3 Activity 1 (Links with major scientific research enterprises)

Ian McCallum (general thought) removal of the PO option may remove an incentive that many organizations enjoyed. It may be that something has to take its place to attract participation? Bente Lilja Bye raised question regarding the wording of research enterprises – as it gives a somewhat commercial tone. David Halpern noted that NASA was in fact considered as an enterprise. Bente Lilja Bye noted that private groups would happily contribute to GEO – i.e. industrial institutes are actually doing research and hold large amounts of data and infrastructure. The question to clarify here is who are we targeting? David Halpern noted that all data is intertwined with commercial and non-commercial distributors, and regardless should be made available. He also mentioned COSPAR as an example. Ian McCallum noted that in fact many of the existing PO’s listed on the GEO page may in fact be providing very little input, and we might perhaps start by revisiting them. We could also look to see whom they are linked with, perhaps providing further links. Bente Lilja Bye agreed, suggesting that we could revitalize the existing organizations.

4 Any other business

No other business was raised.

5 Date and Time of the Monthly Telecons

The next telecon is proposed for Monday, May 30, 2011 at 13:00-14:00 UTC. David Halpern mentioned that for him Thursdays would be better. He said however that he understands if more people are available on Monda

6 Summary of Action Items

Action Item ST2-T5-1: EGIDA will continue to improve the citation guidelines and work towards ver. 2.0, addressing the various shortcomings of the current guidelines. Responsible: Ian McCallum, Deadline: 2011-05-31.

Action Item ST2-T5-2: Bente Lilja Bye will produce a review of existing geo-labels. Responsible: Bente Lilja Bye, Deadline: 2011-07-31.

Action Item ST2-T5-3: Hans-Peter Plag will provide further clarification of the discussion around Activity 4.3 at the STC-16 in Sydney. Responsible: Hans-Peter Plag, Deadline: 2011-05-25.

Minutes prepared by Ian McCallum