Note that this month we are meeting on a Tuesday instead of a Wednesday!

Please join us at the Boulder Outlook Hotel for a presentation and demo of:

NOAA Earth Information Services and TerraViz

Eric Hackathorn, Julien Lynge, Jeff Smith, TerraViz, NOAA

Jebb Stewart, Chris MacDermaid, NEIS, NOAA

The NOAA Earth Information Services (NEIS) is a framework of layered services designed to help the discovery, access, understanding, and visualization of data from the past, present, and future. It includes a visualization component named TerraViz that is a multi-platform tool, running on desktops, web browsers, and mobile devices. The goal is to ingest "big data" and convert that information into efficient formats for real-time visualization. Designed for a world where everything is in motion, NEIS and TerraViz allow fluid data integration and interaction across 4D time and space, providing a tool for everything NOAA does and the people NOAA affects.

TerraViz is built using the Unity game engine.  While a game engine may seem a strange choice for data visualizations, our philosophy is to take advantage of existing technology whenever possible.  Video games are a multibillion-dollar industry, and are quite simply the most powerful tools for pushing millions of points of data to the user in real-time. Our presentation illustrated displaying environmental data in TerraViz at a global scale, visualizing regional data in “scenes” such as the flooding of the Washington DC area or rotating a coastal ecosystem in three axes, and developing environmental simulations/games like exploring the ocean floor in a submarine.

The NEIS backend similarly takes lessons from private industry, using Apache Solr and other open source technologies to allow faceted search of NOAA data, much as sites like Amazon and Netflix do.

We believe that to have an impact on society, data should be easy to find, access, visualize, and understand.  NEIS simplifies and abstracts searching, connectivity, and different data formats, allowing users to concentrate on the data and science.

Please contact us if you want to explore including your environmental data within NEIS/TerraViz or if you want to talk to us about developing custom visualizations or educational simulations to showcase your important data.

NOAA / Earth System Research Lab / Global Systems Division, Boulder, Colorado

NEIS/TerraViz: NEIS/TerraViz

Schedule

4:00 - 5:00 Presentation

5:00 - 6:00 Social

This month marks the two year anniversary of the BESSIG!   Please join us at the Boulder Outlook Hotel for a remote presentation: 

Chris Lynnes, Chief Systems Engineer of the Goddard DAAC, NASA, "The Earth Science Collaboratory"

The Earth Science Collaboratory is a proposed framework for supporting the sharing within the Earth science community of data, tools, analysis methods, and results, plus all the contextual knowledge that go with these artifacts.  The likely benefits include:

• access to expert knowledge about how to work with data safely and efficiently
• full reprocability of results
• efficient collaboration within multi-disciplinary and/or geographically distributed teams
• a social network to bring together researchers and data users with common interests

Currently, there are some nascent efforts to construct such a collaboratory.  However, by its very (inclusive) nature, this construction is likely to be most successful as an emergent process, evolving from many point-to-point connections to an eventual ecosystem of cooperating components supporting collaboration. 

In particular, we are actively seeking scientists and other potential users of such a collaboratory to provide an end user perspective of system functionality.   Would you find such a collaboratory helpful?   Do you have ideas about how it could be better?  Would you like to influence its design?  Those that are actively engaged will be heard and could end up with a tool that particularly suits their needs.   If this role interests you, please attend this talk and/or otherwise let us know of your interest.

Schedule

4:00 - 5:00 Presentation

5:00 - 6:00 Social

Drop on by!

Post presentation material 

The slides for the talk are available here:ESC BESSIG slides.

The recorded version of the talk is available here.  Please note that the talk actually starts 21 minutes into the recording, as the first 15 minutes were intended to be for testing.  (Sorry, we had serious technical difficulties at the hotel!  It will be better next time!) 

Please join us at the Boulder Outlook Hotel for:

Doug Lindholm, LASP, "LaTiS: a data model, an API, a web service AND a floor wax"*

LaTiS is a data model, a data analysis API, and a REST-ful web service for accessing scientific data via a common interface.

The LaTiS data model provides a scientific domain independent, unifying, mathematical foundation for describing datasets that captures the functional relationships between parameters. The Scala implementation of this model provides an API for reading data directly from their native source, the ability to compute with high level abstractions appropriate for the task at hand, and options for filtering, transforming, and writing data in various formats.

This talk will discuss how these capabilities are used to enable a modular web service framework that can easily be installed and configured by a data provider, and that allows users to dynamically reformat a dataset, including its time representation, storage format, missing values, etc.

This talk will be a preview (i.e. beta release) of the talk I will give at UCAR Software Engineering Assembly Conference in April.

Schedule

4:00 - 5:00 Presentation

5:00 - 6:00 Social

Come on by!

* [Open on suburban kitchen, Wife and Husband arguing]
Wife: New LaTiS is a floor wax!
Husband: No, new LaTiS is a data model!
Wife: It's a floor wax!
Husband: It's a data model!
Wife: It's a floor wax, I'm telling you!
Husband: It's a data model, you cow!
Spokesman: [enters quickly] Hey, hey, hey, calm down, you two. New LaTiS is both a floor wax and a data model! Here, I'll spray some on your mop. [sprays LaTiS onto mop] ..and some for your data server. [sprinkles LaTiS onto laptop]
[Husband computes while Wife mops]
Husband: Mmmmm, works great!
Wife: And just look at that shine! **

** with apologies to SNL

Due to the constraints of our speaker, we're meeting the 2nd week of February instead of the 3rd.

Yet more around semantics!   Please join us at the Boulder Outlook Hotel for:

Beth Huffer, Lingua Logica, "ODISEES: An Ontology-Driven Interactive Search Environment for Earth Sciences"

As part of an on-going effort at NASA Langley’s Atmospheric Science Data Center, and in cooperation with the Computational & Information Sciences & Technology Office at the Goddard Space Flight Center, we have developed a semi-automated method for finding and comparing equivalent data and climate model output variables across disparate datasets.  We will demonstrate an ontology-driven variable matching service that provides an automated mapping among comparable variables from multiple data products and climate model output products. The interactive user interface is driven by a queriable ontological model of the essential characteristics of data and climate model output variables, the products they occur in, the atmospheric parameters represented in the data, and the instruments and techniques used to measure or model the parameters. Queries of the ontology and triple store are used to match comparable variables by enabling users to search for those that share a user-specified set of essential characteristics. 

The application addresses an emerging need among Earth scientists to compare climate model outputs to other models and to satellite observations, and addresses some of the barriers that currently make such comparisons difficult.  In particular, the application

• Eliminates the need for users to be familiar with the multiple data vocabularies and standards that exist within the Earth sciences community; and
• With a few mouse clicks, provides ready access to the information needed by scientists to understand the similarities and differences between two or more data or climate model products, enabling them to quickly determine which products best suit their requirements.

Schedule

4:00 - 5:00 Presentation

5:00 - 6:00 Social

Come on by!

More on semantics!  Please join us at the Boulder Outlook Hotel for:

Stephen Williams, Office of Faculty Affairs, CU Boulder, "VIVO, VITRO, DataStar, and Beyond - The VIVO Project"

The VIVO project was started at Cornell University in 2003 as a faculty profiling system for Mann Library.  The profiling system that is VIVO was designed in two parts, VITRO the semantic engine that is ontology agnostic and VIVO the ontology specific pages and data for presenting faculty profiles.  This concept of a two tied system was taken into the third tier with location specific changes (Cornell and CU-Boulder) and ontologies that build upon VIVO (data star).  This talk will focus on the VIVO project as a whole, its history, its ancillary projects, and its future.  We'll also try to cover difficulties and lessons in semantic programming and the experiences of building ETL tools for semantic data.

Schedule

4:00 - 5:00 Presentation

5:00 - 6:00 Social

Note: this month we're meeting on a Tuesday!

Please join us back at the Boulder Outlook Hotel for:

Nate Wilhelmi, NCAR/CISL, "Experiences Using RDF and a Triple Store for Metadata Storage and Search"

4:00 - 5:00 presentation

5:00 - 6:00 social

See you there!

"Informing Science Policy: the Role for Scientists and Engineers"

A Panel Discussion

Note: This meeting will be held at NEON Headquarters, instead of our usual location.  Details below.

This month Brian Wee, Steve Aulenbach, and I are delighted to have representatives from law, government and science come together to discuss various aspects of science policy.  We've asked them to consider questions like these:

• What does "science policy" mean to you? To your organization? What impact does it have?

• What are the roles in science policy and what impacts do they have? Who are the main players?
• How have you or your organization tried to impact science policy? What worked and what did not work? What did you learn?

• How does one prepare for a science policy discussion? Any do's and don'ts?

• Scientists and engineers are trained to think and communicate in certain ways. Should those same skills be applied to policy discussions?

• If someone wanted to move more heavily into science policy, how would you advise them? What career moves would be good? Any bad career moves?

Panelists

Peter Backlund

Director, NCAR External Relations and the Integrated Science Program
Director, Research Relations, NCAR

Dan Baker

Professor of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences
Director, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics

Alice Madden

Wirth Chair in Sustainable Development, UC Denver
Colorado House Representative (2001 - 2010), Majority Leader (2004 - 2008)
Climate Change Adviser, Deputy Chief of Staff for Gov. Ritter
Senior Fellow on Climate Change, Center for American Progress

Andy Schultheiss

District Director at Office of Congressman Jared Polis
Campaigns Director at League of Conservation Voters
Boulder City Council (2003 - 2007)

Logistics

This meeting is being hosted by NEON, Inc.   It will be held at NEON Headquarters, 1685 38th Street #100, Boulder, CO.

4:00 - 5:15 Panel Discussion

5:15 - 6:00 Social

Beverages will be provided courtesy of NEON.   Thank you Brian and NEON!

Very light snacks to be covered by donations. 

Please join us for this interesting discussion!

The discussion will be available via Web Ex, info to follow.

Another BLAST!  Many thanks to Anna and Dave for their willingness to share ideas with us this month.

Anna Milan, NOAA/NESDIS/NGDC, Metadata for the Archive: Transition to ISO, Approaches, Challenges, and Opportunities

Dave Fulker, President, OPeNDAP, Inc., A (Very) Rough Idea: Raster Binning and Masking Services (see attachment)

I'll sketch my idea for a new type of data query/response service built (perhaps for EarthCube) around a standardized space-time raster that has a dual function. Tentatively dubbed "Raster Binning & Masking Services" or RBinMasks, users would gain a (potentially standard) way to specify (irregular) space-time regions of interest and a (potentially standard) way to gain information about the space-time distributions of pertinent data, without -- or before -- retrieving actual values. 

Come join us at the Boulder Outlook Hotel!

4:00 - 5:00 Presentations
5:00 - 6:00 Social

Note: Meeting on Wednesday this month!

Brian Wee, NEON, Inc., "NEON: A continental-scale research and operations platform for the environmental sciences"

As NEON, Inc.’s Chief of External Affairs, Brian is the organization's liaison to Congress, US Federal agencies, and other scientific organizations. He also represents the informatics needs of the large-scale environmental sciences before the computer science and Federal data community. Brian joined the NEON Project Office at the American Institute of Biological Sciences in 2004 as a post-doctoral associate, then became a staff scientist before transitioning to the role of Administrative Director. Previously he worked for Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) designing and implementing IT solutions and then served as Senior Instructional Designer leading instructional design, knowledge management, business-process redesign, and web development projects.

Brian holds a Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior from the University of Texas at Austin, a M.Sc. degree in Computer Science – Artificial Intelligence at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL and a B.Sc. in Information Systems and Computer Science from the National University of Singapore. His M.Sc. studies focused on designing and implementing computer augmented learning solutions for high-school classrooms and corporate training at the Institute for the Learning Sciences. His Ph.D. focused on investigating the relative effects of behavioral, physiological and landscape barriers on the genetic structure of insect populations by integrating genetic, behavioral, and GIS analyses.

Come join us at the Boulder Outlook Hotel!

4:00 - 5:00 Presentation

5:00 - 6:00 Social

NB: This is a slightly different scheduling than we've had in past!  Tuesday instead of Wednesday, 4th week of the month instead of the third.

Jeffrey Morisette, USGS, “Developing a common modeling framework for the Department of Interior’s North Central Climate Science Center”

This month we welcome Jeff Morisette, visiting us from USGS in Fort Collins to talk about, among other things, his experience with VisTrails.  From the page VisTrails Overview , "VisTrails was designed to manage rapidly evolving scientific workflows and provenance that support simulations, data exploration and visualization."  Jeff's group added a package to that software: SAHM, Software for Assisted Habitat Modeling.

Jeff is currently the director of the DOI North Central Climate Science Center where he manages and conducts research on how natural and cultural land management can respect the non-stationary nature of climate.  A current research theme is how dynamic species distribution models can contribute to vulnerability assessment and adaptation planning.

We'll meet at the Boulder Outlook Hotel.  Come on by!

Schedule

4:00 - 5:00 Presentation

5:00 - 6:00 Social

More around semantics!

Who

SiriJodha Khalsa, NSIDC, "Modeling the Model - the Semantics of the CCSM4 Sea Ice Model "

Don Elsborg, LASP, "Applied Semantic Web Technology - A use case with Semantic Mediawiki"

Where

Boulder Outlook Hotel

Schedule

4:00 - 6:00  PM

Please come!

This month we continue exploring ontology and semantic-related areas.

Who

Stephan Zednick,  Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) "Data Models and Ontologies, describing structure and classification"

When

Wednesday, May 16, 4:00 - 6:00 PM

Where

Boulder Outlook Hotel

Schedule

4:00 - 5:00 Presentation and discussion

5:00 - 6:00 social

Please join us!

Note the time change: 5:00 instead of 4:00!

This month we'll review the recent UCAR data citation workshop, then make a foray into ontology and semantic-related areas. 

In May and June we'll continue with speakers on ontology and semantic-related topics.  The site calendar  contains more information.  If you have experiences in this area that you are willing to share, please contact Anne.

Speakers

Matt Mayernik, NCAR Library, "UCAR Workshop Review - Bridging Data Lifecycles: Tracking Data Use via Data Citations." (Note: Many of these slides were taken from the workshop presentations posted at http://library.ucar.edu/data_workshop/. Original slide authors are noted in red text in the top left of the slides.)

Ruth Duerr, NSIDC, "Early Experiences in Semantics "

When: Wednesday, April 18, 5:00 - 7:00

Where:  Boulder Outlook Hotel

Schedule

5:00 - 6:00: speakers

6:00 - 7:00: social

Organized by Mike Daniels and Matt Mayernik, UCAR's EOL/CDS  is hosting a BESSIG social hour in the Atrium at the Boulder Outlook Hotel, on Tuesday, April 3, 2012, at 5:30.  The occasion is the visit of our out of town friends and ESIP colleagues Carol Meyer and Erin Robinson.   EOL/CDS will provide hors d'oeuvres and non alcoholic drinks.   Alcoholic beverages will be available for purchase.

In particular, this is an opportunity to discuss ESIP activities.   Of course, any topic is fair game.   Please join us!

Thank you, UCAR, EOL/CDS, Mike, and Matt!!

RESEARCH DATA SUPPORT

POSITION DESCRIPTION

University of Colorado at Boulder Research Computing

            Research Data Support (Part-Time/Temporary 15 hours per week for 6 months)

            Research Computing

POSITION SUMMARY: The Research Data Support position is part-time, reporting to the Research Data Manager.  Primary job duties include website content creation for the new collaborative portal for Research Data Services.  Research Data Services is a collaborative partnership between many campus groups though initially the primary groups are Libraries and Research Computing.  The position will work with the Research Data Manager and Metadata Librarian to write and organize content to be used in the Drupal web site.  The Research Data Services group and website will act as a nexus for coordinating activities to support researchers with a multitude of research data needs.

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Research and write up information about various topics for use as content for the Research Data Services website. 

1. Assist with design and organization of the Research Data Services website following standards and best practices for information architecture.

1. Perform other related duties as assigned.

QUALIFICATIONS

1. Effective research and communication skills.

1. Knowledge of data management, familiarity with various stages of the data lifecycle (e.g., collection, access, preservation), and awareness of ongoing national/international discussions and literature on these topics.

1. Strong technical skills and ability to learn to use new software quickly.

1. Drupal development knowledge/experience desired but not required.

To Apply or Ask Questions:

Send an e-mail to Kimberly Stacey, Research Data Manager with Research Computing at kimberly.stacey@colorado.edu

Include a resume and/or relevant information related to job qualifications.

Bridging Data Lifecycles: Tracking Data Use via Data Citations

April 5-6, 2012 at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, CO.

Please join us for a workshop on data citation and data use geared to the interests of data manager specialists and librarians. Data citations are increasingly seen as being critical to enabling scientific results to be traced back to their underlying data. Data citations also promote the transparency of scientific work by making data more discoverable, and enable scientists, data managers, and data centers to be credited for producing useful data. Presentations will focus data lifecycles, current options for data citation and data reuse, and will highlight pilot projects in implementing citation standards and practices. Dr. Tim Killeen, Assistant Director for Geosciences at the National Science Foundation will provide the keynote address. Other presenters include Joan Starr of the California Digital Library and Mark Parsons of the National Snow and Ice Data Center. Additional speakers are listed on the workshop web page.

Limited space is available for attendees. More information and the registration form are at http://library.ucar.edu/data_workshop/. Please register by March 23 to ensure your participation. Once registered, participants will be provided with logistical details and any updates to the agenda.

Please feel free to share this information with your colleagues. Contact Matt Mayernik at mayernik@ucar.edu or Karon Kelly at kkelly@ucar.edu if you have questions.

This month we are pleased to have some out of town colleagues speaking about a variety of topics related to content management.

Speakers:

Jerry Pan, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), "Geoscience Data Repository in Digital Object Model and Open-Source Frameworks: Provenance Applications" 

Ajinkya Kulkarni, University of Alabama, Huntsville, "Utilizing Drupal, an Open Source Web Framework to Support Science 2.0 Projects" 

Erin Robinson, ESIP Foundation,  "ESIP Commons: Publishing Non-Traditional Content"

When: Wednesday, March 21, 4:00 - 6:00

Where: Boulder Outlook Hotel

Schedule:

4:00 - 5:00: speakers

5:00 - 6:00: social

We are dovetailing with the UCAR SEA 2012 Software Engineering Conference, which allows us to have these speakers from out of town.  This is why we are meeting at 5:00 instead of our usual 4:00.   (And also why we are meeting on the 4th Wednesday of the month instead of the 3rd.)

Speakers:

Jay Alameda, NCSA, "Bringing Modern Tools to High Performance Computing - with a Spotlight on XSEDE and Blue Waters"

Chris Mattmann, JPL, "Understanding how to Best Leverage Open Source Data Management Software: A Roadmap" 

When: Wednesday, February 22, 5:00 - 7:00

Where:  Boulder Outlook Hotel

Schedule:

5:00 - 5:30 gather, social

5:30 - 6:00 Jay Alameda

6:00 - 6:30 Chris Mattmann

6:30 - 7:00 social

BLAST (BESSIG Lively Activists Speaking Topically)

Speakers:

Mike Daniels, NCAR, "From Sensor to Archive: Data Flow, Tools, and Management of Observational Data at NCAR's Earth Observing Laboratory"

Ruth Duerr, NSIDC, "Stewardship and Access - Activities of the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) "

When: Wednesday, January 18, 4:00 - 6:00

Where:  The Boulder Outlook Hotel

Schedule: 4:00 - 5:00 talks,  5 - 10 minute business meeting, 5:00 - 6:00 social (more or less)

Panel Report and Discussion on Recent NSF EarthCube Charette

According to the EarthCube web site, http://earthcube.ning.com/, "The goal of EarthCube is to transform the conduct of research by supporting the development of community-guided cyberinfrastructure to integrate data  and information for knowledge management across the Geosciences."

During November 1 - 4, 2011, the NSF held the EarthCube Charette in Washington, D.C.   The Charette was intended to be "the first stage in an iterative process to build a community-based cyberinfrastructure,"  and an "opportunity for face-to-face interaction and feedback among groups that are suggesting designs for EarthCube and a broad, diverse set of the geosciences and cyberinfrastructure communities."

Panel members for our meeting are Charette attendees who will share their thoughts and experiences. Perhaps we'll finally understand the answer to the question, "What is a charette, anyway?"

Panel members:

Michael Wiltberger, HAO/NCAR

Russ Rew, Unidata/UCAR

Seth McGinnis, CISL/NCAR

Scott Peckham, CSDMS/INSTAAR/CU Boulder

Chris MacDermaid, CSU CIRA Fort Collins/NOAA ESRL

Location:

This meeting will be held at the Boulder Outlook Hotel and Suites in the Chatauqua room.  The Hotel is near Aurora and 28th St Frontage Road.

Schedule:

4:00 - 5:00: panel and discussion

5:00 - 6:00: social

If you attended the Charette and are interested in participating in the panel please contact me ASAP!  The only requirement is a willingness to tell us a little about your experience at the Charrette.  Thank you!

NetCDF for the Masses

Ed Hartnett, Unidata, UCAR

"Why should anyone consider using netCDF to store their data?"

NOTE THE *NEW* NEW LOCATION:  This meeting will be held at the Boulder Outlook Hotel and Suites in the Chatauqua room.  The Hotel is near Aurora and 28th St Frontage Road*. 

We are trying this new location that offers a private room with food and beverages in a non smoking environment.   The bar menu includes  starters, soups, salads, sandwiches, burgers, burger alternatives, steaks, desserts, and 9 beers on tap, most of them local.  The Outlook has graciously offered to let us use the room for free for this meeting.  If we can generate sufficient sales for them, they might let us come back.

Schedule:

4:00 - 5:00: talk and discussion

5:00 - 6:00: social

Hope to see you there!

*If driving from 30th and Colorado, don't try to turn left from Colorado onto the 28th St Frontage Road, it is illegal.  Instead head south on 30th and turn right on Aurora.

Place: NCAR Center Green, Boulder Colorado, USA
Time: Friday, 23 September 2011, 8:00am-5:30pm
Fee: Free - all are welcome (registration requested, see below)

This one-day workshop is focused on how the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) can contribute to studying climate change, how GEOSS can enable broader community access to climate information and knowledge; and how scientists can manage and work with integrated data sources having different levels of quality.

This workshop is free and open to the public.

To confirm attendance, please register here: https://portal.opengeospatial.org/public_ogc/register/110923geoss.php

For the complete agenda, please visit: http://www.ieee-earth.org/event/geoss-workshop-xliii-climate

(Posted for Siri Jodha Khalsa)

Panel discussion on Peer Review of Scientific Data

"Data centers have few established practices for peer review of data. Indeed there is no clear definition of what peer review of data really means. Is it a review of data accuracy or validity, or is it a review of data documentation to ensure complete description of uncertainty and context? Despite these challenges, scientists and data managers have a professional and ethical responsibility to do their best to meet the data publication goals asserted by AGU."    [Parsons, M. A., R. Duerr, and J.-B. Minster (2010),Data Citation and Peer Review, Eos Trans. AGU,91(34), 297, doi:10.1029/2010EO340001.]

Wednesday, September 21, 2011, 4:00 - 6:00, Millenium Hotel's Boulder Creek Living Room.

Note that the Millenium is graciously providing us this room including wireless connectivity without charge.  Please attend this meeting and consider purchasing a drink or appetizer to support the Millenium and our continued use of this room and its amenities.

Who:

Mark Parsons, Program Manager, Senior Associate Scientist, NSIDC

Matt Mayernik, Research Data Services Specialist, NCAR library

Eric Kihn, Deputy Director of the National Geophysical Data Center, NOAA

Karen Simmons, Experiment Manager for Galileo UVS/EUV instruments and archivist for data from Voyager and Galileo. Also, current archive specialist  on an archiving grant through NASA for very old (1969, 71,75 etc) planetary data., provider to NASA PDS, LASP

Rob Wilson, Scientist studying magnetospheres of the outer planets, using PDS data, LASP

Topics for discussion include:

- Should data peer review differ from conventional document review?  If so, how and why?  What does peer review of a dataset really mean?

- How are peer-reviewed datasets certified?  Everyone knows the peer reviewed journals and has some notion of their impact.  How does that work for data?

- Who conducts the review?  Who is the "editor" to coordinate the review?

- Does peer review imply more responsibility or accountability for the data "publisher"?

- One critical discussion should be about what facility is accepting the data and how they operate, what requirements they have for peer review and discussion of how well that's worked in the past. Their perspective is often quite different from that of a scientist.

Please join us in this discussion! 

The discussion will be followed by a short business meeting for feedback and planning purposes.

NOTE THE NEW LOCATION:  This meeting will be held at the Millenium Hotel in the Boulder Creek Living Room.  This private room is adjacent to a bar where food and beverages can be purchased and brought into the meeting.  

Note that the Millenium is graciously providing us this room including wireless connectivity without charge.  Please attend this meeting and consider purchasing some comestible fare to support the Millenium and our continued use of this room and its amenities.

Who:

Gary Strand, The NCAR Community Earth System Model and the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report.  [Gary's slides: Gary Strand Aug 17 2011 BESSIG presentation]

Siri Jodha Khalsa will give a short summary of a workshop he led at this summer's INSPIRE conference titled "What is Interoperability and How do we Measure it?" followed by an open discussion of the topic. (INSPIRE is the panEuropean spatial data infrastructure initiative. Workshop presentations are available at: INSPIRE conference presentations.)

Leonard Sitongia, Challenges in Legacy Software and Scientific Methods, followed by Steve Olding from the NASA Earth Science Data Systems Technology Infusion Working Group (via Skype),  A Toolbox for Organization-wide Infusion of Data Systems Technologies.

When: Wednesday, August 17, 2011, 4:00 - 6:00

Where:  The Boulder Creek Living Room of The Millenium Hotel.  Please see the web site for directions to the hotel.  The Boulder Creek Living Room is found by entering the lobby, passing through the doorway on the right, then left through another doorway into the room.

Food items available include: appetizers, salads, a burger, wraps, and entrees, ranging in cost from $6 to a $29 entree.  Most items are $10 or less.

Another BLAST!

A time to listen and discuss as members present their work and areas of interest.

Who:

• Doug Fowler, GLAS and MODIS Data Management and Services at NSIDC

• Jeff McWhirter, A RAMADDA Blast

• Anne Wilson, Report on Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) Federation Summer Meeting

If anyone else is interested in speaking at this meeting, please contact Anne.

After the presentations we'll have a short business meeting for planning purposes.  At the meeting we'll discuss the possibility of holding future meetings at the Millenium Hotel.

When: Tuesday, July 19, 2011, 4:00 - 6:00 PM

Where: Room A200, LASP Space Technology Building, 1234 Innovation Drive, Boulder, Colorado

LASP is located on the University of Colorado's East Campus Research Park.  A map and directions are available on the LASP Address and Directions page.  The building sits just off Colorado Avenue, immediately adjacent to CU's new, very large biotechnology building that is currently under construction.   Look for the tallest cranes in town, we're next door to the East.  Free parking is available.

BLAST: Bessig Lively Activists Speaking Topically 

Come listen and discuss as Vince, Jeff, Steve, Peter, Doug, and Kimberly present their work and areas of interest.  Followed by 10 - 15 minute business meeting to discuss future planning.  Snacks will be provided.

When: Thursday, June 23, 2011, 4:00 - 6:00 PM

Where: Room A200, LASP Space Technology Building, 1234 Innovation Drive, Boulder, Colorado

LASP is located on the University of Colorado's East Campus Research Park.  A map and directions are available on the LASP Locations and Directions.  The building sits just off Colorado Avenue, immediately adjacent to CU's new, very large biotechnology building that is currently under construction.   Look for the tallest cranes in town, we're next door to the East.  Free parking is available.

At the BESSIG planning meeting on Wednesday we scheduled meetings for Thursday, June 23 and Tuesday, July 19, 4:00 PM.  (See our Calendar ).  These meetings will be BLASTs: BESSIG Lively Activists Speaking Topically.  That means people are on deck to present their work, area of interest, or whatever.   The goal is to for us to get to know each other and our areas of expertise better, and to allow for discussion.  Thus, speakers will present for as short or as long as they wish as long as it's "not too long" (TBD).   Some speakers may get bumped until later, and that's okay.  We'll also work in some time for socializing.

We have six speakers that will be ready on June 23, see the Calendar item to see who they are.  We're looking for people to sign up for July 19.  If you're interested in sharing with us, go to the that calendar event and put your name on the list under the "Description" section.

We also updated the table of Meeting Topics with some ideas to incubate.   We found it particularly liberating to nominate topic organizers that weren't actually present at the meeting.   Feel free to update the table with your ideas about meeting topics and organizers.

Also, the group paid it forward by contributing $40 to a kitty (including pledges) for snacks for our next meeting.  Thanks, guys!!

An important meeting topic was: beer.   There is interest in having beer at our meetings, but institutions have severe limitations on alcohol.  Here at CU a recent update of the alcohol policy muddied the waters sufficiently that what is and is not allowed is unclear and is under investigation by our staff.   More on this to follow.   Suggestions?

Purpose:  Plan meeting topics for upcoming year, and hobnob

When:  Wednesday, May 18, 2011, 4:00 - 6:00 PM

Where:  Room A200, LASP Space Technology Building, 1234 Innovation Drive, Boulder, Colorado

As we've not identified a talk topic for this meeting, we'll use our time to plan meeting topics and, as much as possible, a schedule for the upcoming year.   Please come to the meeting with your calendar and specific ideas about meeting topics you would like to hear about or might be interested in presenting.   We'll also get to know each other a little better over some light snacks.  If all goes well we could be done early.

I have started a Meeting Topic and Organizer List, check it out.

If you can't make this meeting but would like to provide input, send an email to bessig.info@lasp.colorado.edu (which currently comes to me, Anne).

LASP is located on the University of Colorado's East Campus Research Park.  A map and directions are available on the LASP locations page.  The building sits just off Colorado Avenue, immediately adjacent to CU's new, very large biotechnology building that is currently under construction.   Look for the tallest cranes in town, we're next door to the East.  Free parking is available.

At our most recent meeting we decided to meet again on Wednesday, 5/18 from 4:00 - 6:00 with this schedule:

4:00 Talk (TBD)

5:00 Business meeting

The group agreed to discuss talk topics and speakers via the web site. 

In retrospect, I think this is a very tight schedule, as in general it would be good to provide a speaker with a two week lead time.  Plus, we have to find someone that can come at the particular hour.  I'm a little nervous about making this goal.

Please contribute to our discussion about identifying a speaker and topic for this upcoming meeting in the Discussion section of the web site.   Thank you!

If anyone is available to sponser snacks or beverages for this meeting please contact me.

Anne

I'm really pleased about our launch meeting last night.  Thank you to all who attended and also those who showed interest but could not attend.

We had roughly 45 people in attendance from 10 organizations: LASP, NDP LLC, NEON, NOAA, NSIDC, CU Boulder Research Computing, Tech-X Corporation, UNAVCO, UCAR, and UCAR/Unidata. 

Ted led us off with a talk about "Convergence and Trust in Earth Space Science Data Systems": Habermann_ConvergenceAndTrust.  "Convergence" refers to convergence towards standards and best practices that simplify exchange and use of data.   Simplification of that aspect of science is helping us move from data to information to knowledge and finally to wisdom.   Generally data producers are involved in transforming data to information, data consumers are involved in transforming information to knowledge, and it takes the community to translate knowledge to wisdom.   This path leads to the question of trust: given that we're in an age where people use data and may not know who the data provider was, let alone have communicated with them, how do we say with certainity that our results are correct?  This leads to the issue of trust.  The topic of trust, being an over arching issue, played a big role in our subsequent discussion at our business meeting.  Discussion notes from that meeting will be available soon. 

Dave Fulker entertained us with a witty, erudite joke followed by a talk on "Standard Mechanisms for Data Exchange", practices that became "standard" by virtue of being commonplace: Fulker_StandardMechanismsForDataExchange.  Dave made a comparison between the history of artifacts and what those artifacts enabled, e.g., writing instruments enabled numerical symbols, scrolls/books/libraries enabled tables and relations, etc.  Currently, computers in science have enabled data management, analysis, and visualization as library functions or APIs, e.g., library functions for data formatting.  Regarding data analysis and visualization, the power of a system is directly related to the generality and richness of its underlying data model.   And now, the web has enabled near real time data flows and remote access to data.

These talks were relevant in our business meeting where we brainstormed about what this group might be or do, what our goals might be, who is available for contributing and what to do next.   In Ted's terms, we are in a stage of ferment, trying to focus our energy as a community.   Some common themes emerged, such as serving as a resource for those trying to learn how to build good systems.  Another theme was trust: how is it currently earned, how can we ensure its viability in our escience world?   Are there projects for us there?  Notes from this section of meeting are available off the Discussion section.

We decided to meet again in month, on Wednesday, 5/18, from 4:00 - 6:00.  (If anyone is available to sponser snacks or beverages for this meeting please contact me.)  The first hour will be a talk.  The second hour will be a business meeting.   The group is tasked with identifying a speaker for the 4:00 time slot.

I really appreciate the strong interest and support I received in launching this group.  I'd like to stress here again that this is a community effort.  The more people contribute, the more successful we'll be as a group.  The good news is that there is a good number of us such that each individual effort does not have to be huge.  Please think about what you are able to contribute.

Watch our site as news about the upcoming 5/18 meeting develops.

Purpose:  1) To bring together people interested in scientific data in the Boulder, Colorado area for the purpose of sharing ideas and information, and 2) to guage interest in this group and discuss its future.

When:  Wednesday, April 20, 2011, 5:00 PM

Where:  Room A200, LASP Space Technology Building, 1234 Innovation Drive, Boulder, Colorado

Schedule:

Dinner and beverages will be provided.  Thanks to the Foundation for Earth Science for the food!  Please RSVP to Anne Wilson so the appropriate amount of food can be ordered.

LASP is located on the University of Colorado's East Campus Research Park.  A map and directions are available on the LASP locations page.  The building sits just off Colorado Avenue, immediately adjacent to CU's new, very large biotechnology building that is currently under construction.   Look for the tallest cranes in town, we're next door to the East.  Free parking is available.

Please note that we will need to lock our front doors at 7:00 PM.  If you need to arrive after that, please contact Anne Wilson to make alternative arrangements.