NSIDC's and ultimately Boulder's loss of Mark Parsons is RDA's gain. But maybe that's better for the world as a whole. Join us at the Boulder Outlook Hotel on August 21 to hear about the Alliance Mark has joined.
The Research Data Alliance: Creating the culture and technology for an international data infrastructure
Mark Parsons, Managing Director, Research Data Alliance/U.S.
All of society’s grand challenges -- be it addressing rapid climate change, curing cancer and other disease, providing food and water for more than seven billion people, understanding the origins of the universe or the mind -- all of them require diverse and sometimes very large data to to be shared and integrated across cultures, scales, and technologies. This requires a new form and new conception of infrastructure. The Research Data Alliance (RDA) is creating and implementing this new data infrastructure. It is building the connections that make data work across social and technical barriers.
RDA launched in March 2013 as a international alliance of researchers, data scientists, and organizations to build these connections and infrastructure to accelerate data-driven innovation. RDA facilitates research data sharing, use, re-use, discoverability, and standards harmonization through the development and adoption of technologies, policy, practice, standards, and other deliverables. We do this through focussed Working Groups, exploratory Interest Groups, and a broad, committed membership of individuals and organizations dedicated to improving data exchange.
What data sharing problem are you trying to solve? Find out how RDA can help.
Schedule
4:00 - 5:00 Presentation
5:00 - 6:00 Social
Please join us!
In July we're meeting in the 4th week of the month, rather than the 3rd. Please join us at the Boulder Outlook Hotel for our own Ted talk:
HDF and The Earth Science Platform
Ted Habermann, The HDF Group
Interoperable data and understanding across the Earth Science community requires convergence towards a standard set of data formats and services, metadata standards, and conventions for effective use of both. Although large legacy archives still exist in netCDF3, HDF4, and many custom formats, we have achieved considerable convergence in the data format layer with the merger of the netCDF4 and HDF5 formats. The way forward seems clear as more groups in many disciplines join the HDF5 community. The data service layer has experienced similar convergence as OGC Service Standards are adopted and used in increasing numbers and connections across former chasms are deployed (ncWMS, ncSOS, netCDF/CF as OGC Standards). Many data providers around the world are in the process of converging towards ISO Standards for documenting data and services. Connections are also helping here (ncISO). Many groups are now working towards convergence in the conventions layer. The HDF-EOS and Climate-Forecast conventions have been used successfully for many datasets spanning many Earth Science disciplines. These two sets of conventions reflect different histories and approaches that provide a rich set of lessons learned as we move forward.
Schedule
4:00 - 5:00 Presentation
5:00 - 6:00 Social
Stop on by!