During the Third Polar Data Forum (PDF) held in Helsinki in November of 2019, members of the Polar Data Community gathered to share information and knowledge and to make practical progress towards greater data sharing and interoperability. PDF III followed on a series of meetings that have resulted in continuing advancements in the areas of federated search, identification and development of shared vocabularies and formal semantics, data policy, community building and other topics. Since PDF III, the dialogue has continued. In March and early April, the Arctic data community met during the online Arctic Observing Summit. The Standing Committee on Arctic Data Management (SCADM) and members of the Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS) Program have met meeting regularly. There is broad agreement between these groups and the IASC-SAON Arctic Data Committee (ADC) that meeting more frequently will help us to continue making practical progress on our shared goals.
During these challenging times, meeting in person is not feasible. However, recent online events have demonstrated that we can successfully collaborate using virtual tools.
We would like to invite you to join us online on June 30th to continue our efforts to enhance polar data sharing and interoperability. This will be the first of a planned bi-monthly series of online workshops convened by the ADC, SCADM, SOOS, the Arctic Observing Summit Working Group 4, the Global Cryosphere Watch, and the World Data System on behalf of the polar data community.
A detailed agenda, objectives and a registration link will be shared in the coming days/weeks. The general draft agenda is as follows:
- Meeting kickoff (plenary) (30 minutes): Overview of recent developments and objectives for the meeting.
- Breakout Working Group 1: Federated Search. Hosted by POLDER
• Share developments in the area of metadata aggregation with particular focus on schema.org
• Discussion of linking schema.org to other metadata standards and services (e.g. ISO 19115/ OGC CSW)
• Identify key shared metadata vocabularies in use
- Breakout Working Group 2: Vocabularies and Semantics. Hosted by the ADC-IARPC-SCADM Vocabularies and Semantics Working Group
• Determine how to work on the Best Practices part of science on schema.org
• Work on Time, space, and other sections of science On Schema.org not addressed at PDF III
• Understanding the process for contributing to community ontologies (e.g. ENVO)
- Breakout Working Group 3: Policy. Hosted by SCADM, SOOS and the Arctic Data Committee (Stein Tronstad lead): At the third Polar Data Forum a process was initiated to update and align the data policies of IASC, SCAR, SOOS and potentially other polar science groups. We aim to move this process forward by forming a bipolar group to work on objectives and core principles of an updated, «bipolar» data policy document. During this initial webinar we will also be looking at the rationales and key principles of some important international data policies.
This discussion will also engage representatives from the global data community to ensure broad interoperability.
Registration for the Polar to Global Online Interoperability and Data Sharing Workshop/Hackathon is now open. Due to the constraints of our virtual platform, participation is limited. Registration is required. Connection information for the virtual meeting will be provided to registered participants closer to the event time.
To register, please complete the form linked above.
