2001 DAWG Approaches

Planning Meeting Summary of Approaches Discussed, Feb. 7-8, 2001

The following approaches for short-term implementation of the DAWG vision were discussed at the Feb. 7-8 meeting.

Identify collections that we would initially like to include in the DLESE collection and then address issues specific to these collections.

Identify a few use cases to frame the educational content and the datasets that should first be exploited.

Identifying the breadth of efforts currently underway and enabling communication and collaboration between groups.

Demonstration project linking a few distributed Earth data representing datasets from ocean, atmosphere, solid Earth, social and life sciences with a basic tool kit. Constructed and evaluated within one or more educational context.

  • (possible projects are locally based - how has the climate changed in my city? What is the seismicity/geology of my state?)
  • (possible projects are of a more general nature. What are the best examples of a particular example? Small projects done by individuals)

    • Linking with related groups (nonearth scientists, mathematicians, physicists) and commonly used tool developers who would like access to Earth data in their presentations.

    Demonstration focused on a small region showing in-depth development of tools and data access.

    Develop automated package to construct datasets and learning resources around timely Earth events.

    Developing underlying support structure for end-to-end delivery and use of datasets.

    Enhance metadata framework for datasets and catalog existing datasets and learning resources using datasets.

    Research on effective use of datasets in the classroom.

    Encouraging the development of resources and services supporting end-to-end delivery.

    Plan for sustainability and maintenance.

    Explore dataspace and develop demonstration project that exercises a variety of data types.

    Principles for Data Access through DLESE

    To rely on partnerships for:

  • Provision of data
  • Provision of technology and tools
  • NSDL participation/compatibility

    • Follow patterns that reflect the state of the art

  • OpenGIS Web-Mapping testbed
  • Global Change Master Directory

    • To gain early success:

  • Pick a few common data-set types and tools
  • Offer a few representative data sets
  • Augment discovery with a gazeteer
  • Ensure end-to-end effectiveness
    • Place/feature specific data discovery
    • Tool specific data discovery
    • Data specific tool discovery
    • Application-based viewing/analysis (thick client)
    • Browser-based data viewing/analysis (thin client)

    • To aim for long-term success:

  • Address key challenges
    • Persistent identifiers
    • Personalized data collections
    • Middleware matching tools and data types
    • Scalability limits on human-generated metadata
  • Follow emerging standards/patterns
  • Support embedding DLESE data discovery/access in applications and into educational materials
  • Conceptualize and support chains of data derivations/transformations
  • Link strategically to research needs (remote, real-time, etc.)
    • Improved data access (remote, real-time, etc.)
    • Facilitated data use (i.e., enhance useage metadata)
    • Improved data discovery

    • Data Access Components of the DLESE Effort

    Efforts related to Data discovery

  • Create/operate a discovery/characterization environment for data sets and services
  • Help providers expose suitable metadata
  • Support creation of personalized data collections

    • Efforts related to Data use

  • Create/operate a tool discovery/characterization environment
  • Help providers expose data for remote access
  • Help builders of materials/applications access data
  • Foster creation of useful data-transformation services

    • Establishing educational linkages with data

  • Interact with other DLESE components

    • Tools

    Map viewer - http://viewer.digitalearth.gov (link is no longer active)

    Working Groups

    Demonstration of multiple earth datasets within a single viewer

    Developing a cookbook using existing data resources