Status Report: Outreach Activities
September 2015 - April 2016
Ben Domenico
Activities Since the Last Status Report
Continue to work with OGC to augment international CF-netCDF standards that have been established over the last several years and on phase 2 of ODIP.
Progress has been made on the following:
- Represented Unidata at OGC Technical Committee meetings
- Chaired OGC NetCDF Standards Working Group
- Served as UCAR business and technical representative to the OGC.
- Represented Unidata at ODIP Steering Committee telecons
- Arranged for Unidata to host ODIP Workshop in May 2016.
Dependencies, challenges, problems, and risks include:
- There is a question of what resources should be committed to these projects beyond the end of the 2016 calendar year.
Collaborative project with George Mason University to make Unidata real time datasets available to researchers and educators in other disciplines
Progress has been made on the following:
- Held kick off teleconference to outline steps for getting a “motherlode clone” running on the GMU EarthCube hardware.
- Maintained periodic contact with Liping Di, the GMU PI on the project.
Dependencies, challenges, problems, and risks include:
- The project got off to a slow start but the PI, Liping Di of GMU, anticipates that a one year no cost extension will make it possible to achieve the proposed objectives.
Python Workshop Notebooks on alternative platforms
Due to reduced FTE commitment, no effort is being expended on software development in the cloud.
Ongoing Activities
- Coordination and collaboration with NCAR GIS
- Represent Unidata and UCAR in OGC
- Participate in ODIP 2 as resources allow after hosting workshop in May
- Continue as co-PI on Earthcube Cyberconnector project.
New Activities
No new activities are planned. For the remainder of this calendar year, the objective is to keep current activities going as well as possible with resources available and make arrangements to complete those that can be completed. Note that, in response to last year’s budget crunch, Ben reduced his Unidata FTE commitment.
Areas for Committee Feedback
We are requesting your feedback on the following topics:
Should we pursue an OGC standard for conventions for including ISO conforming metadata in netCDF files?
Regarding a “short cut” OGC standard for GRIB, is it necessary to spell out systematic online access to external tables and to spell out explicit data model mappings?
How important is it to continue these outreach efforts beyond the end of the 2016 calendar year. Are some of these projects higher priority than others?
Strategic Focus Areas
We support the following goals described in Unidata Strategic Plan:
- Enable widespread, efficient access to geoscience data
Work with representatives of other disciplines and serve on their governing boards where appropriate, e.g., NCAR GIS for Geographic Information Systems, CUAHSI (Consortium of Universities for Advancement of Hydrological Science), ODIP (Ocean Data Interoperability Platform), etc. - Develop and provide open-source tools for effective use of geoscience data
Work with Unidata collection of Ipython notebooks in cloud development platforms and on native Microsoft Windows. - Provide cyberinfrastructure leadership in data discovery, access, and use
Continue to work with Opengeospatial Consortium (OGC) to augment international CF-netCDF standards that have been established over the last several years. - Build, support, and advocate for the diverse geoscience community
Serve as Co-Investigator on Earthcube Cyberconnector project which will make Unidata data available to a wide range of research and education communities beyond the traditional Unidata community.
Prepared April 2015