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NSF Observations Workshop 2007

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Introduction

Broad-scale ecological studies often require information assembled from multiple disciplines including biology (e.g., genetics, physiology, and paleontology), the physical sciences (e.g., geography, meteorology, and hydrology), and increasingly the social sciences (e.g., economics and sociology). In such studies, data heterogeneity creates major informatics challenges that include the need to better discover, access, interpret, and integrate relevant data that have been collected by others. Despite the advances made using metadata and community-wide data networks, science needs robust, open, and generic software systems that address the semantic ambiguities of heterogeneous data. New strategies for managing observational data are needed so that systems can better interpret the semantics of observations to resolve issues impeding synthesis. For these systems to interoperate effectively, however, the scientific community must first unify the various existing approaches for representing observational data. A community-sanctioned data model for ecological and environmental observational data will provide an important mechanism for informatics efforts to enable interoperability among existing data resources, ultimately leading to more improved, comprehensive, cross-disciplinary synthetic research.

Workshop Objectives

The objectives of this workshop will be to discuss and define the features and requirements for a unified data model of observational data that can be shared across ecological and environmental sciences, and to clarify the infrastructure necessary for the scientific community to develop, maintain, and support such a model. The objectives for this proposed workshop constitute five distinct tasks: (1) define “observational data”; (2) specify the capabilities enabled by a shared model for observational data; (3) critically review existing models for observational data, in light of earlier points above, and clarify the advantages and challenges of creating a shared framework for capturing observational data; (4) enumerate specific requirements for a shared model for observational data; and (5) discuss the issues associated with creating and maintaining a shared model for observational data with a community-wide, open-participation effort.

General Information

  • Date: 9-11 July, 2007
  • Location: National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, Santa Barbara, California
  • Hotel: Country Inn by the Sea , 128 Castillo Street, Santa Barbara (toll-free: 800-455-4647, local: 805-963-4471)
    • From the airport: SuperRide Airport Shuttle (805-683-9636) or taxi cab (~$35)
  • Directions from hotel to NCEAS
    • NCEAS is on the 3rd floor of the Balboa Building (enter through foyer to the left of Banana Republic)

Participants

Name InstitutionProject
Allen, Paul Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University
Baru, Chaitan San Diego Supercomputer Center, University of California, San Diego
Benson, Barbara Center for Limnology, University of Wisconsin
Bermudez, Luis Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Blum, Stanley California Academy of Sciences
Bowers, Shawn Department of Bioinformatics, University of California - Davis
Chiu, Kenneth Computer Sciences, State University of New York
Cushing, Judith Evergreen State College
Horsburgh, Jeff Environmental Management Research Group, Utah Water Research Laboratory
Jax, Kurt Department of Conservation Biology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research
Jones, Matthew National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis
Kelling, Steve Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University
Kennedy, Jessie School of Computing, Napier University
Liu, Xianhua National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, Duke University
Madin, Joshua National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis
McCartney, Peter Biological Databases and Informatics, National Science Foundation
McGuinness, Deborah Knowledge Systems Laboratory, Stanford University
Mirtl, Michael Federal Environment Agency, Austria
Morris, Robert College of Science and Mathematics, University of Massachusetts Boston
Parr, Cynthia University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies
Piasecki, Michael Department of Civil & Architectural Engineering, Drexel University
Raskin, Robert NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
Schildhauer, Mark National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis
Servilla, Mark LTER Network Office, University of New Mexico
Stein, Bruce Information Division, NatureServe
Vieglais, David Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center, Kansas University



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This particular version was published on 03-Jul-2007 17:21:19 PDT by uid=madin,o=NCEAS.