Authors
Lesley Wyborn (Geoscience Australia and National Data in Science Committee), Ray Norris (NCDS and CSIRO Australian National Telescope Facility), Rhys Francis (AeRIC), Kim Finney (Australian Antarctic Division), Alex Held (Division of Marine and Atmospheric Research, CSIRO), Jane Hunter (University of Queensland), Tim Littlejohn (NCDS and IBM Australia), and Karen Wilson (NCDS and Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney)
Abstract
Scientific data are being generated at an ever increasing rate. Existing volumes of data can no longer be effectively processed by humans, and efficient and timely processing by computers requires development of standardised machine readable formats and interfaces. Although there is also a growing need to share data, information and services across multiple disciplines, many standards currently being developed tend to be discipline specific.
To enable cross-disciplinary research a more modular approach to standards development is required. Common components (e.g., location, units of measure, geometric shape, instrument type, etc) need to be identified and standardised across all disciplines. Already international standards bodies such as ISO and OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) are well advanced in developing technical standards that are applicable for interchange of some of these common components such as GML (Geography Markup Language), Observations and Measurements Encoding Standard, SensorML, Spatial Coordinate Systems, Metadata Standards, etc.
However, the path for developing the remaining discipline specific standards is less coordinated. There is a clear lack of infrastructure and governance not only for the development of the required standards but also for storage, maintenance and extension of these standards over time. There is also no formal mechanism to harmonise decisions made by the various scientific disciplines to avoid unwanted overlap. The National Committee for Data in Science (NCDS) was established in 2008 by the Australian Academy of Science to provide an interdisciplinary focus for scientific data management. The NCDS also represents Australian interests on the international interdisciplinary Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA). The NCDS put an informal request to CODATA in 2008 for CODATA to consider taking on a new coordination role on issues related to the development and governance of standards required for the discovery of, and access to digital scientific data.
About the speaker
Lesley Wyborn is currently Senior Geoscience Advisor to the CEO at Geoscience Australia (GA). She is also a member of the Australian Academy of Science National Data in Science Committee and was a member of the National e-Research Architecture Task Force and the AuScope Grid Project. She joined BMR (predecessor to GA) in 1972 and has worked ever since in a variety of Geoscience and Geoinformatics roles. In Geoinformatics, her main focus has been on developing relational databases for storage of Geoscience data and in developing International Standards to enable real-time access to Geoscience and Geospatial data via web services.