Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Sharing our experimental data and EarthCube

Dear Sediment Experimentalists,

Hope all is going well in the laboratory. In this message we have information about
(1) sharing our research topics and data with each other with a Google Fusion Table
(2) EarthCube, one of NSF’s latest efforts on data and knowledge management.


(1) Sediment Experimentalists Fusion Table

We’ve been trying to think of quick ways to share information about our research with the rest of the community, whether it is in progress or already published. So, we are testing a new resource for data sharing among sedimentary researchers.  This is the “Sediment Experimentalists” Google Fusion Table, put together by Raleigh Martin.  It can be viewed here:

To access the table view:
https://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?snapid=S508266LfWw

To access the maps view:
https://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?snapid=S508269Asyx

Our long-term goal is to generate a robust, secure, and easy-to-use framework for data sharing among sedimentary researchers.  In the near term, we believe that the Google Fusion Table, which is free and (relatively) easy to use, can act as a testbed for data sharing.  In addition to being free, the Fusion Table provides nice visualization and sorting tools.

We encourage you to add information about your own research projects to the Fusion Table.  If you would like to do this, please send an email to sedimentexp@gmail.com with your Gmail address (if you don’t have one, you can create one for free).  More detailed instructions for using the Fusion Table are available here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C34iCc4yd7stvUm4grpcz1q6KMhIFYpfx0VFlhb5UWU/edit

Please note that, while it is helpful, it is not necessary to directly share your data online.  Simply listing that the data is available (and providing contact information) is very useful.  Also, while this project is mainly aimed at experimentalists, we also encourage sharing of field data as well.

(2) What is EarthCube?

Many of us may have received multiple emails recently encouraging us to take a survey for EarthCube and participate in the discussions. One of the most common responses to these emails was probably “What is EarthCube?” Here are two attempts at answering that question:
(1) What is EarthCube? from the Sediment Experimentalists blog
(2) EarthCube’s official What is EarthCube? document
The short answer is “a knowledge and data management system,” but we also encourage you to follow the links to learn more. At this early stage in the system’s development, scientist feedback to the system architects is extremely important. If you are interested in this effort, please join the EarthCube site as a member and connect with us (Wonsuck Kim, Leslie Hsu, Brandon McElroy, and Raleigh Martin. We are participating in the events and will make sure that our community’s voice is heard at EarthCube.


Please reply to this email address (sedimentexp@gmail.com) with any comments, feedback, or questions.

Happy experimenting,

Leslie, Brandon, Raleigh, Wonsuck

Archived messages:
http://sedimentexperiments.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

What is EarthCube?

Many of you may have received emails asking you to fill out a survey for EarthCube - in fact we have posted the call for the survey on this blog as well. When you received the email, you may have thought "What is EarthCube anyway?"

The survey states "EarthCube is a bold, new, NSF initiative to create an integrated data and knowledge management system that extends across the geosciences." On the EarthCube website, currently there are hundreds of scientists and cyberinfrastructurists who have organized into groups such as "Data Discovery, Mining, Integration," "Semantics and Ontologies," "Interoperability," and "Education and Workforce Development." (See all Groups.) At this early stage, they are creating roadmaps of how to make progress on their particular topics.

What does this mean for a disciplinary scientist like a sediment experimentalist? The products of the EarthCube effort will be apps, web services, and resources that help you to do science in a more efficient and effective way. But before the products are built, your input into what types of data you collect and use, how you interact with it, and what you want to do, will help the programmers and computer scientists to develop the products. Think about your favorite data resources today - high resolution topography (USGS, OpenTopography), hydrograph data (USGS), geophysical data (IRIS, EarthScope), models (CSDMS, CIG), and publications (ScienceDirect, Web of Knowledge, Google Scholar) - what would it take for these entities to work in concert so that you can seamlessly access and discover the information that you need?

Here at the Sediment Experimentalists site, we hope to facilitate the communication between our scientific community and the EarthCube effort. Don't hesitate to ask any questions in the comments or by email (sedimentexp@gmail.com). As a first step, you can take a look at the EarthCube site: http://earthcube.ning.com/, and register as a participant or join a mailing list.

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Scientist survey on data for EarthCube

We want you to help guide EarthCube, a bold new NSF initiative to create an integrated data and knowledge management system for the geosciences. Researchers funded by NSF want to know your views on the needs in data and cyberinfrastructure across the geosciences.  

Help shape EarthCube by telling us how easy (or hard) it is to find, get, and use data, models, and computational/visualization tools for the geosciences. Share your views on how to best move EarthCube forward.  Click here: http://sgiz.mobi/s3/EarthCube-Stakeholder-Consent-EC *   Results will be posted on http://earthcube.ning.com in early June and presented at the June 12-14 EarthCube Charrette in Arlington, VA.

*This link takes you to a survey to capture your view on how to best advance data-enabled geoscience.  Your participation is voluntary.  Your identity will be kept separate from your responses and be kept strictly confidential.  Only aggregate findings will be reported.  As for all surveys of this kind, it starts with a voluntary consent form.  Please share your views by visiting the link above and telling us what you think.