1. GCMD Science Users’ Working Group (SUWG) Wyn Cudlip BNSC/QinetiQ Presentation to WGISS24, IDN Task Team DLR, October 2007

2. CEOS WGISS 24 Meeting, DLR, October 2007 SUWG: What is it for? To provide guidance on the future direction of the GCMD and provide discipline-specific advice. Composed of: –A chairperson –A Lead Scientist –A CEOS representative (Wyn Cudlip) –Four additional members Meet once per year for a two-day progress meeting. Last meeting was on 19/20 th June, 2007. Results reported here. Terms of Reference: Represents the broad range of Earth science disciplines including life sciences, oceanography, geophysics, and atmospheric science. Members are chosen for their interest in NASA's directory effort, and for their understanding of the importance of high quality data management.

3. CEOS WGISS 24 Meeting, DLR, October 2007 2007 SUWG Meeting Participants Benno Blumenthal, Columbia University Andrea Buffam, Natural Resources Canada Eugene Burger, NOAA Wyn Cudlip, QinetiQ Vivian Hutchison, USGS Martin Ruzek, USRA Hubert Staudigel, Scripps Institution of Oceanography Dave Toll, NASA GSFC

4. CEOS WGISS 24 Meeting, DLR, October 2007 General Comments SUWG was extremely impressed by the dedication and professionalism of entire GCMD Team. Provides high quality services while keeping in touch with changing technologies. Successfully walked the fine line of balancing sustaining engineering vs development to keep up with the rapidly changing Internet technology. Lola Olsen is once again to be commended for her leadership of the group.

5. CEOS WGISS 24 Meeting, DLR, October 2007 Specific Recommendations: Continue to be a community leader providing high quality Earth science metadata, and actively contributing to keyword development, standards definitions and the semantic web Work towards greater inclusion of current NASA data sets and research so that virtually all of NASA’s Earth science efforts can be found through GCMD, without neglecting other key data Extend metadata holdings to include popular data sets such as climate change indicators to maintain relevance to users, and develop priorities for adding new metadata Continue to make the GCMD known through papers, posters and booth attendance at professional society meetings, and work to better understand the GCMD users and their needs

6. CEOS WGISS 24 Meeting, DLR, October 2007 Specific Recommendations (contd.): Continue to encourage a culture of provider-maintained metadata, with appropriate checks and balances, through DocBuilder and web interface enhancements Continue to develop a strategic plan in resonance with sponsor and community needs Continue to explore how they might contribute to GEOSS Tasks –(with endorsement of US GEO)

7. CEOS WGISS 24 Meeting, DLR, October 2007 Conclusions Recent SUWG meeting produced comprehensive report on recommendations. Report will be made available through the GCMD website. GCMD is to be commended on its continuing success. Recommended to continue activities. Needs to work through US GEO to continue to support GEOSS.