1. Scientific and Technical Issues on Environmental Data Access Gilberto Câmara Director for Earth Observation National Institute for Space Research

2. The Issues Technical interoperability of environmental data across software and hardware systems Semantic interoperability of environmental data across disciplines and languages But…  What is interoperability, anyway?  How much interoperability do we need?

3. The Elusiveness of Interoperability Everyone wants interoperability of environmental data… But what exactly is interoperability???  WordNet: the ability to exchange and use information (usually in a large heterogeneous network made up of several local area networks) We want to share…  Bits (Ethernet)  Protocols (HTML, Internet)  Data (PDF, DOC, PPT, XLS)  Information (DNA structures)  Knowledge (how is that archived?)

4. Interoperability of Spatial Information Data GIS A GIS B Format A Format B Lake Habitat

5. Dimensions of interoperability Format A Format B Syntax level (data) Semantic level (information) LakeHabitat

6. Syntax Level: Data Conversion We know how to do this!!

7. The Ontologist’s Credo Ontology GIS A GIS B Converter Lake Habitat We don’t now how to do this!!

8. 35 © 1998, Open GIS Consortium, Inc. All Rights Reserved OpenGIS: The Wrong Vision? File Format Real-Time Data Feed File Format Traditional DBMS File Format Non- traditional DBMS File Format NETWORKS AND CLIENT/SERVER TECHNOLOGY File Format File Format File Format Interfaces based on the OpenGIS Specification

9. The Paradox of Interoperability The First Law of Interoperability Two people can only share digital data if both of them know what’s inside it First Corollary to the First Law You can’t share digital data if you don’t have a previous agreement Second Corollary to the First Law You can only have standards when you know what you’re talking about (the underlying conceptual model is stable and well-known)

10. What is Shared Knowledge? Scientific taxonomy Measurements framework Spatial and temporal operators Simple software formats (SHP, XLS)

11. What Shall We Do? Share data (formats)  Open access to data is more important than industry- driven standards Develop open source tools for data conversion, visualization, analysis and web publication  Open source tools are more important than standards Research, research, research on ontologies….  Longways before we reach our elusive goal of semantic interoperability