October 14, 2003NSDL All Projects Meeting Federation of Earth Science Information Partners: An Organization that Promotes and Facilitates Collaboration Tamara Shapiro Ledley Senior Scientist, TERC Chair, Standing Committee for Education

October 14, 2003NSDL All Projects Meeting ESIP Federation Formed in 1997 with 24 member organizations with funding from NASA Constitution and Bylaws adopted in 2000 Grew to 45 organizations by spring 2003 Soon to have over 80 members as a result of NASA REASoN Solicitation

October 14, 2003NSDL All Projects Meeting ESIP Federation Goal To establish and continuously improve science-based end-to-end processes that increase the quality and value of Earth science products and services throughout their life-cycle for the benefit of the ESIP Federation’s stakeholder communities.

October 14, 2003NSDL All Projects Meeting ESIP Federation Structure Federation Assembly –Type 1 ESIP’s – Data Archive Centers –Type 2 ESIP’s – Earth Science Centers –Type 3 ESIP’s – Application Centers –Type 4 ESIP’s – ESIP Federation Sponsors –Type 5 ESIP’s – ESIP Federation Supporters

October 14, 2003NSDL All Projects Meeting Foundation for Earth Science 501(c) (3) private non-profit organization Role: –Provides staff support for the Federation –Raises funding for Federation activities and Federation members Governance and Staff –Board of Directors (6 of 8 key officers in the Federation) –Executive Director –Associate Executive Director

October 14, 2003NSDL All Projects Meeting ESIP Federation Governance Structure President Vice President Administrative Committees Executive Finance & Appropriations Partnership Constitution & Bylaws Standing Committees Earth Science Products & Services Information Technology & Interoperability Community Engagement Commercial Development Education Working Groups Metrics & Evaluation e-Presence e-Journal Peer Review Process others Clusters Hydrology Climate Studies GIS Services e-Commerce LBA Ecology others

October 14, 2003NSDL All Projects Meeting Opportunities for Collaboration ESIP Federation Meeting twice per year –Poster sessions –Breakout group discussions (Summer 2003 Meeting domain groups) Participation in committees –Most committees have monthly telecons which lead to other activities Participation in Clusters and Working Groups Funding Opportunities – to be facilitated by the Foundation for Earth Science

October 14, 2003NSDL All Projects Meeting Examples of Successes Earth Exploration Toolbook (EET) Museums Teaching Planet Earth (MTPE) – Earth Update Interoperability and usability of distributed datasets THREDDS, OPeNDAP-Data Access Protocol

October 14, 2003NSDL All Projects Meeting Earth Exploration Toolbook Idea grew out of discussions in a DLESE Data Access Working Group meeting Discussions with DLESE Community and ESIP Federation Standing Committee for Education (SCEd) refined ideas for proposal Request for partners during SCEd telecon 6 ESIP’s partnered at various levels in the successful proposal

October 14, 2003NSDL All Projects Meeting Museums Teaching Planet Earth – Earth Update Earth Update brings near real-time Earth science data and Earth science information to the public Most content material develop by project staff Other ESIP’s contributed material developed for other purposes to be included in the Earth Update software

October 14, 2003NSDL All Projects Meeting Interoperability and Usability of Distributed Datasets Thematic Real Time Distributed Data System - THREDDS Distributed Oceanographic Data System (DODS) – OPeNDAP-Data Access Protocol Data access protocols as well as mechanisms for connecting distributed datasets and documents are facilitated by the collaboration of ESIP’s who have developed different tools to accomplish various tasks

October 14, 2003NSDL All Projects Meeting Newer Collaborations Opportunity to collaborate on study of disruption of Kuwaiti salt marshes –Discussions in break out sessions at 2003 Summer Meeting helped identify potential partners who can contribute to this effort Merging of data transfer systems to improve usability –Facilitated by participation in 2003 Summer Meeting

October 14, 2003NSDL All Projects Meeting ESIP Federation Contacts David Jones – StormCenter Communications President of the ESIP Federation Dick Wertz Executive Director of the Foundation for Earth Science Tamara Shapiro Ledley - TERC Chair, Standing Committee for Education URL: