Canadian IDN Status Report Brian McLeod, Martine Rocheleau Cameron Wilson and Christine Therriault CCRS, Natural Resources Canada CEOS WGISS Plenary and Subgroups meeting Kyiv, Ukraine September 13, 2005

2 Canadian IDN Node/GeoConnections Discovery Portal Overview The Canadian node of the CEOS International Directory Network is the GeoConnections Discovery Portal Overview A new GeoConnections program was launched June 15, 2005 to ensure that Canadians will be able to actively use and benefit from the Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure (CGDI), particularly in the areas of public health, public safety, sustainable development and the environment, and Aboriginal issues. While the focus of the renewed program will be on these new target areas, GeoConnections will also work with earlier partners to ensure that CGDI technologies remain current. The GeoConnections Discovery Portal is a key access component of the CGDI. It is designed and built to enable geospatial resource discovery, evaluation and access. Operations are based in the GeoAccess Division, Canada Centre for Remote Sensing, Natural Resources Canada.

3 GeoConnections Discovery Portal – The System and Content The GeoConnections Discovery Portal system was built on the Canadian Earth Observation Network (CEONet) technology, developed by MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA). Currently, metadata for: Data, Web Services, Organizations, and other Services are published and searchable on the Discovery Portal. Datasets are described using a bilingual (English/French) version of the latest (1998) Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) metadata standard including additional ISO fields. Metadata is exchanged with the GCMD using the Directory Interchange Format (DIF).

4 GeoConnections Discovery Portal – Metadata content Published entries as of September 8, 2005: –17,098 Data Products –780 Organizations * –553 Services (online and offline) ** –309 Searchable Collections (Z39.50) –100 OGC Web Services *** * All Canadian organization entries (634) will soon be transferred to the Canadian Company Capabilities (CCC) database with Industry Canada’s Strategis. The Discovery Portal will offer discovery and display capabilities of geomatics organizations from CCC via an on-line service. ** Services entries were redefined and categorized following standardized ISO TC nomenclature to better serve our clients and promote CGDI-compliant and other on-line services. A total of 368 business-oriented or non-Web Service entries will soon be deleted (318 En; 45 Bil; 5 Fr.). *** Includes 64 OGC Web Map Services. Examples include: Agriculture, Geology, Fisheries (ocean management areas, fishing zones, inshore/near shore knowledge), land data (topography, forestry, nature watch details)

5 GeoConnections Discovery Portal – User Sessions

6 GeoConnections Discovery Portal – User Sessions by RUC

7 GeoConnections Discovery Portal – Recent Enhancements Automated metadata import/export with GCMD now in place (i.e. push of Canadian content, pull of non-Canadian content) An updated version of the English/French GCMD thesaurus table, which includes the GCMD Science Keywords and Chronostratigraphic Units, is on-line. –This thesaurus is registered under “Terminology used in the Federal Government of Canada” on the Library and Archives Canada website at: e.htmlhttp:// e.html

8 GeoConnections Discovery Portal – “next generation” development User testing of the Discovery Portal was conducted in A number of usability and architecture issues were identified as needing to be addressed. A new design was developed based on user-centric methodologies and emerging business requirements for the renewed GeoConnections program. This process helped to better articulate business objectives of the Discovery Portal and client requirements: –Redefinition and categorization of Services according to ISO TC nomenclature; eliminating business-oriented or non- Web Service entries. –Transfer of responsibility for Organizations to another federal department (Industry Canada).

9 GeoConnections Discovery Portal – next generation The new release of the Discovery Portal will offer a new look and will better serve user needs by prioritizing access to key data sets and associated on-line services (improved usability, more robust Web services registry – e.g. support for WMS context document discovery/visualization). Scheduled for deployment November 2005.

10 GeoConnections Discovery Portal – References English/French – Français/anglais –