HR: 10:56h
AN: IN52A-04 INVITED    [Abstracts]
TI: The International Polar Year Data and Information Service—Building a network of sharing, trust, and meaning
AU: * Parsons, M A
EM: parsonsm@nsidc.org
AF: National Snow and Ice Data Center/World Data Center for Glaciology, Boulder, UCB 449, Boulder, CO 80309, United States
AB: Arctic science is inherently interdisciplinary and there is a national and international imperative to understand the Arctic region as a system. This emphasis on interdisciplinary research requires scientists to extend their professional networks across disciplines. Researchers need to access, understand, and assess data and information outside their field where they may not have the relevant disciplinary expertise, including knowledge of core assumptions and metaphors. Correspondingly data providers need to make their data understandable and usable by new users with different knowledge bases. While there are many technical barriers to cross- disciplinary data sharing, the fundamental issues lie in the human interactions and networks of scientific interaction. The International Polar Year 2007-2008 (IPY) is an intensive burst of coordinated scientific activity involving tens of thousands of investigators from 63 countries. It also seeks to create a sustained legacy of international and interdisciplinary cooperation, notably through enhanced polar observing systems. As such, IPY provides an opportunity for focused investigation of how interdisciplinary scientific and data sharing networks are created, extended, and modified. The International Polar Year Data and Information Service (IPYDIS), an international federation of data centers, archives, and networks working to ensure proper stewardship of IPY and related data, is one example of a formal network developing out of IPY. The IPYDIS has a semi-formal structure of governance, but IPY is limited in time. Methods for formal support and extension of the IPYDIS through other international collaborations will be discussed. Ultimately, however, the network is sustained through mechanisms that increase data sharing (technically and socially), establish and reinforce trust (between investigators and of data sources, and codify meanings both formally (ontologies, vocabularies, etc.) and informally (e.g., concepts of quality, incorporation of traditional knowledge).
UR: http://ipydis.org
DE: 0700 CRYOSPHERE (4540)
DE: 1600 GLOBAL CHANGE
DE: 6300 POLICY SCIENCES (7964)
DE: 6600 PUBLIC ISSUES
SC: Earth and Space Science Informatics [IN]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting