Social, Political and Financial Issues of Connecting GeoData In and Between
Governmental Agencies
NSF GeoData WorkshopJune 17-19, 2014
Boulder, CO
Sara J. Graves, Ph.D.Director, Information Technology and
Systems CenterBoard of Trustees University Professor
Professor of Computer Science University of Alabama in Huntsville
http://www.itsc.uah.edu
Social Issues of Connecting GeoData In and Between Government Agencies
• Advice/Directive from Congress and Advisory groups
• Impacts of ‘cultures’ of agencies on collaboration, funding mechanisms, etc.
• Encourage collaboration with other agencies and groups
• Interpretation of mission of agency
• Discovery, access and use of data by researchers/ decision makers/ policy makers/public
• Convincing Congress to fund new as well as continuing programs
• People aspects offer more challenges than the technical aspects
• ‘No interest in/support of data’ – but then present research results from analyzing data
• Entire ‘Data Community’ responsible for impact and sustainability
• US agencies are leaders in international data and science but we cannot take that valuable asset for granted
• Interest in geodata by wide segment of population – exploit wisely
• International aspects
Financial Issues of Connecting GeoData In and Between Government Agencies
• Funding mechanisms – grants, contracts, etc (open to new mechanisms)
• Funding timetables – constraints/flexibility
• Funds for HW/SW/networks/clouds as well as labor
• Funds for sustainability of data infrastructure
• Large investments by specific agencies – leverage in and between
• RFPs for innovative ideas but also for enhancements/transition to next phase/operations
• Convince Congress to fund new as well as continuing programs
• In and between agencies funding for collaborations and supplementary funding
• Funding uncertainty
• Budgeting implication for broad community of interest in geodata
Political Issues of Connecting GeoData In and Between Government Agencies
• Advice/Directive from Congress and Advisory groups
• Policies of agencies - impacts on collaboration, funding, etc
• Interpretation of mission of agency
• Policies with regard to discovery, access and use of data
• Policy and budgeting implications of providing/consuming data for researchers/ decision makers/ policy makers/public
• Convince Congress to fund new as well as continuing programs
• Internal and External pressures on many topics such as timeliness and openess
• Understand and respect boundaries
• Restrictions on data access and use – ITAR, SBU (sensitive but unclassified)
• Interoperability issues – cultural and legal
• Political environments exist not only in legislative bodies
Science• Larger teams, more disciplines, more countries
Data• Size, complexity, rates all increasing rapidly • Need for interoperability (systems and policies)
Systems • More cores, more architectures (GPUs), more memory hierarchy • Changing balances (latency vs bandwidth) • Changing limits (power, funds) • System architecture and business models changing (clouds) • Network capacity growing; increase networks -> increased security
Software • Multiphysics algorithms, frameworks • Programing models and abstractions for science, data, and hardware • V&V, reproducibility, fault tolerance
People • Education and training • Career paths • Credit and attribution • Daniel Katz - NSF
Infrastructure Challenges
THANKS!!
SciDataCon2014, 2-5 Nov 2014
New Delhi, 2-5 November 2014, co-organised by CODATA and ICSU-WDS (World Data System).
Data Sharing and Integration for Global Sustainability Considering data challenges for international science. Data to underpin robust science to inform decision-making around
sustainability. Big Data and data integration.
Address challenges for Future Earth and other international science programmes. Announcement: http://www.scidatacon2014.org
Themes, invitation to contribute to discussion and call for papers . Save the date and join the discussions! See you in New Delhi!
http://www.scidatacon2014.org