A COMMUNITY WORKSHOP AND EMERGING ORGANIZATION TO SUPPORT A NATIONAL GEOINFORMATICS SYSTEM IN THE UNITED STATES

At the request of the Earth Sciences Division of the National Science Foundation a meeting was held in March of 2007 to explore what direction the Geoinformatics community in the United States should be taking in terms of developing a National Geoinformatics System. It was clear that developing such a system should involve a partnership between academia (in particular efforts supported by the NSF), government, and industry that should be closely connected to the efforts of the U. S. Geological Survey and the state geological surveys that were discussed at a workshop in February of 2007.

The March meeting had three main goals: (1) define the content of a National Geoinformatics System for the United States; (2) identify the technology via which such a system could be created; (3) create a process for moving forward to jointly plan and develop such a system. The meeting was designed to be flexible and to emphasize breakout group sessions and plenary sessions that encouraged open discussion, brainstorming, and forward thinking.

The major conclusion of the meeting was that the Geoinformatics community should proceed to investigate setting up a formal organization that is a community of informatics providers and scientists whose aim is to enable transformative science across the earth and natural sciences by:

o Fostering communication and collaboration

o Enabling science through informatics

o Engaging other communities (science domains and other informatics groups)

o Helping its members work to be more effective science information providers

o Sharing resources and expertise

o Enabling interoperability

o Sustaining service to the community over the long haul

o Providing a mechanism for our community to speak with a united voice