OPEN DATA PROTOCOL (ODATA): A PRACTICAL WEB PROTOCOL FOR DATA QUERY AND RETRIEVAL

Open Data Protocol (Odata) can be thought of as a choice of data format with both intrinsic and extrinsic value in the context of current developments in information technology. Intrinsically Odata is built upon web technologies such as http, AtomPub and JSON informed by product development within Microsoft and elsewhere. Extrinsically Odata is finding wide adoption as a candidate data type across new experiments in data query and retrieval, for example in the GeoREST framework. In this work we describe the Odata feed generated by a Cloud (Azure) Library for storage, analysis and retrieval of properties of dissolved organic matter in riverine and coastal water. The end objective of the research is towards bridging two gaps in biogeochemistry: First from physical system attributes to terrestrial to organic chemistry within the global hydrological cycle, and second from molecular to metagenomic characterization of microbial population dynamics. With arguably ambitious long-term research objectives we feel that choice of a communication protocol is an important challenge, particularly anticipating future demands for tremendous flexibility. We discuss here the choice of Odata as an answer to that challenge.