SEEKING COMMUNITY GUIDANCE ON GEOSCIENCE CYBERINFRASTRUCTURE

The EarthCube Demonstration Governance recently submitted an initial strategic plan for EarthCube to the US National Science Foundation, which includes the EarthCube vision and goals, science drivers and supporting cyberinfrastructure and information technologies, and an implementation roadmap for the EarthCube community to make progress towards those goals. The community-driven and vetted structure and mechanisms offer an array of opportunities for influence of and participation in EarthCube, including community guidance to NSF. Community feedback is sought for establishing avenues toward participation in open data systems and facilitating community convergence on system architecture.

Conclusions of a year-long testing of community governance are that EarthCube is viable, has engaged a broad spectrum of end-users and contributors, and has begun to foster a sense of urgency around the importance of open and shared data. At the same time, the active participants in EarthCube represent a very small sub-set of the larger population of geoscientists. Results from this project have impacted NSF decisions on the direction of the EarthCube program.

The technical and organizational elements of EarthCube are poised to support a functional infrastructure for the geosciences community. The process for establishing shared technological standards has notable progress but there is a continuing need to expand technological and cultural alignment. Increasing emphasis is being given to the interdependencies among NSF-funded EarthCube projects. The newly developed EarthCube Technology Plan highlights important progress in this area by five working groups focusing on: 1. Use cases; 2. Funded project gap analysis; 3. Testbed development; 4. Standards; and 5. Architecture.

There is ample justification to continue running a community-led governance framework that facilitates agreement on a system architecture, guides EarthCube activities, and plays an increasing role in making the EarthCube vision of cyberinfrastructure for the geosciences operational. There is widespread community expectation for support of a multiyear EarthCube governing effort to put into practice the science, technical, and organizational plans that have and are continuing to emerge.