Towards Voluntary Interoperable Open Access Licenses for the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS)

Access to earth observation data has become critically important for the wellbeing of society. A major impediment to achieving widespread sharing of earth ob-servation data is lack of an operational web-wide system that is transparent and consistent in allowing users to legally access and use the earth observations of others without seeking permission from data contributors or investigating terms of usage on a case-by-case basis. This article explores approaches to supplying a license-based system to overcome this impediment in the context of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems. It discusses the benefits and drawbacks of the explored approaches and suggests an integrated legal and technological approach for supplying an effective web-wide sharing environment for earth observation data

Open data and Earth observations

Abstract Earth observations (EO) represent a growing and valuable resource for many scientific, research and practical applications carried out by users around the world. Access to EO data for some applications or activities, like climate change research or emergency response activities, becomes indispensable for their success. However, often EO data or products made of them are (or are claimed to be) subject to intellectual property law protection and are licensed under specific conditions regarding access and use. Restrictive conditions on data use can be prohibitive for further work with the data. Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) is an initiative led by the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) with the aim to provide coordinated, comprehensive, and sustained EO and information for making informed decisions in various areas beneficial to societies, their functioning and development. It seeks to share data with users world-wide with the fewest possible restrictions on their use by implementing GEOSS Data Sharing Principles adopted by GEO. The Principles proclaim full and open exchange of data shared within GEOSS, while recognizing relevant international instruments and national policies and legislation through which restrictions on the use of data may be imposed. The proposed paper focuses on the issue of the legal-interoperability of data that are shared with varying restrictions on use with the aim to explore the options of making data interoperable. The paper analyses legal protection regimes and their norms applicable to EO data. Based on the findings, it highlights the existing public law statutory, regulatory, and policy approaches, as well as private law instruments, such as waivers, licenses and contracts, that may be used to place the datasets in the public domain, or otherwise make them publicly available for use and re-use without restrictions. It uses GEOSS and the particular characteristics of it as a system to identify the ways to reconcile the vast possibilities it provides through sharing of data from various sources and jurisdictions on the one hand, and the restrictions on the use of the shared resources on the other. On a more general level the paper seeks to draw attention to the obstacles and potential regulatory solutions for sharing factual or research data for the purposes that go beyond research and education

A multidisciplinary Spatial Data Infrastructure for the Mediterranean to support implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive

29 páginas, 4 figuras, 2 tablas, 1 apéndice.The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) adopted in 2008 aims to protect the marine environment through the holistic Ecosystem Approach (EA). The MSFD requires Member States to develop and implement cost-effective measures to achieve and/or maintain “Good Environmental Status” (GEnS). To this end, interested parties require a large amount of data and this data should be appropriately managed. This is particularly true for EA applications, where data can come from diverse sources, in diverse formats, and from several disciplines. Preliminary steps for supporting reliable multi-disciplinary analysis include data collection, data management, and the implementation of an interoperable sharing system. In an effort to implement this type of multidisciplinary analysis, a working group from the KnowSeas project (www.knowseas.com) created a Spatial Data Infrastructure for the Mediterranean Sea, designed to define and analyze the GEnS concept across various geographical scales. This article describes the implementation of this SDI, demonstrating how an interoperable system can provide strong support in implementing the MSFD under the EA, and how marine spatial planning can assist policymakers in the decision making process.This work was co-funded by the KnowSeas project (grant number 226675) and the EGIDA project (grant number 265124).Peer reviewe

Flock together with CReATIVE-B: A roadmap of global research data infrastructures supporting biodiversity and ecosystem science

Biodiversity research infrastructures are providing the integrated data sets and support for studying scenarios of biodiversity and ecosystem dynamics. The CReATIVE-B project - Coordination of Research e-Infrastructures Activities Toward an International Virtual Environment for Biodiversity – explored how cooperation and interoperability of large-scale Research Infrastructures across the globe could support the challenges of biodiversity and ecosystem research. A key outcome of the project is that the research infrastructures agreed to continue cooperation after the end of the project to advance scientific progress in understanding and predicting the complexity of natural systems. By working together in implementing the recommendations in this Roadmap, the data and capabilities of the cooperating research infrastructures are better served to address the grand challenges for biodiversity and ecosystem scientists

D3.2. ENEON methodology for management and coordination and first plenary Workshop minutes

The report on the ENEON plenary Workshop (WS2) will gather the minutes and all the information regarding the plenary. The workshops will also be used to build a collection of frameworks and best practices across domains and stakeholders that will be collected in this deliverable. The deliverable also describes the new aspect about ENEON methodology for management and coordination. It is important to differentiate this deliverable from "D6.1 ConnectinGEO methodology" that deals with the gap analysis and priorities that uses the ENEON knowhow as input

Citizen Science and Smart Cities

The report summarizes the presentations, discussions, and conclusions of the Citizen Science and Smart Cities Summit organised by the European Commission Joint Research Centre on 5-7th February 2014. In the context of the Summit, the label Citizen Science was used to include both citizen science projects, and others that are about user-generated content, not necessarily addressing a scientific process or issues. The evidence presented by 27 different projects shows the vitality and diversity of the field but also a number of critical points: • Citizen science project are more than collecting data: they are about raising awareness, building capacity, and strengthening communities. • Likewise, smart cities are not only about ICT, energy and transport infrastructures: Smart cities are about smart citizens, who participate in their city’s daily governance, are concerned about increasing the quality of life of their fellow-citizens, and about protecting their environment. Technology may facilitate, but is no solution per se. • Unfortunately to date there seems to be little synergy between citizen science and smart cities initiatives, and there is little interoperability and reusability of the data, apps, and services developed in each project. • It is difficult to compare the results among citizen science, and smart cities projects or translate from one context to another. • The ephemeral nature of much of the data, which disappear short after the end of the projects, means lack of reproducibility of results and longitudinal analysis of time series challenging, if not impossible. • There are also new challenges with respect to the analytical methods needed to integrate quantitative and qualitative data from heterogeneous sources that need further research. • Building and maintaining trust are key points of any citizen science or smart city project. There is a need to work with the community and not just for, or on, the community. It is critical not just to take (data, information, knowledge) but to give back something that is valued by the community itself. The development of citizen science associations in Europe and the US are important developments that may address some of the points above. There are also actions through which the European Commission Joint Research Centre can make an important contribution: • Map citizen science and smart cities projects, and generate a semantic network of concepts between the projects to facilitate search of related activities, and community building. • Provide a repository for citizen science and smart cities data (anonymised and aggregated), software, services, and applications so that they are maintained beyond the life of the projects they originate from, and made shareable and reusable. • Develop regional test beds for the analysis and integration of social and environmental data from heterogeneous sources, with a focus on quality of life and well-being. • Undertake comparative studies, and analyse issues related to scaling up to the European dimension. • Support citizen science and smart cities projects with the JRC knowledge on semantic interoperability, data models, and interoperability arrangements. • Partner with the European Citizen Science Association, and contribute to its interoperability activities. • Work towards making the JRC, and the European Commission, a champion of citizen participation in European science.JRC.H.6-Digital Earth and Reference Dat

Report of the Research Coordination Network RCN : OceanObsNetwork, facilitating open exchange of data and information

The OceanObsNetwork goals and objectives are to foster a broad, multi-disciplinary dialogue, enabling more effective use of sustained ocean observatories and observing systems. To achieve these, the activities for the RCN include a working group titled “Facilitating Open Exchange of Data and Information.” Within this area 3 task teams were created dealing with elements that impact on open exchange of data and information. This report examines the foundation of Open Data and its importance to the international community, science, innovation and jobs. While the goal may be similar, the paths to Open Data are varied and drawing together a pervasive approach will take time. There are however, near term steps, technical and social, that could have significant impacts. Stimulating interdisciplinary collaboration occurs through adoption of common standards for data exchange, creation of information brokering for improved discovery and access and working toward common or defined vocabularies. Simply finding other scientists’ data has been noted as a major barrier for research. Open Data impinges on existing reward systems and social interactions. Areas that need to be addressed are the academic reward system (in terms of promotion and resources), the peer review panels and grant selection processes (in terms of acknowledging the importance and challenge of data collection) and the needs for acceptable citation mechanisms. Intellectual property should not be abandoned in an Open Data environment and managing IPR is necessary. A sustainable Open Data Policy is essential and sustainability is a matter for all parties, government, private sector, academia and non-profit organizations. As full implementation of Open Data will involve a change in practices in a number of research and publication activities, an end-to-end perspective and strategy would most likely allow a long-term sustainable path to be pursued. Various business models are discussed in the paper that would not have been considered a decade ago. These range from cloud storage to publication of data with Digital Object Identifiers. These set a possible foundation for the future.National Science Foundation through Grant Award No. OCE-1143683

Next-Generation Digital Earth: A position paper from the Vespucci Initiative for the Advancement of Geographic Information Science

This position paper is the outcome of a joint reflection by a group of international geographic and environmental scientists from government, industry, and academia brought together by the Vespucci Initiative for the Advancement of Geographic Information Science, and the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. It argues that the vision of Digital Earth put forward by Vice-President Al Gore 10 years ago needs to be re-evaluated in the light of the many developments in the fields of information technology, data infrastructures, and earth observation that have taken place since. It focuses the vision on the next-generation Digital Earth and identifies priority research areas to support this vision. The paper is offered as input for discussion among different stakeholder communities with the aim to shape research and policy over the next 5-10 years

A multidisciplinary Spatial Data Infrastructure for the Mediterranean to support implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive

The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) adopted in 2008 aims to protect the marine environment through the holistic Ecosystem Approach (EA). The MSFD requires Member States to develop and implement cost-effective measures to achieve and/or maintain “Good Environmental Status” (GEnS). To this end, interested parties require a large amount of data and this data should be appropriately managed. This is particularly true for EA applications, where data can come from diverse sources, in diverse formats, and from several disciplines. Preliminary steps for supporting reliable multi-disciplinary analysis include data collection, data management, and the implementation of an interoperable sharing system. In an effort to implement this type of multidisciplinary analysis, a working group from the KnowSeas project (www.knowseas.com) created a Spatial Data Infrastructure for the Mediterranean Sea, designed to define and analyze the GEnS concept across various geographical scales. This article describes the implementation of this SDI, demonstrating how an interoperable system can provide strong support in implementing the MSFD under the EA, and how marine spatial planning can assist policymakers in the decision making process