Earthcube – Community-led cyberinfrastructure for data sharing across the geosciences

20 March 2014 Geoff Zeiss

EarthCube is community-led cyberinfrastructure that will enable data sharing across the geosciences. Its aim is to develop a framework to assist researchers in understanding and predicting the Earth system from the sun to the center of the Earth. The goal of EarthCube is to create a community-driven cyberinfrastructure that will enable global data discovery and knowledge management and achieve interoperability and data integration within and across disciplines.

The Earthcube vision is to transform research and data management practices within the geosciences community over the next decade in order to provide new capabilities, including access to data and visualization tools, to researchers and educators.  This initiative will provide a knowledge management framework for the geosciences that will result in improved productivity within the geosciences community and accelerated research on the Earth system.

EarthCube is a collaborative partnership between the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Directorate of Geosciences (GEO) and the Division of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (ACI). It’s also a virtual community with over 2,500 participants, including atmosphere, ocean, computer, information, and social scientists, as well as educators, data managers, and other contributors.

This community has done a great deal of collaborative work since EarthCube was launched in mid-2011. As of September 2013, a new round of NSF awards was made to develop key technologies, promote community building, explore integrative systems, and prototype a governance structure.

In addition to the funded project teams, several Special Interest Groups are in place as virtual teams working together on EarthCube-related projects.

Early in March of this year an EarthCube IT/CS/FOSS Stakeholder Assembly Workshop was held in Boulder, CO.  The workshop was intended to bring together members of the computer and information science communities, as well as representatives from industry and free and open source software communities.

Thanks to Rafael Moreno for pointing me to this.

Geoff Zeiss

Geoff Zeiss

Geoff Zeiss has more than 20 years experience in the geospatial software industry and 15 years experience developing enterprise geospatial solutions for the utilities, communications, and public works industries. His particular interests include the convergence of BIM, CAD, geospatial, and 3D. In recognition of his efforts to evangelize geospatial in vertical industries such as utilities and construction, Geoff received the Geospatial Ambassador Award at Geospatial World Forum 2014. Currently Geoff is Principal at Between the Poles, a thought leadership consulting firm. From 2001 to 2012 Geoff was Director of Utility Industry Program at Autodesk Inc, where he was responsible for thought leadership for the utility industry program. From 1999 to 2001 he was Director of Enterprise Software Development at Autodesk. He received one of ten annual global technology awards in 2004 from Oracle Corporation for technical innovation and leadership in the use of Oracle. Prior to Autodesk Geoff was Director of Product Development at VISION* Solutions. VISION* Solutions is credited with pioneering relational spatial data management, CAD/GIS integration, and long transactions (data versioning) in the utility, communications, and public works industries. Geoff is a frequent speaker at geospatial and utility events around the world including Geospatial World Forum, Where 2.0, MundoGeo Connect (Brazil), Middle East Spatial Geospatial Forum, India Geospatial Forum, Location Intelligence, Asia Geospatial Forum, and GITA events in US, Japan and Australia. Geoff received Speaker Excellence Awards at GITA 2007-2009.

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