Slide # 1

Report to the GEO ADC on theStandards and Interoperability Forum

12 Sept 2007National Academy of Sciences

Washington, D.C. IEEE Committee on Earth Observations

Slide # 2

Content

• Summary of SIF activities to date• SIF ToR (for approval by ADC)• SIF Operating Procedures• Outcomes from review of “proposed” GEOSS

standards and special arrangements• Future meetings

Slide # 3

Activities to Date

• SIF CFP released, June– 24 responses

• First meeting, July, Barcelona– 13 in person + 11 WebEx participants– Discuss ToR

• Email list, ftp site, website established• Second meeting, Aug, telecon

– 12 participants– Agree on draft ToR

• Third meeting, Sept, D.C.– 13 participants– Discuss Ops procedures– Proposed special arrangements evaluation

Slide # 4

ToR: Purpose and Goal

• The Standards and Interoperability Forum provides advice, expertise and impartial guidance on issues relating to standards and interoperability for GEOSS.

• The SIF’s goal is to enable ever greater degrees of interoperability among GEOSS components through facilitation, technical analysis, advocacy and education

Slide # 5

ToR: Objectives

• The primary function of the SIF is to address situations where GEOSS components cannot interoperate using one of the registered standards or other interoperability arrangements.

• The SIF will perform analyses and make recommendations to GEO Members and Participating Organizations that come to it for assistance with interoperability issues.

• The ADC will call upon the SIF to support consensus-seeking in matters of GEOSS interoperability.

• The SIF will support education and outreach to increase awareness of standards used in GEOSS.

Slide # 6

ToR: Objectives - Continued

• The SIF will encourage the broader use of existing standards in recommending interoperability solutions for GEOSS, using formal international standards organizations as much as possible.

• Where appropriate, the SIF will identify gaps in current standards and promote the creation of standards through existing Standards Development Organizations to fill such gaps.

• The SIF will help to maintain content of the GEOSS Standards and Interoperability Registry which contains information on the interoperability arrangements employed among GEOSS components

Slide # 7

ToR: Composition, Organization and Reporting

• The SIF will be composed of experts nominated by GEO Members and Participating Organizations. The SIF may also draw on subject matter experts globally to support its objectives and goals, who are not designated as SIF participants. The SIF will organize itself and will work by consensus of its participants.

• The SIF will maintain a publicly-accessible data base of SIF actions and their status.

• Unless otherwise agreed, any costs arising from activities under these Terms of Reference will be borne by the participants individually, their organizations or members and participating organizations of GEO. The GEO Secretariat will provide administrative support to the SIF.

• The SIF will be reviewed by the ADC periodically.

Slide # 8

Ops Procedures: Approach and Functions

The SIF will:• Analyse proposed interoperability special arrangements coming

from components offered to GEOSS• Respond to other interoperability issues brought to it• Enhance and broaden the scope of applicability for interoperability

arrangements that are registered to GEOSS• Demonstrate the benefits of interoperability, showcasing successes

of projects and initiatives that use GEOSS registered standards to achieve interoperability

• Educate component contributors, and, as appropriate, data consumers and integrators, regarding GEOSS registered standards and the resources available to assist in using them.

Slide # 9

Ops Procedures: Processes

• Monitor relevant activities within GEO to determine whether there are impediments in the application of interoperability arrangements that are registered to GEOSS

• Monitor interoperability challenges, identify impediments to GEOSS objectives, identify gaps in current standards, and promote the creation of standards by appropriate standards organizations to address these issues.

• Identify organisations and individuals that can play a bridging function among GEOSS components and Societal Benefit Areas (SBAs)

Slide # 10

SIF Processes - 2

• Facilitate cooperation among the many organizations involved in selecting, developing and using diverse standards applicable to GEOSS.

• Facilitate linkages and partnerships between established Standards Development Organizations, users and new groups or organizations interested in collaborating in GEOSS standards efforts.

• Respond to requests within scope of its ToR

Slide # 11

Ops Procedures: Meetings

• The SIF will meet at such times and places as determined by its participants, using Robert’s Rules of Order.

• All meetings will be public and announced to the SIF mail list and posted to the SIF homepage calendar. Notes of meetings will be posted to SIF ftp site.

• As necessary, members of the SIF will meet telephonically or through email correspondence to determine a course of action for high priority issues needing short term response.

• Representatives from SDO, other stakeholders will be invited to meetings of the SIF as appropriate and applicable.

• The SIF will maintain a data base of SIF meetings, issues and actions and their status. This database will be accessible through the SIF web site.

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Ops Procedures: Reporting

• The SIF chair or designee will make a status report to the ADC at each of their meetings, and to the ADC co-chairs as requested.

Slide # 13

GEOSS Standards Registry

• Is a component of the GEOSS “core architecture”• Is itself a contributed component operated and

maintained by the contributing organization, presently the IEEE Committee on Earth Observations (ICEO)

• Is a reference database for interoperability arrangements that are registered to GEOSS

• Is referenced by the service registry• Is accessed by web UI or GEO Portal via standard

search protocols

Slide # 14

Current Model

• Standards or special arrangements not already in the registry (i.e. not selectable from pre-populated lists during the service registration process) should be submitted to the SIF if the component contributor wishes to have that standard or special arrangement considered for inclusion in the special arrangements registry.

Slide # 15

GEOSSComponents

GEOSSServices

GEOSSStandards

GEOSS Special Arrangements

exposereference

maybecome

nominate

GEO Members and

ParticipatingOrganizations

offer

GEOSS Registries

U.S.A. IEEE

UDDI ebRS CSW SRU Web UIWeb UI

SIFExternal

StandardsBodies

Subject Matter

Experts

Slide # 16

SIF receives proposed

Interoperability Arrangement

Interoperability Arrangement

entered in Special Arrangements

Register

Expert Review

Pass

•Request for Comments posted to SIF website.•Announcement made to SIF list.•Other discipline experts invited to comment..•Consult component contributor.

Arrangement remains as metadata to registered

component service

Picklist in Services Register

updated to include new

Interoperability Arrangement

Standards and Interoperability Forum Process

Task Group formed

Pre-evaluatio

n

Fail

Fail

Pass

Work with contributor

Slide # 17

Criteria for Entry into Registry

1. The proposed Interoperability Arrangement supports the GEOSS architecture principles in effect at the time of the proposal

• “must be based on non-proprietary, open standards, and profiles must be specified when standards are not sufficiently specific.”

• “interoperability specification states exactly how the service and the data must be described”

2. The proposed Interoperability Arrangement is well-documented (in terms of semantics, syntax, service, security, internationalization)

3. The proposed Interoperability Arrangement has support within at least one user community.

4. The proposer asserts a commitment to maintaining, and making the proposed Interoperability Arrangement more interoperable, e.g. building gateways to other standards and arrangements already registered.

5. The proposer asserts a commitment to provide additional information as necessary for implementation within the GEOSS context.

6. The proposed Interoperability Arrangement is suitable for wider use within GEOSS

These criteria will be reviewed by the SIF for possible revision

Slide # 18

Evaluation of Special Arrangements

• A list of special arrangements was extracted from the service registry records, since very few new arrangements have been proposed through the standards registry website.

• This circumvention of the proposed mechanism for bringing standards before the SIF was done to allow the SIF to gain experience in deliberating on the appropriateness of standards for GEOSS, and to speed the population of the standards and interoperability registries.

• SIF will contact contributors to determine whether they in fact wish to submit a proposal – response requested before October meeting in Xi’an

Slide # 19

Special Arrangements List

Standard Type Arrangement Name Arrangement Description

Metadata DIF Directory Interchange Format

Catalog/Registry Service ISDC Catalog Service (blank)

Data Access ServiceGEO Seq.No.89 Capacity Building Task CB-06-04

Operational service to deliver data via communication satellites

Data Access Service Hypocenter Service Web Service to earthquake events and phase

Data Format TDWG LSID Vocabularies http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/TaxonConcept

Data Access Service GBIF REST ServiceAccess to GBIF taxon data via REST type web service

Data Access Service OGC Sensor Planning Service 1.0.0 OGC doc 07-014

Data Access ServiceOGC Sensor Observation Service 1.0.0 OGC doc 06-009r5

Slide # 20

Summary

• The SIF has been formed• A ToR has been drafted and submitted to the

ADC co-chairs• Operating Procedures have been established• Needs:

– Identify Subject Matter Experts– Enhance breadth of representation from GEO

Members and Participating Organizations

Slide # 21

Backup

Slide # 22

Taxonomy of Required Information

• Proposed standard must specify– Catalog/registry service

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Possible Proposers

• A proposed standard or interoperability arrangement needn’t reference a GEOSS service exposed by a component.

Slide # 24

Component Contributor

Register Component

Reference registered standard

Capture info. on interoperability

arrangement

Begin Service Registration

Component has

service interface?

Uses registered standard?

Y

Y

N

N

Registration Done

Registration Done

Pass proposal to

SIF

GEOSS Component and Service Registration Process