Collaborative Research: Marine Metadata Initiative

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The project proposed is a continuation of the PIs ITR proposal titled "Collaborative Research: Marine Metadata Interoperability Project", proposed as a first step in an effort to improve the ease of use of data from ocean observations by developing broader agreement within the ocean science community on "best practices" for marine metadata. The results of this effort included creation and maintenance of a central, community-oriented, collaboratively developed web site for oceanographic metadata. Addition tasks included references, ontology, standards, and Metadata Cookbook development, Metadata Interoperability demonstrations, and workshop.The current proposal builds on the previous work and recent advances in computer sciences, geosciences, and the biomedical field, and provide guidance on metadata development and application in the ocean science community. The work will support the NSF priority of designing and implementing interoperable observing systems such as ORION, as well as the metadata priorities in the U.S. IOOS DMAC plan. The work will create infrastructure to directly support the successful construction and operation of these major systems, as well as interoperability of many other smaller systems. This will directly benefit the developers and users of marine data systems, including international users.The PI's will engage and inform the community through the continued development of the MMI website, as well as through workshops, email list servers, presentations, and peer reviewed publications. They will build on an existing wide base of support, as evidenced by the attached letters, and provide community-backed leadership toward solving the major metadata challenges in oceanographic science.Broader ImpactsThe MMI activities are a critical component of an overall strategy to provide potential users of marine data the capability to find and utilize the data they require. To NSF, MMI contributes towards providing the ability to find and more fully exploit ocean observations supported through NSF. The purpose of this proposed effort is not to develop the physical infrastructure needed to improve our ability to access, understand and use marine data, the proposed tools (both program oriented and Web-based), documentation, and outreach and training activities will provide for the enhancement of scientific and technological understanding. A program such as the MMI could potentially be an impetus towards facilitating integration across ocean, coastal and estuarine observing domains, although this will take continued funding past two year.