EarthCube Building Blocks: Software Stewardship for the Geosciences

地球科学和环境科学软件对于数据分析和产生关于地球的新知识和理解至关重要。由于使用该软件进行的操作、计算和预测的可重复性对科学、商业和监管应用程序非常重要，因此必须捕获、管理、管理由地球科学家及其同事生成的软件，并应请求提供给所有感兴趣的各方。该项目通过在计算机科学家、软件开发人员和所有地球科学领域的科学家之间建立伙伴关系来启动这一进程，目标是或创建一个软件生态系统和软件管理文化，使地球科学家和其他人能够使他们的软件可用，并将其作为宝贵的科学资产进行管理。这项工作将审查创建有效的在线工具的可能性，这些工具将指导用户通过软件使用和开发的最佳做法，包括将代码组件化、描述和记录其代码、许可其程序以及维护可重复使用的代码。它还将探索培训地球科学家的最佳和最有效的手段，并提供适当的教育/培训材料，以极大地提高地球科学家更有效地开发和管理他们自己、他们的学生和其他人生成的软件的能力。这项工作的更广泛影响包括为科学建设基础设施，让计算机和地球科学领域的早期职业专业人员参与进来，以及提高地球科学从业人员的网络成熟度。该项目支持一个地理上分散的核心团队(加利福尼亚州、宾夕法尼亚州和科罗拉多州)，并与致力于推动地球科学地理空间需求的全国学术组织联盟合作。

Geoscience and environmental science software is crucial for data analysis and generating new knowledge and understanding about the Earth. Because reproducibility of operations, calculations, and predictions done with this software is important for science, commercial, and regulatory applications, it is important that the software generated by geoscientists and their colleagues be captured, curated, managed, and made available to all interested parties upon request. This project initiates that process by building partnerships between computer scientist, software developers, and scientists across all geoscience domains with the goal or creating a software ecosystem and a culture of software stewardship that will empower geoscientists and others to make their software accessible and manage it as a valuable scientific asset. This work will examine the possibility of creating effective on-line tools that will guide users through best practices in software use and development, including componentizing codes, describing and documenting their codes, licensing their programs, and maintaining reusable code. It will also explore the best and most effective means for training geoscientists and providing appropriate educational/training materials to dramatically improve the ability of geoscientists to more effectively develop and curate software generated by themselves, their students, and others. Broader impacts of the work include building infrastructure for science, engagement of early career professionals in both computer and geoscience, and increasing cyber sophistication of geoscience practitioners. The project supports a core team that is geographically distributed (California, Pennsylvania, and Colorado) and partners with a nation-wide consortium of academic organizations dedicated to advancing geoscience geospatial needs.