Collaborative Research: SGER: Research and education software requirements for an environmental sensor network at the OTS La Selva Biological Station

环境传感器网络是长期生态研究和环境监测系统的重要组成部分。有线和无线传感器和传感器平台、Web服务和面向服务的体系结构、动态实时数据网格、语义数据集成和工作流体系结构的成熟技术现在正在融合，为利用传感器网络进行环境研究创造了巨大的机会。该合作项目将建立一个由来自美国和拉丁美洲的环境研究人员和技术人员组成的工作组，以评估热带研究组织位于哥斯达黎加东北部的热带雨林基地La Selva生物站规划中的环境传感器网络的最终用户(即科学家和学生)的软件要求。该工作组将由活跃的热带生态学家、计算机科学家和在利用传感器网络进行环境研究和教育方面具有专业兴趣的信息学家组成。一名可用性工程师将组织为期一年的、以用户为中心的工作，并将促进结构化的研究过程，以网络可访问和发布的报告的形式生成全面的需求分析。这一及时的努力将继续由美国和拉丁美洲的环境生物学家和网络技术专家组成的工作组之间的国际合作，该工作组由私人投资机构于2005年启动。它的具体目标是增加对传感器网络及其连接的利用，以促进全球环境数据的提供。

Environmental sensor networks are an essential part of long-term ecological research and environmental monitoring systems. Maturing technologies for wired and wireless sensors and sensor platforms, for web-services and service oriented architectures, for dynamic real-time data grids, and for semantic data integration and work flow architectures are now converging to create outstanding opportunities for utilizing sensor networks for environmental research. This collaborative project will establish a working group of environmental researchers and technologists from the U.S. and Latin America, to evaluate the end-user (i.e. scientists' and students') software requirements of a planned environmental sensor network at the Organization for Tropical Studies' La Selva Biological Station, a rain-forest site in northeastern Costa Rica. The working group will be comprised of active tropical ecologists, computer scientists, and informaticists with professional interests in utilizing sensor networks for environmental research and education. A usability engineer will organize the year-long, user-centered, effort and will facilitate a structured research process to produce a comprehensive requirements analysis as a web-accessible and published report. This timely effort will continue an international collaboration among a working group of U.S. and Latin America environmental biologists and network technologists, started by the PIs in 2005. It has the specific aim of increasing utilization of sensor networks and their connections to contribute to the availability of global environmental data.