The LinkedEarth project and NOAA paleo are proud to announce the first ever workshop on paleoclimate data standards, to be hosted in Boulder, Colorado, USA, from 22-23 June 2016.
Venue
National Climatic Data Center
325 Broadway Street Boulder, CO 80305-3337
David Skaggs Research Center (DSRC) (Building 33)
Room GC-402 (Outreach Classroom)
Workshop aims
The workshop will gather paleoclimate researchers, data managers and computer scientists to:
- introduce the community to the LiPD data standard and gather user feedback
- standardize the way climate data are described and archived by different communities/labs/researchers
- explore synergies with existing projects, within and beyond EarthCube
- discuss and critique the first paleoclimate ontology
- present the LinkedEarth platform and build capacity around self-curation and analysis of paleoclimate data.
Scientific rationale
Observational work in paleoclimatology exemplifies the "long-tail" approach to data collection: most observations are gathered by independent scientists with no formal language for describing their (meta)data to each other – or to machines – in a standardized fashion. This results in a "Digital Tower of Babel", making the curation, access, re-use and valorization of paleoclimate data far more difficult than it should be, hindering scientific progress. A clear solution to this problem is to establish data and metadata standards for paleoclimatology.
Standardization would pave the way for many radical improvements in paleoclimatology, as it has in any other field of science or industry. Firstly, it enables crowd-sourced data curation, which would relieve a significant burden from data stewardship agencies and bring more dark data to light. Secondly, it enables universal, open-source software libraries to be built, ensuring that the whole community has access to sound, state-of-the-art tools to process, analyze, compare and model all of the paleoclimate data adhering to the standard. Thirdly, it allows semantic technologies to enter the realm of paleoclimatology, automating some of the most tedious tasks of data management, and allowing complex queries and tasks that support scientific investigations. Further, storing standardized paleoclimate dataset as Linked Open Data will uncover relationships with other Linked Open Data, within and outside the geosciences, thus broadening the impact of paleoclimatology.
Context
The LinkedEarth project was recently funded by the EarthCube program of the US National Science Foundation to (1) enable the curation of a publicly-accessible database by paleoclimate experts and (2) foster the development of paleoclimate community standards.
Through multiple discussions with the community, the LinkedEarth team has developed a preliminary data standard (Linked Paleo Data, or LiPD), which is being used by the PAGES2k consortium, and is being considered for adoption by the wider PAGES organization. This standard is the cornerstone of all the code being written as part of LinkedEarth to store, curate, visualize and analyze paleoclimate data.
It is now time for this standard to be discussed and extended via face-to-face discussions. Because of its crucial role in paleoclimate data stewardship, the National Center for Environmental Information’s World Data Center for Paleoclimatology is an essential partner for US and international efforts at paleoclimate data standardization.
Logistics
Only 40 people can fit in the seminar room, so there is a hard cap on the number of participants (US + international).
Funding is limited, so there is no guarantee of full reimbursement. Please contact project member Julien Emile-Geay as soon as possible to discuss funding options.
Travel to Boulder
Air: Fly in/out of Denver. Use US flag carriers for domestic flights (NSF rules).
Ground: the AB bus of the Denver RTD comes and goes directly from/to DIA. The stop at Baseline and Broadway is within walking distance of the hotel. The Green Ride Shuttle (Boulder-DIA) is a great, eco-friendly alternative to the SuperShuttle, and has discounts for participants.
Accommodation
Please make reservations at Best Western Plus Boulder Inn. Two nights (June 21-22) will be reimbursed - for the rest you are on your own. Co-rooming is encouraged to save on costs. Contact Julien Emile-Geay to discuss potential pairs. Use group code "EarthCube" when booking. The hotel is walking distance from the venue.
Confirmed participants
Robert Arko, LDEO, CS/ontologies/data management arko@ldeo.columbia.edu
Elizabeth Bradley, CU Boulder, CS/AI/age modeling Elizabeth.Bradley@colorado.edu
Kim Cobb, GaTech, corals/speleothems/geochemistry kcobb@eas.gatech.edu
Simon Goring, Uni Wisc, paleoecology simon.j.goring@gmail.com
Darrell Kaufman, NAU, lake sediments/glacial landforms/data synthesis Darrell.Kaufman@nau.edu
Bronwen Konecky, COAS/CU Boulder, lake sediments/data synthesis bronwen.konecky@colorado.edu
Kerstin Lehnert, LDEO, data management lehnert@ldeo.columbia.edu
Shaun Marcott, Uni Wisc, paleoclimate, glacial geology smarcott@wisc.edu
Jud Partin, Uni Houston, speleothems judpartin@gmail.com
Andreas Schmittner, OSU, modeling/paleoceanography aschmitt@coas.oregonstate.edu
Kaustubh Thirumalai, UT Austin, paleoceanography kau@ig.utexas.edu
Jack Williams, Uni Wisc, paleoecology jwwilliams1@wisc.edu
LinkedEarth project members
Deborah Khider, USC, paleoceanography/stats/modeling dkhider@gmail.com
Nick McKay, NAU, paleoclim/limno/geoinformatics Nicholas.McKay@nau.edu
Julien Emile-Geay, USC, climate dyn/geoinformatics julieneg@usc.edu
Yolanda Gil, USC/ISI, CS/AI/semantics gil@isi.edu
Daniel Garijo, USC/ISI, CS/AI/semantics dgarijov@gmail.com
NOAA NCDC members
Eugene Wahl, WDC, Paleo data mgmt/stats/pollen eugene.r.wahl@noaa.gov
Carrie Morrill, WDC, Paleo data mgmt/glaciology carrie.morrill@noaa.gov
Bridget Thrasher, WDC, Paleo data mgmt/library science/ontologies bridget.thrasher@noaa.gov
Wendy Gross, WDC, Paleo data mgmt wendy.gross@noaa.gov
Bruce Bauer, WDC, Paleo data mgmt bruce.bauer@nooa.gov
Further information
For more information, check here: http://linked.earth/?tribe_events=paleoclimate-ontology-workshop
Additionally, the workshop will take place after the C4P hackathon, and is expected to be of interest to many of the same attendees.
Post-meeting material
PAGES Magazine workshop report
> Paleoclimate data standards (vol.24, no.1)