5th adc meeting

8. Core Task Status: GEOSS Registries and Clearinghouse

D. Nebert gave an overview of task AR-07-01, a core task for development of the GEOSS architecture. In an overview he explained that the Initial Operating Capability (IOC) Task Force was created to document the requirements and support the evaluation of GCI offered components; Web Portal providers are ESRI, Compusult and ESA; GEOSS Clearinghouse providers are Compusult, ESRI, GeoNetwork, and USGS. The Portals, Clearinghouses, Standards and Interoperability Registry, Component and Service Registry and Best Practices Wiki are all operational and being maintained.

In the Standards and Interoperability Registery provided and supported by IEEE has over 100 standards identified. The content is nominated by individuals. Special arrangements complement the standards and are reviewed and approved by the SIF.
The Component and Service Registry is provided by the USA, deployed by George Mason University. There are now 105 components and 90 services registered. Most components are associated with SBAs and services are linked with one or more standards registered with GEOSS.
Coordination between the Service Registry and the Standards Registry is still being implemented to allow nomination of a new Interoperability Arrangement (IA, standards or special arrangements) from within the Component and Service Registry. This would include a current view of available IAs from within the Service Registry as a picklist synchronized from a special web service. Itegration should be complete by November 2008.
A Wiki has been deployed by IEEE in support of collecting best practices. Wiki entries may reference standards entries, but a tighter linkage is probably warranted over time to associate the registry items. Best practices could be searched by standard, standards could be searched based on related best practices, service instances could link to best practices, and vice versa. The necessary details are being investigated.
Further, there is a proposed task led by Japan to organize/register EO ontologies. The user requirements registry will require a common set of observables that can be used to link with the Service Registry and potentially the Standards Registry. A common GEOSS ontology, recognizing each concept/term in the context of the source or authority is required to make this connection, to identify coverage, and to identify gaps in EO data collection.