Social, Political and Financial Issues of Connecting GeoData In and Between Governmental Agencies NSF GeoData Workshop June 17-19, 2014 Boulder, CO Sara J. Graves, Ph.D. Director, Information Technology and Systems Center Board of Trustees University Professor Professor of Computer Science University of Alabama in Huntsville

Social Issues of Connecting GeoData In and Between Government Agencies Advice/Directive from Congress and Advisory groups Impacts of ‘cultures’ of agencies on collaboration, funding mechanisms, etc. Encourage collaboration with other agencies and groups Interpretation of mission of agency Discovery, access and use of data by researchers/ decision makers/ policy makers/public Convincing Congress to fund new as well as continuing programs People aspects offer more challenges than the technical aspects ‘No interest in/support of data’ – but then present research results from analyzing data Entire ‘Data Community’ responsible for impact and sustainability US agencies are leaders in international data and science but we cannot take that valuable asset for granted Interest in geodata by wide segment of population – exploit wisely International aspects

Financial Issues of Connecting GeoData In and Between Government Agencies Funding mechanisms – grants, contracts, etc (open to new mechanisms) Funding timetables – constraints/flexibility Funds for HW/SW/networks/clouds as well as labor Funds for sustainability of data infrastructure Large investments by specific agencies – leverage in and between RFPs for innovative ideas but also for enhancements/transition to next phase/operations Convince Congress to fund new as well as continuing programs In and between agencies funding for collaborations and supplementary funding Funding uncertainty Budgeting implication for broad community of interest in geodata

Political Issues of Connecting GeoData In and Between Government Agencies Advice/Directive from Congress and Advisory groups Policies of agencies - impacts on collaboration, funding, etc Interpretation of mission of agency Policies with regard to discovery, access and use of data Policy and budgeting implications of providing/consuming data for researchers/ decision makers/ policy makers/public Convince Congress to fund new as well as continuing programs Internal and External pressures on many topics such as timeliness and openess Understand and respect boundaries Restrictions on data access and use – ITAR, SBU (sensitive but unclassified) Interoperability issues – cultural and legal Political environments exist not only in legislative bodies

 Science Larger teams, more disciplines, more countries  Data Size, complexity, rates all increasing rapidly Need for interoperability (systems and policies)  Systems More cores, more architectures (GPUs), more memory hierarchy Changing balances (latency vs bandwidth) Changing limits (power, funds) System architecture and business models changing (clouds) Network capacity growing; increase networks -> increased security  Software Multiphysics algorithms, frameworks Programing models and abstractions for science, data, and hardware V&V, reproducibility, fault tolerance  People Education and training Career paths Credit and attribution Daniel Katz - NSF Infrastructure Challenges

THANKS !!

SciDataCon2014, 2-5 Nov 2014  New Delhi, 2-5 November 2014, co-organised by CODATA and ICSU-WDS (World Data System).  Data Sharing and Integration for Global Sustainability  Considering data challenges for international science.  Data to underpin robust science to inform decision-making around sustainability.  Big Data and data integration.  Address challenges for Future Earth and other international science programmes.  Announcement:  Themes, invitation to contribute to discussion and call for papers.  Save the date and join the discussions! See you in New Delhi!