1. IRI Data Library Overview http://iridl.ldeo.columbia.edu/
Specialized Data Tools
Maproom
Generalized Data Tools
Data Viewer
Data Language
Dataset
Variable
ivar
multidimensional
So here is the IRI/LDEO Data Library shot at this, connecting the space of data and data manipulations. At the bottom we have the compute engine/data organization, which is what maps the data/manipulation space into URLs, i.e. the WWW.
Built on top of that are some general data tools, i.e. they can be applied to any dataset and adapt accordingly. There is a data language, making it possible to specify sophisticated analy ses. And there is a data viewer, making it possible to quickly graph data in a number of standard ways.
And there are also more specialized tools, designed for particular audiences to view specific things. We have a Maproom (soon to be or already map rooms) which contains continuously updated views of aspects of the climate system, as well as specialized tools aimed at particular audiences that let a use extract views/data with a few clicks.
There is a tradeoff here: the general tools are great, but require a user to navigate a vast set of datasets and a vast set of possible manipulations, which not everybody is up to. The specialized tools are a way to make sophisticated c alculations easy to access.
IRI Data Collection
URL/URI for data, calculations, figs, etc

2. Data Flow based Analysis with explicit semantics
Results
analysis
data
data
Semantic Web
One can even include the reverse linkages, so that the final result is connected to the earlier results, enchancing the documentation of the results way beyond what is seen in a paper or presentation. This has the potential to greatly improve the reproducibility of the analysis, since anyone that the is really interested can ultimately see all the steps. Also, the analysis can easily be rerun, if, for example, the data is extended in time or otherwise modified.
Data
Data
analysis

3. RDF/Owl Metadata Browser
Browses through the metadata the search interface is based on. Includes several alternative term-sets for the search interface, and a number of ontologies collected from the Internet.

4. Faceted Search http://iridl.ldeo.columbia.edu/ontologies/query2.pl?...
Here is a user interface built on that ontological structure