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Discovery Cluster
ACTIVE
What we do: Stay abreast of emerging developments in the discipline of data discovery in the profession of Earth science data management.
Why we do it: Data discovery is one of the first steps in the data life cycle. It is also the F for Findable in the FAIR Principles that has driven a lot of data management policy over the past decade.
Chair: Jonathan Blythe (Bureau of Ocean Energy Management)
About this Cluster
There is a whole track in the data management profession for building and maintaining discovery portals for programs and organizations. It’s one of the first places that data managers start discussing data standards and best practices. It’s a must-have investment for organizations; it serves as a window to the World Wide Web and exposes an organization’s data and information to its stakeholders.
There is a lot going on across the community in the area of Data Discovery, so sometimes discovery topics will be addressed elsewhere, like on the ESIP Schema.org Cluster, the Semantic Technologies Committee, and through the Open Geospatial Consortium, to name a few. However, where the Discovery Cluster distinguishes itself is in being able to focus on special topics and to drill down to a greater detail.
We invite speakers who bring a unique perspective or approach that is not already well represented at ESIP. Special topics include:
- Usability studies for data portals
- Discovery challenges focused on specific communities
- Unpacking federal mandates and what it means for organizations trying to comply with these requirements.
Join us on the third Thursday each month at 3 PM Eastern.
Register through the ESIP Community Calendar.
Register through the ESIP Community Calendar.
Get involved with the Discovery Cluster
You can get involved or contribute in lots of ways, whether it be highly technical or conceptual in nature. This is an area that benefits from having involvement of people with a lot of different skillsets to contribute to solving Earth Science data management challenges.
Joining this cluster is an opportunity to learn about techniques and approaches that could help improve your organizations’ data management program. For early career professionals, it is a great way to learn data management skills that are transferable, making you an asset to future employers.
Cluster Activities
Applications focus for the UBD tool
The Discovery cluster would like to revisit how applications (including NASA’s and other agencies like the National Weather Service, and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management) can be represented in Usage Based Discovery.
Indigenous Data Discovery
We will pursue promising practices and tools for the discovery of Earth science information that are respectful of different belief systems and present Earth science information in a holistic manner that is responsive to concerns and interests expressed by specific Indigenous communities.
Usability studies for data portals
A lot goes into making a website intuitive and easy to use. This issue is even more pronounced for finding data on Earth science portals. This can involve usability studies or other forms of user engagement. We can also tackle it from the perspective of data logic, and simplifying the way data are organized and labeled.