In this COVID-world do you ever feel like we take one step forward and two steps back? That is how the past few weeks have felt to me. I am happy to share that after 14 months of working together fully remotely, the ESIP team was finally able to get together in person! We isolated and tested, and travelled from different corners of the country to spend 3.5 days together last week in coastal South Carolina. We had a great time getting to know each other as individuals and as a team. I am grateful for the time together.
I truly value in-person collaboration. But after much debate and consideration we have made the very difficult decision to hold this coming January’s ESIP meeting in a virtual format only – not hybrid as initially announced. I know this is disappointing to many of you – no one more than me. With travel restrictions still in place for most agencies and organizations, the very high cost of AV support for hybrid meetings, and the desire to be a safe and inclusive organization, we feel this is the best decision at this time. We will consider organizing some local in-person social activities in parallel with the January meeting should conditions allow for that as we get closer to the event.
If you have questions or concerns about this change, I encourage you to reach out to me directly. In the meantime – our Fall activities are well underway. Do you know a great candidate for our ESIP Community Fellows program? Encourage them to apply! Are you available to offer a little of your time to the upcoming Virtual Data Help Desk at GSA2021 (Oct. 11th-13th) by answering questions or sharing a one-pager or recorded demo? Learn more here. Would you like to be more involved in ESIP Leadership? Our nominations process is kicking off soon! And lastly, do you know an ESIP partner that has gone above and beyond in 2021? Nominate them for ESIP Partner of the Year!
Susan Shingledecker
This Week's Collaboration Area Telecons:
Monday (9/27)
Cloud Computing (1 pm ET): Matt Hanson (Element 84) will presenting on STAC for public datasets. He has supported publishing many cloud optimized datasets to public data programs using STAC, including to Microsoft’s Planetary Computer. He will speak about this today and later in the week at FOSS4G: Getting started with STAC for public datasets FOSS4G 2021.
Partnership (3 pm ET)
Meetings Committee (5 pm ET)
Tuesday (9/28):
Information Quality (2 pm ET)
Semantic Tech (4 pm ET)
Physical Sample Curation (5 pm ET): Join to view and contribute to draft “Journal Guidance for Physical Samples and Associated Data.”
Wednesday (9/29)
ESIP Innovation Webinar (1 pm ET): An Earth and Space Knowledge Commons (Ryan McGranaghan – see more info below)
See the full telecon calendar here. Select the meeting you'd like to attend, login instructions are included in description.
ESIP News
Next ESIP Webinar on Innovation: An Earth and Space Knowledge Commons (9/29 at 1 pm ET)
Join ESIP's next Webinar on Innovation, which is generously sponsored by SAIC, to be given by Ryan McGranaghan (Principal Data Scientist & Aerospace Engineering Scientist at ASTRA Associates). Join to hear Ryan's presentation entitled “An Earth and Space Knowledge Commons,” which will highlight a few efforts toward improved knowledge representation systems, emphasizing the importance of thinking in graphs/networks, and spark a discussion toward a framework to address the asymmetries: a knowledge commons. Learn more and find out how to register at https://www.esipfed.org/news/next-innovation-webinar-earth-space-knowledge-commons.
Joint ESIP & RDA Physical Samples Webinar: Supporting Interdisciplinary Sample
Data Discovery, Integration, and Reuse (10/7 at 4 pm ET)
The ESIP Physical Samples Cluster & the RDA Physical Samples and Collections in the Research Data Ecosystem Interest Group are collaborating on a joint webinar series hosted by RDA-US that kicked off earlier this year in June. Learn more and register for the next installment: https://www.rd-alliance.org/ps-interdisciplinarysampledata-October-webinar.
Call for 2022 ESIP Community Fellows (due 10/8)
ESIP Community Fellows are graduate students interested in bridging the gap between informatics and Earth Science. This fellowship provides students a chance to work closely with professionals in an interdisciplinary, cross-sector group (ESIP collaboration area) on current Earth Science problems. Community fellows become engaged in ESIP collaboration areas as rapporteurs, documenting group activities on monthly telecons and at ESIP’s semi-annual meetings. As fellows become more familiar with collaboration-area activities they may choose to integrate their own research, which can result in publication and additional funding opportunities.
Networking with professionals in your research field
Share research to a broader audience
Learn collaboration best practices
Exposure to potential job tracks – government, industry, academic
Nominate an Organization for ESIP's 2021 Partner of the Year Award (due 10/31)
The Partner of the Year Award honors an ESIP Partner Organization that exemplifies the spirit of ESIP in one or more areas through the sharing of a success story. This award is given annually at the Winter Meeting. The awardee will receive a plaque and two free ESIP meeting registrations. This year, we are looking for partner organizations that have supported the 2021 ESIP theme of Leading Innovation in Earth Science Data Frontiers. We are looking for ESIP partners who have:
Been involved in an activity or interacted with ESIP in a manner that led to an innovation related to Earth science data or information;
Helped the Earth science community use or reuse data in new and creative applications, or
Formed or strengthened collaborations and/or worked to increase the inclusivity and diversity for the ESIP Community.
Learn more here and nominate your own or another organization using this form by 10/31.
Martha Maiden Lifetime Achievement Award for Service to the Earth Science Information Community (Nominations due 10/31)
In honor of Martha E. Maiden’s leadership, dedication and tireless efforts to nurture ESIP into a vibrant and mature organization, the Martha Maiden Award was established in 2009 to recognize outstanding service to the Earth science information community. This award honors individuals who have demonstrated leadership, dedication and a collaborative spirit in advancing the field of Earth Science information. This award is named for Martha E. Maiden, NASA Program Executive for Earth Data Systems. Ms. Maiden is widely credited for nurturing the ESIP Federation in its infancy and has overseen its growth and maturity. This award will be presented annually at the January meeting. Learn more and submit full nomination package by 10/31 here.
More News
Register Now for SciDataCon 2021 – Virtual Meeting – (Oct. 18-28)
CODATA and WDS have announced that registration is open for Virtual SciDataCon 2021. Registration is free. Please note that you will need to register separately for each session you wish to attend. The programme at a glance may be viewed at https://codata.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/SciDataCon2021-Programme_Registration.pdf where the registration links for each session are also displayed. You can also find the registration link in each session description, accessible form the full programme: https://www.scidatacon.org/virtual-2021/programme/. A few sessions ESIPers have mentioned so far include:
Inaugural World Data System International Technology Office (WDS-ITO) Data Prize (due 12/1)
The World Data System is an interdisciplinary body of the International Science Council promoting universal and equitable access to quality-assured scientific data and associated services. With generous support from Canada’s New Digital Research Infrastructure Organization (NDRIO), the WDS-ITO is running a competition to highlight the use of WDS Regular and Network member data in Virtual Research Environments. 2 cash prizes of CAD$1,000 each will be awarded. In addition to the prize, we will recognize the winners in early spring 2022 and highlight their achievements on the WDS website. Learn more at https://wds-ito.org/data-prize-competition/.
Job Opportunities Channel in the ESIP Slack Workspace
In case you haven't noticed, there is a lively channel in the ESIP Slack where community members can post and view current job opportunities, like the one posted below. Please feel free to peruse and add openings you are aware of. To find the channel, join the ESIP Slack workspace and then join the #job-opportunities channel.
Volunteer as a Data or Software Expert for the Virtual Data Help Desk at GSA 2021, to be hosted during part of GSA 2021 Connects (October 11th-13th, 2021). This event connects researchers with informatics experts familiar with their scientific domain to learn about skills and techniques that will help further their research and make their data and software open and FAIR. To volunteer, please complete this brief form, as soon as possible by Friday Oct. 1st, 2021. Learn more: HERE
Questions/comments? Reply directly to this note or click the button below to email us at staff@esipfed.org
ESIP is funded with support from NASA, NOAA, and the USGS.
