ESIP Update: Welcome Volunteer Leaders, Data Help Desk at OSM20

Good Morning, ESIP,
I'd like to start this Monday Update with a warm welcome to those who were elected earlier this month to serve as volunteer leaders for 2020. You can see their smiling faces and read more about them on the ESIP Board and the ESIP Program Committee webpages.

• Tamara Ledley, President
• Sudhir Shrestha, Vice President
• Rebecca Koskela, Finance Committee Chair
• Denise Hills, Governance Committee Chair
• Mike Daniels, Partnership Committee Chair
• Amber Budden, Data Stewardship Committee Chair
• Becky Reid, Education Committee Chair
• Dave Blodgett, Information Technology & Interoperability Committee Chair
• Lewis McGibbney, Semantic Technologies Committee Chair
• Mark Parsons, At-Large Board Member
• Lesley Wyborn, At-Large Board Member
• Nancy Hoebelheinrich, At-Large Board Member

We are just a little over a week away from the 2020 ESIP Winter Meeting Highlights Webinar to be held on 2/5 at 3 pm ET. The goals for the event are to: 1) share information with those who couldn't attend or who were in other breakout sessions; 2) encourage interest in the session recordings and presentations; and 3) spark ideas for continued work on these topics, both virtually and in-person at future meetings. We hope you will be able to join us for this fast-paced overview. If not, you can catch the recording on the ESIP YouTube Channel afterwards.

This week is front-loaded with some very exciting Collaboration Area telecons, beginning in less than 30 minutes with Cloud Computing! See the full ESIP telecon calendar here.

Have a great week,
Megan

Megan Carter Orlando
ESIP Community Director

Meet the 2020 ESIP Volunteer Leaders
At the ESIP Winter Meeting, we announced those elected to serve as volunteer leaders for 2020. See their smiling faces and read more about them on the ESIP Board Webpage and the ESIP Program Committee Webpage.

• Tamara Ledley, President
• Sudhir Shrestha, Vice President
• Rebecca Koskela, Finance Committee Chair
• Denise Hills, Governance Committee Chair
• Mike Daniels, Partnership Committee Chair
• Amber Budden, Data Stewardship Committee Chair
• Becky Reid, Education Committee Chair
• Dave Blodgett, Information Technology & Interoperability Committee Chair
• Lewis McGibbney, Semantic Technologies Committee Chair
• Mark Parsons, At-Large Board Member
• Lesley Wyborn, At-Large Board Member
• Nancy Hoebelheinrich, At-Large Board Member

Data FAIR at 2020 Ocean Sciences Meeting
EarthCube, ESIP, and AGU along with their partners will be hosting a Data FAIR at the 2020 Ocean Sciences Meeting in San Diego, CA (2/16-2/21). The program, which was just held at the AGU Fall Meeting, provides researchers with opportunities to engage with informatics experts familiar with their scientific domain and learn skills and techniques that will help further their research and make their data and software open and FAIR. The Data FAIR will include Town Halls, Workshops, and the Data Help Desk staffed with experts from the Earth and space science informatics community and demos at Exhibit Hall Booth #322.

More News
Participate in OGC’s Testbed-16 and Shape the Future of Location Technologies
The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is calling for participation in its next major innovation initiative, Testbed-16. Funding is available to offset the cost of participation. Testbed-16 will address some of the hottest geospatial IT topics of this new decade: Earth Observation Clouds; Data Integration, Interoperability & Analytics; Data Containers; and Security. To learn more about participating in an OGC Testbed, join a Q&A Webinar on the 28th January, 2020. To apply to participate in Testbed-16, respond to the Call For Participation by February 9, 2020. 

Webinar: Leaving No One Off the Map: Gridded Population Data for Decision-Making (2/4 at 9:30 am ET)
Join this upcoming webinar, which will assess potential and limitations of diverse major gridded population data sets of the POPGRID Data Collaborative. Speakers will include CIESIN’s Robert Chen and SDSN TReNDS’ Maryam Rabiee. Register at https://buff.ly/3ahzag4.

NSF EarthCube Solicitation & NSF Webinar (TODAY 1/27)
A new NSF EarthCube solicitation for proposals has just been released. Stated deadlines and target dates are listed as March 12, 2020. Learn more about the solicitation here. Projects being accepted for consideration include:

• Science-Enabling Data Capabilities
• Pilots
• Research Coordination Networks (RCNs)
• Supplements – for science adoption or data resource adoption – to integrate NSF-funded work with EarthCube.

Don't miss the webinar on Monday, Jan. 27, 2020 (TODAY) at 1:00 pm EST, where NSF GEO and CISE directorates will share information and host a Q&A on the solicitation:
Join: https://nsf2.webex.com/nsf2/j.php?MTID=mc5730bda0fb585305f33ab298781fa5d
Meeting number: 902 917 734
Meeting password: EarthCube2020!
Audio connection:  +1-510-210-8882 USA Toll
Access code: 902 917 734

For help connecting to WebEx, contact Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) for help at Toll-free: 1-877-669-1782 or Toll: 1-408-906-1181 or International Toll: ++1-916-636-9015.

Group on Earth Observations (GEO) and Google Earth Engine Announce Call to Action for Projects to Monitor the Pulse of our Planet
Shared data means everything to Earth observation researchers. If we hope to solve global problems such as climate change, open data is at the heart of finding answers. Sharing is at the heart of GEO’s latest call to action. In partnership with Google, GEO will select 25 project proposals to receive licenses for Google Earth Engine, to be used to tackle significant societal challenges and improve understanding of our planet.

Google is providing these licenses, valued at US$3 million, to broaden the use of Earth observation data. In keeping with GEO's goal of promoting openly shared data, we require that the chosen projects offer the results of their work to the open science community, including code, algorithms, datasets and results. See more details and apply by March 15, 2020 here.

Share Your Feedback on Competencies of Data Specialists
Please consider taking this survey, which is part of an effort to capture community feedback on potential competencies for data advisors (e.g. data curators – individuals that provide guidance to researchers in the selection, management, sharing, and preservation of their research data), and data service providers (e.g. data librarians – individuals that provide training, infrastructure support, preservation services, and other services to researchers related to their data management needs). The information provided by your response will be integrated into a “Data Advisor” and “Data Services Provider” Career Compass for the American Geosciences Institute, and as input into the process of developing learning assessment capabilities for a future version of ESIP's Data Management Training Clearinghouse.

2020 Gateway Focus Week Applications are Now Open!
The Science Gateways Community Institute offers two Focus Weeks per year. The 2020 sessions are: 

• June 1-5, Columbia University, New York, NY (apply by March 27)
• Nov. 30-Dec. 4, San Diego Supercomputer Center, La Jolla, CA (apply by Sept. 25)

Gateway Focus Week is a five-day intensive workshop that has been carefully designed to benefit teams who want to ensure the sustainability of their gateway projects. Teams engage in hands-on activities that help them articulate the value of their work to key stakeholders. Participating teams produce a strong development, operations, and sustainability plan with a corresponding pitch deck that includes actionable goals. By working closely across teams, participants have the opportunity to learn from each other’s experiences and challenges. Teams also learn how to access consultations, engagement opportunities, and other resources from the SGCI. Apply now!