The ESIP Executive Committee moved to go forward with promoting the Semantic Web Cluster to Semantic Technologies Committee through the appropriate channels, the 30-day waiting period and then ultimately an electronic vote on the approval by the general assembly.

The proposed addition to the Bylaws would be:

Section 5 – Standing Committee for Semantic Technologies                    

V.5.1 The ESIP Federation shall include a Standing Committee for Semantic Technologies. Its roles are:

  • To encourage and promote research and development of semantic technologies in support of Earth science data management, data discovery, data dissemination and data analysis.

  • To collaborate with ESIP members, working groups, clusters, and standing committees to identify semantic methods and tools that support the adoption of semantic technologies within ESIP and across its member organizations.

  • To foster sharing and reuse of ontologies and controlled vocabularies within ESIP and its member organizations.

  • To provide a collaborative environment for the development of ontology-based standards and controlled vocabularies.

  • To maintain a long-term agenda and roadmap for integration and evaluation of semantic projects within ESIP.

  • To collaborate with external groups and agencies, including international organizations, on behalf of ESIP in regards to semantic technologies and furthering the aforementioned roles.

Draft with ExCom comments
Link to full bylaws: https://github.com/ESIPFed/Governance/blob/master/Bylaws.md

Please comment below or send an email the ESIP's Executive Committee (esip-excom@lists.esipfed.org) by November 9, 2015.