The project is the initial two-year phase of an annual forum on cyberinfrastructure for environmental research and education. The primary purpose is to promote collaboration, the exchange of information, and enhanced efficiency in the design and development of a new generation of environmental observing systems over the coming decade. The forum will foster interdisciplinary collaboration, the sharing of lessons learned, a reduction in unnecessary duplication of effort and agreement on common approaches to common issues. Each year's activities will include a large workshop and a number of smaller meetings. An interactive web-site will be maintained to gather and disperse information on environmental cyberinfrastructure. Participants will include scientists from major academic environmental observatory development efforts, relevant cyberinfrastructure development projects, representatives of federal agencies engaged in environmental observations, together with some commercial users of environmental cyberinfrastructure. The meetings and workshops are expected to be interdisciplinary, bringing together members of a variety of environmental science and engineering disciplines, computer scientists, and social scientists. The effort will be guided by a multi-disciplinary steering committee drawn from various environmental observatory and cyberinfrastructure development efforts.
