Funds are provided to assemble key modules and adopt standards and protocols to build an interoperable national Geoscience Information Network (GIN) that already has strong community engagement and broad consensus. The GIN is being developed in the context of national and international communities for enhanced global geospatial data interoperability. In an NSF-sponsored workshop, the nation's geological surveys agreed to the development of a national Geoscience Information Network (GIN) that is distributed, interoperable, uses open source standards and common protocols, respects and acknowledges data ownership, fosters communities of practice to grow, and facilitates development of new web services and clients. Geological surveys have an estimated 2,000 3,000 databases that represent one of the largest, long-term information resources on the geology of the United States and collectively constitute a national geoscience data backbone for research and applications. This project will implement workshop recommendations to achieve the community vision by developing technical components, integrating them into a working network, and actively link geological survey and academic-based databases and services/tools to demonstrate the applicability, scalability, and transference capacity of the GIN.
The U.S. Geoscience Information Network (USGIN) was organized as a result of a 2007 meeting between the Association of American State Geologists (AASG) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) where the topic was opportunities for making data more accessible and interoperable across agencies and to the public. The recommendation was that the AASG and USGS work together to create a distribute, national "Geoscience Information Network" of digital Earth Science data using common standards and protocols, preserving ownership, credit, and control of data, and building on existing data systems. The Surveys have unique statutory roles in gathering, archiving, and disseminating geoscience data. The broader impacts of the INTEROP USGIN are to provide for fast and efficient discovery, access, and integration of online digital data. The benefits to the science community, industry, government, and society result through easier (and lower cost) access to vast amounts of public domain geoscience data that have been either buried away in files or on computer hard drives. Geoscience data supports environmental planning, resource development, hazard mitigation, and policy making. Because USGIN is built largely on open source software and global protocols and standards, the information sharing network can be applied to any online digital dataset. This project demonstrated data interoperability through initial partnerships with GEON, EarthChem, and USGS Community for Data Integration. Most noticeably though, after only a year of design and testing as part of this project, USGIN was selected as the model for the more than $35 million investment by the U.S. Department of Energy for the Geothermal Technologies Program’s National Geothermal Data System (NGDS - www.geothermaldata.org). Almost simultaneously, the Energistics consortium initiated a pilot project to use USGIN for data integration in the upstream oil and gas industry worldwide. NGDS preserves legacy geothermal relevant data and new data as it becomes available, providing access through a USGIN style system of data integration and discoverability, reducing the costs of exploration associated with geothermal development by better informing those development decisions. NGDS is currently the only online, distributed, interoperable geoscience data system in place. Standardized access to data resources creates collaborative opportunities in science, government, and business. Development and use of shared protocols and interchange formats for data publication creates a market for user applications, facilitating data discovery and utility for the benefit of society. As with the development of the Web, we are starting to see third party applications being developed or adapted to tap into the USGIN-delivered data resources. That trend should accelerate as USGIN products increase in quantity and use. The intellectual merit associated with this project were to convert the broad, generalized agreement between federal and state Surveys into a functional, operational data integration framework that is scalable and transportable across not only the geosciences but other scientific disciplines and the geospatial data. USGIN demonstrated the functionality of a Web-based, distributed data network, using open source software, to integrate data from disparate formats, software and operating systems, and to decouple data from applications. This concept was largely untested when we began but it is now exploding in its adoption and implementation in all fields. Web applications and Web services are being produced so quickly and widely it is impossible to track them. Data integration ("interoperability") is catching on as well, but at a slower rate due to its technical complexity and the challenges in educating users about what it is and how it works. In general however, the USGIN concept is being rapidly replicated worldwide. Data discoverability is central to a USGIN style system which requires the registration of resources through quality metadata. USGIN recommends an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) metadata profile. In order to create a USGIN style system there are two practical components required: a catalog and data-registration system. The following comprise practical Catalog/Registration components of a USGIN styled system: A Resource Repository: simple mechanism for building metadata records and a place to upload files if the system’s users need such a place. A Catalog: container for the project’s metadata records with a Catalog Service for the Web (CSW) interface for accessing records. A catalog gathers metadata from the project’s resource repository, individually managed Web-accessible folders full of metadata XML files, or other project’s catalogs. A User-Oriented Search Interface: Website that people can use to find information available in any of the project catalogs. The protocols and standards developed within USGIN are ready for deployment nationally and internationally. While funding for the INTEROP-GIN project from NSF has ended, we are working to develop the strategies and recommendations associated with the Sustainability Plan which includes continued networking and partnerships for the implementation of USGIN style systems across the globe. In the near future we hope to expand our efforts nationally and globally, in partnership with other emerging data networking activities in the geosciences and other fields.
