[unav_all] Data sharing and policy discussion at the UNAVCO Business Meeting

[Meghan Miller]

UNAVCO Community Members,

Among the issues that we will discuss at the Business Meeting at AGU  
is the open data policy.  For historical reasons, we have more than  
one policy in effect and some ambiguity that has emerged from evolving  
styles of geodetic observations, including quasi-permanent deployments  
that don't clearly fall into either campaign or continuous  
categories.  The board and I have begun to review these community  
policies in response to issues raised by the Facility Advisory  
Committee.  Hearing your thoughts is an important part of the process.

The current community data policy was developed by the board and Will  
Prescott five years ago, and was modeled on IRIS's global network for  
"permanent" or continuous sites (immediate archive, immediate sharing)  
and PASSCAL for campaign data (two year embargo).

http://www.unavco.org/community/policies_forms/DataPolicy.html -  
excerpt:
Accessibility
a. Continuous stations. Data will be made publicly accessible as soon  
as it is placed in the archive.
b. Campaign data. Data from campaign sites will be made publicly  
accessible no later than two years after data collection. This period  
may be extended under exceptional circumstances, but only by agreement  
between the Principal Investigator and the sponsoring agency. With the  
PI's permission, data can be released to a particular user before it  
is publicly accessible.

In contrast, and in compliance with our PBO Cooperative Agreement, all  
EarthScope data, campaign or continuous, requires immediate release.   
We have not had internal clarity that establishes whether this applies  
to EarthScope instruments (which may be used elsewhere on a second  
priority basis) or EarthScope footprint work (which may use non- 
EarthScope resources) or both.

The number of experiments that last much longer than historic  
campaigns but do not have permanent installations of infrastructure  
support (communications, power, monument, etc.) is growing.  This also  
adds confusion....   Because our current overarching policy (#1 above)  
that says "permanent" is sometimes confusing to  people making  
continuous but not-forever type observations.  Some of these  
investigators expect a moratorium....

So here are the questions that need to be aired.
1-  Do we want to continue to differentiate between campaigns and  
longer term observations?  If so, how do we define campaigns?

2-   Should we differentiate between domestic (PBO footprint)  
campaigns and harder won data sets such as those collected in work  
overseas?  There is a significant difference in the amount of PI  
effort and there is commonly no reciprocity on open data from other  
countries.  On the other hand, "open data" is among our core values  
and taking the moral high ground on this issue has been a great asset  
to the community, to UNAVCO, and to our sponsorship.

These two questions become coupled by the EarthScope Policy issue.

3-  If we are going to continue to differentiate campaigns with a  
moratorium, can we find clearer terminology for longer-term  
observations and remove the ambiguity?  Permanent seems wrong to me,  
as humankind is transient, as are federal funding cycles.  Others  
rightly argue that continuous may not be literally true either,  
although I think it is more rooted in our way of thinking and talking  
about these things.

4-  If the answer to 1 is yes, should event response data always be  
immediately released, despite where on Earth it is collected?

We will allocate a limited time for this discussion at the Business  
Meeting and open a forum for discussion on the web site at:
http://www.unavco.org/voce/viewforum.php?f=40&sid=3108cc3d4692756006ebd78d44a34f56

Thank you,

Meghan

**********************
M. Meghan Miller
President, UNAVCO
6350 Nautilus Drive
Boulder, CO  80301

Voice:  303/381-7514
By cell:  720/320-0026
Fax:  303/381-7501
meghan at unavco.org




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