Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
learning and hands-on activities. The resulting transformation in today's education
and research enterprise creates new opportunities for advancement, but also many new
challenges. For example, the success of this enterprise depends heavily on the avail-
ability of a state-of-the-art, robust, fl exible, and scalable cyberinfrastructure, and on
the timely, open and easy access to quality data, products, and tools to process, man-
age, analyze, integrate, publish, and visualize those data.
An empirical observation that the number of transistors on a chip doubles every
18 months, in the information revolution are well known as philosophical retribution
of Moore's Law. In education and research, rapid advances in computing, commu-
nication, and information technologies have also been revolutionized the provision
and use of data, tools, and services. Similarly, the explosive growth in the use of the
Internet in education and research, largely due to the beginning of the World Wide
Web, is also well documented. Technological, social, and cultural trends have shaped
the development of data services is somewhat less well understood. In shaping the
use of a new generation of modern, end-to-end cyberinfrastructure for solving some
of the most challenging scientifi c and educational problems, the initiation of digital
libraries, web services, grid computing, open standards, protocols, and frameworks,
open-source models for software, and community models have been important factors,
both individually and collectively.
The purpose of this study is to present a broad overview of these and related
issues largely from the author's perspective, along with a brief discussion of the how
the above changes are enabling new approaches to applying data services for solving
integrative, multidisciplinary geoscientifi c problems. To that end, the chapter focuses
on documenting some of the changes in the conduct of geoscience and science edu-
cation, highlighting the revolution in cyberinfrastructure and documenting how the
resulting technological advances and approaches are leading to an evolution from once
proprietary and centralized data systems to open, distributed, and standards-based data
services that facilitate easier data integration and greater interoperability.
The layout of the chapter is as follows. A few key scientifi c and education driv-
ers, IT trends that have shaped new approaches to providing data services in the geo-
sciences. Specifi c issues related to data services, including ideal data service attri-
butes, data categories, and data analysis and integration methods. Conclusions on how
today's cyberinfrastructure and data services are reshaping the science and education
landscape.
KEY DRIVERS
Data, information, and embedded knowledge are central to the advancement of science
and education, as articulated in National Science Foundation (NSF) Geosciences
Beyond 2000: Understanding and Predicting Earth's Environment and Habitability
(NSF, 2000). The aforementioned report recognizes that progress in research and edu-
cation in the geosciences will require “... a commitment to improve and extend facilities
to collect and analyze data on local, regional, and global spatial scales and appropriate
temporal scales,” including real-time observing systems, and modern computational
facilities to support rapid computation, massive data archiving and access, distribution,
