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Metadata infrastructure developments in Europe

Metadata infrastructure developments in Europe. John R. Rowley BSc.Eng. C.Eng. GEOBASE Consultants Ltd. Themes. Consensus processes in Europe Research funding in Europe Specific characteristics of the spatial information sector GI Metadata projects in Europe The ETeMII project The Issues

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Metadata infrastructure developments in Europe

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  1. Metadata infrastructure developments in Europe John R. Rowley BSc.Eng. C.Eng. GEOBASE Consultants Ltd

  2. Themes • Consensus processes in Europe • Research funding in Europe • Specific characteristics of the spatial information sector • GI Metadata projects in Europe • The ETeMII project • The Issues • Cross-sector cooperation • European out-reach?

  3. Consensus processes in Europe • International standards & consortia • CEN and CEN/ISSS Workshops • National standards • Proprietary ‘standards’ • Results from cooperation between regional organisations, European and national agencies etc.

  4. Research funding in Europe • National and European level • Policy linked and multi-themed • Information society • Environment etc • Open to all legal entities & public bodies • Partner countries outside greater Europe • Universities need to make up their funding through industrial cooperation

  5. Research funding in Europe (2) • Projects can be 1 year to 3 years or more • Must have partners from 2 or more countries • Projects can attract funding € 100k - € 5m • Three basic types of project :- • Key action projects • Cross programme projects • Support measures

  6. Research funding in Europe (3) • Key actions for the information society work area: • Systems and services for the citizen • New methods of work and e-commerce • Multimedia contents and tools • Essential technologies and infrastructures • Multiple Action lines within key actions • Cross programme projects select 2 or more action lines • Funding for the 15 states is 50%

  7. Research funding in Europe (4) • Support measures attract 100% funding • Typical budget € 1 million • Most support measure proposals are initiated by consortia • ETeMII is a support measure • (Note: choosing acronyms for projects is a major distraction in Europe!) • called FP-5 began in 1999 • Preceded by FP-4 & followed by FP-6

  8. Why is ‘spatial’ special (different)? • Birth pangs –30 years as a range of discrete management tools for complex data • Confusion of vertical/ horizontal sector perceptions • Emphasis for many years on data portability rather than harmonisation/ understanding • Multiple reference systems that defy consensus processes • Accumulation of inconsistent, incomplete, narrowly specified legacy data sets/sources

  9. GI/spatial metadata in Europe • For every US federal agency there are 15 in Europe • For every US federal agency function there exists a European equivalent • eg European Environment agency • or an ‘Association’ of national agencies • European agencies have mandates that respect the subsidiarity principle • Result: • less well defined missions etc • less well converged infrastructure activities

  10. GI/spatial metadata in Europe (2) • Metadata services projects: • CEO, CIP and access to EO data • ETD/CDS European Topic Centre – Catalogue of environmental Data Sources • GDDD access to National Mapping Agency data • GISEDI GI trading • GEIXS geological institute data sources • ESMI metadata gateway project • La Clef gateway project for public sector data • localised projects eg CLEAR, BORDER aimed at local cross (national) border cooperation

  11. GI/spatial metadata in Europe (3) • Metadata convergence initiatives: • MADAME – evaluation of metadata services • Joint Action Workshop (JAW?) – voluntary MoU aimed at rationalising some of the project approaches • ETeMII – metadata within an overall ‘infrastructure’ context • ETeMII and JAW will hold a first joint meeting in March 2000

  12. ETeMII – basics/mission • € 1.4 million over 2 years start 01/01/2000 • Kick-off 11/01/2000 Colorno (Parma), Italy • Organise a network of excellence, bringing together most of the stakeholders in territorial management; particular attention will be paid to user's needs. It will build a consensus on the technical issues that are the foundation of ETeMII: • reference data, data access policy • interoperability, standards implementation • integration of space tools: GNSS, EO and telecom • active participation to global initiatives: OGC, ISO, GSDI

  13. ETeMII – partners

  14. ETeMII – partners (cont.)

  15. ETeMII – work programme • Reference data: to reach a European and global (GSDI) technical consensus on the definition of reference data and availability, at affordable cost. • Metadata: through workshops, awareness activities, to build upon existing initiatives, to reach some consensus on the way to meet user's needs, and to remove barriers to data access. It is important to enable searching of any kind of information with a single tool. A particular focus will be given to semantics and the use of multiple interoperable thesauri to record the multi-cultural and multi-lingual characteristics of the European Information Society.

  16. ETeMII – work programme (2) • Standards and interoperability: the work will be based on seeking (new) interoperability standards requirements, and offering awareness on existing very extensive but possibly incomplete interoperability standards activities. At the same time it will ensure that there are new observation windows between pure research activities and standards development.

  17. ETeMII - Metadata • Organisation and moderation of discussion list • Desk study on metadata and semantics • Input from partners experience • Organisation of European workshop focusing on metadata and thesauri • White paper on metadata and semantics, including multi-lingual aspect of thesauri. • Leader: GERE sa (LU)

  18. Spatial sector – metadata issues • Too many projects? • need for healthy balance between competition and cooperation on approaches to data discovery, metadata element definition etc. • does ‘spatial’ define a market group with clear boundaries? • Is the metadata vision clear and correct? • over-much emphasis on harmonised metadata • what about semantical processing to overcome differences in similar legacy data sets? • should knowledge engineering be included?

  19. Cross-sector cooperation? • ‘spatial’ includes all information into knowledge processing that depends on location: • we are arrogant enough to claim that 80% of all knowledge processing is spatial! • consequently, we should have a strong market sector out-reach in ETeMII

  20. European out-reach? • Global out-reach is built into ETeMII in a practical way based on existing partner activities: • The Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) • ISO/IEC JTC 1 (several points of liaison) • ISO/TC 211 (geomatics) • Open GIS Consortium • ECMA • What more could and should be done? • Is ETeMII a liaison opportunity for other regions to out-reach to Europe? • What more can and should be done?

  21. ETeMII contact point: http://www.ec-gis.org/etemii

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