CEOS NEWSLETTER No.11

page 6

CONTENTS

News From the Working Group on Information Systems and Services

                        Mr. Takashi Moriyama
                        WGISS Chair, NASDA
Hosted by German Aerospace Center (DLR), the three WGISS Subgroups - Access, Data, and Networks - held their meetings in Bernried, Germany on April 20-24, 1998. Each subgroup held a plenary session, a joint SGs session as well as various task teams meetings. The meeting results were reported to the 6th meeting of the Working Group on Information Systems and Services(WGISS-6).
In conjunction with WGISS-6, on May 12, the European Space Agency (ESA) / European Space Research Institute (ESRIN) hosted an EO Application Support Infrastructures Workshop. The workshop focused on presenting and discussing samples of on-going and planned activities by CEOS members to support EO operational applications. The main objective of the workshop was to provide feedback to the WGISS Strategy Task Team on related issues for future effort. The overall concluding theme was that CEOS should apply more effort to encourage the practical utilization of EO data.
WGISS-6 was held at ESA/ESRIN in Frascati, Italy on May 13-15. The meeting included a range of reports from the WGISS Chair, Vice Chairs, Subgroup Chairs and WGISS level task team leaders. There were also three key discussion sessions, which are summarized below:
  1. WGISS pilot projects plan

    2. This session was focused on three key questions:
    (1) What is the rationale and strategy for WGISS involvement in pilot projects? (why?) It was suggested that WGISS needs to address Information Systems and Services topics of strategic importance to the next generation programs of its funding space agencies and that it needs to demonstrate the clear benefits of success in the adoption and application of its results in these areas.
    (2) Which pilot projects should WGISS pursue? (what?)
    Through WGISS discussion, the following pilot projects were identified as primary candidates:
    - The IGOS pilot projects : The Global Forestry (GOFC), Ocean Biology, and Disaster Management projects.
    - The IGBP Data Integration Project
    (3) What approach and mechanism for supporting the pilot projects should WGISS adopt? (how?)
    Recognizing the importance of this task, WGISS agreed that an individual project support task leader should be assigned to address this role for the project. The candi-dates for the new role of pilot project support task leaders should contact the pilot projects leaders and CEOS project liaison officers to gather information on their require-ments. The pilot project support task leaders should report this information to the WGISS Sub-Groups in September 1998, in Boulder, where the mechanism by which the various task teams might assist should be determined. The pilot project liaison managers will report on this first round of information exchange at WGISS-7.

  2. Collaborative links

    3. The aims of this session were to consider how to promote WGISS achievements, and how to encourage a better understanding of WGISS achievements amongst peer groups, which include user communities as well as commercial and international standardization entities. This session reviewed a number of relevant entities and their work
    - including:
    - The International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS)
    - International Standards Organization (ISO)
    - Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS)
  3. Promotions plan

    4. This session identified the context and targets of the WGISS promotions plan. It concluded that both 'inreach'(promoting WGISS achievements for adoption within the funding space agency programmes) and 'outreach' (beyond CEOS) were important for WGISS. It was agreed to proceed with the proposal put forward by Mr. Churchill and Mr. Moriyama - supported by BNSC - to produce promotional materials for WGISS. These would include a small brochure promoting key WGISS achievements, a corresponding OHP set, a WWW version, and a mailing list to assist distribution of these materials.
The meeting was concluded by Mr. Moriyama and Mr.Churchill, who reviewed the discussions and agreements of WGISS-6. The key issues were that WGISS had taken steps towards a new way of working through pilot projects. At WGISS-7, we can expect to understand the impact of supporting the initial requirements of the pilot projects, on task team activities.

Next meeting
The next WGISS meeting (WGISS-7) will be hosted by NASDA and held at the Kyoto Royal Hotel, Kyoto, Japan on October 20-23, 1998. WGISS-8 will be hosted by BNSC and will be held in the UK during the week of May 10 (tentative schedule). For more information on WGISS, please contact Takashi Moriyama, WGISS Chair, at moriyama.takashi@nasda.go.jp or Fax +81-3-5401-8702, or Hiroshi Ishiguro, WGISS Secretariat, at ishiguro@restec.or.jp or fax +81-3-5561-9541.

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