Policy Committee Meeting Summary: May 30 - June 1 1996
Boulder, Colorado
Participants
| Members | Representatives | UPC Staff
| Facilitator |
| Otis Brown (Chair) | David Fulker (UPC) | Sally Bates | John
Huyler |
| Robert Fox | Robert Gall (NCAR/MMM) | Ben Domenico |
| Colleen Leary | Bernard Grant (NSF/ATM) | Jo Hansen |
| John Merrill | Clifford Jacobs (NSF/EAR) | Linda Miller |
| Steve Mullen | Donald Johnson (Trustees) | Sandra Nilsson |
| Perry Samson | Mohan Ramamurthy (U. Ill./Users) |
| Julie Winkler | Tim Spangler (COMET) |
Administrative Matters
The next meetings of the Policy Committee will be:
3-4 October, in Washington, D.C.
23-24 January 1997, in Miami, Florida
Action 1:
The UPC will establish a password-protected Web directory for Policy
Committee materials, including the summaries of past meetings.
Action 2:
Action 9 from the September 1995 meeting--which states that the Policy
Committee aganda should include a discussion of Unidata's name--will appear
on the agenda for the October 1996 meeting.
Status Reports
Director's Report and Budget Report
Copies of Fulker's report and of his transparencies were distributed at the
meeting. Copies of Nilsson's transparencies were in the notebook.
Discussion
- People are really interested in Level II radar data; this may be an
opportunity to form a partnership (possibly with a vendor) to provide these
to users.
- There was considerable discussion of the potential of involving Unidata
in EOS; concerns were expressed that EOS represents different players,
different vested interests and enormous amounts of data; EOS also raises the
question of whether Unidata wants to be involved only with selected
products.
- The state of current funding for the program from NSF underscores the
need for Unidata to seek funding from other sources. Potential avenues might
be through EOSDIS and the NASA/NOAA GEWEX/GCIP Programs.
Action 3:
The UPC, with help from Otis Brown, will develop a Web page of information
on EOS products of potential interest to the Unidata community.
Action 4:
The UPC will develop a worst-case scenario in terms of budget; in the
process the UPC will identify what it believes must be protected at all
cost.
Action 5:
The UPC will explore avenues to diversified funding, preferably on a 5-year
basis.
Action 6:
The UPC will discuss with NSF the possibility of accessing funds from the
EHR directorate.
Users Committee Report
Minutes from the recent meeting of the Users Committee were in the
notebook. Ramamurthy noted that the Users Committee had passed a resolution
asking the Policy Committee to follow up on Fulker's letter to the NWS re:
NIDS data. He also reported on the Users Committee's plans for next summer's
workshop.
The terms of three Users Committee members expire this year. Linda Miller is
coordinating the collection of nominations for their replacements.
Discussion
- Users keep reiterating their interest in Unidata providing access to
historical data.
- NCEP is undertaking a data reanalysis effort and it has goals concerning
the provision of data access for education; Unidata might want to explore
the potential of partnering with NCEP on this.
Action 7:
Nominations for Users Committee membership will be accepted by Linda Miller
until June 15. The Policy Committee will then, via email discussions and
preferably by the end of June, make a final selection from the nominations.
NASA Report
Arthur ("Fritz") Hasler was unable to attend the meeting; he submitted a
Web-based report that is now availbale at
http://fanny.unidata.ucar.edu:80/NASA%20IITA
NOAA Report
Doug Sargeant was unable to attend the meeting. Bob Fox spoke with Doug and
a summary based on this conversation appears in the notebook.
NSF Report
Bernard Grant presented slides prepared by Cliff Jacobs. Some highlights:
- NSF's current budget allocation (FY 96) represents an increase of 4.6%
(in constant dollars).
- The National Performance Review recommended that NSF focus on its core
responsibilities, which include funding shared-use facilities; general
purpose academic facilities should be funded at the institution and state
levels.
- NSF is emphasizing the integration of education and research; one NSF
goal is to have a larger fraction of the facilities it funds dedicated to
education; NSF is also interested in technology for education and one of its
initiatives targets the use of multimedia in education (Learning and
Intelligent Systems).
Discussion
- The current interest at NSF in integrating education and research may
provide an opportunity to identify sources of funding for Unidata; in its
awards, however, EHR seems to require cost-matching by the recipient
institutions, which makes no sense for Unidata.
- NSF's interest in technology for educataion fits in with Unidata/COMET
discussions at the joint session held on Thursday.
Joint COMET/Unidata Meeting
The Policy Committee joined the COMET Advisory Board for a meeting to
examine possible synergy between the two UCAR programs. The joint meeting
was preceded by an address by UCAR President Rick Anthes on two items of
concern to the UCAR community: HR 3322 and Public Law 104-13, both of which
could impact UCAR programs such as COMET and Unidata. An organization called
Commercial Weather Services Association is concerned that Unidata
particularly is in direct competition with private industry. During the
ensuing discussion, it was noted that Fulker already had plans to write an
article for BAMS focusing on Unidata's role in coordinating the cooperative
effort of the university community to secure data delivery for its members
at most advantageous terms. In addition, UCAR will draft a white paper
response to the CWSA concerns with Spangler and Fulker.
The joint meeting began with overviews given by the directors of the two
programs. In addition, COMET staff member Susan Jersuroga presented an
overview of the COMET Educational Resource Center. In addition to the
official presentations, NSF representative Clifford Jacobs noted that NSF is
concerned with establishing a management structure that ensures coordination
between the two programs so that gaps--areas that are NOT being adequately
addressed by either program--can be identified.
Discussion
- The origins, reporting structures, funding structures, and other user
communities of the two programs were discussed and compared. The difference
in the "cultures" of the two programs was noted as an area of
concern. COMET's lack of an equivalent to the Unidata Users Committee was
identified as a significant difference and it was suggested that Fulker and
Spangler may want to explore how the Unidata Users Committee might provide
university representation to COMET.
- The university community's interest in using multimedia in education was
one area of possible synergy. However, the needs of the two communities are
distinct. COMET's case studies, for example, are designed for operational
forecasters; while they are welcomed by the universities, the university
users need supporting data and educational materials to make them more
useful in the educational arena. In addition, the university community has
moved to the Web; providing case studies in CD form rather than on the Web
poses problems.
- In a previous meeting the COMET Advisory Board had passed a resolution
asking UCAR management to provide coordination among programs such as
Unidata and COMET. The joint meeting was one result, but others believed
that informal coordination by Fulker and Spangler would probably be more
effective than a formal management effort.
- The development of common software tools was identified as another area
of possible synergy. COMET's work to develop GARP (a graphical user
interface for GEMPAK) will be shared with Unidata, for example, and COMET
runs Unidata's LDM software; working groups with members drawn from both
programs have been formed in the past and will be formed as needed in the
future.
- The support for a common workshop was cited as a further example of
cooperation. COMET has provided support for Unidata User Workshops in the
past and will do so again for next summer's workshop. In addition, COMET and
Unidata will coordinate the COMET faculty course material to complement the
Unidata Workshop focus on satellite meteorology.
Resolution 1:
The Unidata Policy Committee encourages the UPC to stay actively informed on
COMET activities and plans and to coordinate and work with COMET where
synergy exist. Specifically, the Committee asks the Undata Director to
report on such activities in his status reports.
Strategic Planning
The committee devoted an entire day to strategic planning in preparation for
writing the next Unidata proposal to NSF. What follows is a very brief
summary of the discussions; a draft outline for the proposal based on the
discussions will be prepared for the next Policy Committee meeting.
Principles of Software Development and Support
The Policy Committee adopted the following principles to guide the changes
in Unidata software and software support:
- As soon as possible, increase the fraction of Unidata software that:
- Runs under Java
- Is built upon a common framework for georeferenced data objects
- Utilizes Internet for maintenance
- Develop a framework for (Java-based) georeferenced data objects that:
- Builds on netCDF
- Utilizes a networked view of aggregated data holdings
- Is compatible with the (dynamic) IDD flows
- Proactively interact with organizations that are playing lead roles in
relevant areas: scientific data objects; distributed-access models;
visualization; georeferencing; and GIS
- Remains sensitive to legacy issues.
Areas of consensus:
- Unidata's process of governing works
- Unidata's credo works
- Unidata must continue to balance service, support and development
- Unidata needs to explore other avenues of funding
- Unidata must continue to work near (on) the frontiers of technology
- Unidata must continue to serve both research and education
- Technology shifts will require changes in UPC staff assignments, hence
budgets for staff development must be added
- Unidata needs to incorporate interactions with other disciplines but
these interactions should be "natural"
Areas needing further discussion:
- UPC role in technology shifts (implementation issues) and how to manage
the transition from current to (new, revised, ...) display applications
- Role of the UPC in K-12 outreach
- How to involve other disciplines in Unidata
- Development of curriculum materials (including the suggestion of making
this a tear-off section in the proposal)
- Establishing partnerships to develop technology
- Handling of very large data sets
- Developing user-friendly systems for small colleges
- Definition of data access
- Access to archives
- Data in different formats
- range of data (meteorological, hydrologicalm EOS, GIS, ...)
List of Resolution and Action Items
Resolution 1:
The Unidata Policy Committee encourages the UPC to stay actively informed on
COMET activities and plans and to coordinate and work with COMET where
synergy exist. Specifically, the Committee asks the Undata Director to
report on such activities in his status reports.
Action 1:
The UPC will establish a password-protected Web directory for Policy
Committee materials, including the summaries of past meetings.
Action 2:
Action 9 from the September 1995 meeting--which states that the Policy
Committee aganda should include a discussion of Unidata's name--will appear
on the agenda for the October 1996 meeting.
Action 3:
The UPC, with help from Otis Brown, will develop a Web page of information
on EOS products of potential interest to the Unidata community.
Action 4:
The UPC will develop a worst-case scenario in terms of budget; in the
process the UPC will identify what it believes must be protected at all
cost.
Action 5:
The UPC will explore avenues to diversified funding, preferably on a 5-year
basis.
Action 6:
The UPC will discuss with NSF the possibility of accessing funds from the
EHR directorate.
Action 7:
Nominations for Users Committee membership will be accepted by Linda Miller
until June 15. The Policy Committee will then, via email discussions and
preferably by the end of June, make a final selection from the nominations.
Unidata Homepage
This document is maintained by
Sally Bates <sally@unidata.ucar.edu>
Questions or comments can be sent to
<support@unidata.ucar.edu>.
This page was updated on
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