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Hi, I would argue that we should stop this idea that data are just numbers and strings and everything else is "metadata". This is a cause of these kinds of disconnection issues at least in part. Since 1980, data has meant OBJECT - i.e. a structured thing - so a Measured quantity object has properties like the measured value with units, physical quantity type etc. These are NOT metadata. These characterize what we mean by a measured quantity. Let's start by defining the objects of interest and THEN we can have metadata about them. The objects of interest are surely more than just numbers and strings!! Cheers Ron BTW - We are going to add a Sensor Web or Sensor Network Academic Component (peer reviewed, publication of proceedings) to GeoWeb 2010. We are looking for people to chair the Program Committee. Anyone interested? -----Original Message----- From: galeon-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:galeon-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Tom Whittaker Sent: August 20, 2009 9:55 AM To: Robin, Alexandre Cc: Ben Domenico; Unidata GALEON; wcs-2.0.swg Subject: Re: [galeon] [WCS-2.0.swg] CF-netCDF standards initiatives I may be ignorant about these issues, so please forgive me if I am completely out-of-line....but when I looked at the examples, I got very concerned since the metadata needed to interpret the data values in the "data files" is apparently not actually in the file, but somewhere else. We've been here before: One of the single biggest mistakes that the meteorological community made in defining a distribution format for realtime, streaming data was BUFR -- because the "tables" needed to interpret the contents of the files are somewhere else....and sometimes, end users cannot find them! NetCDF and ncML maintain the essential metadata within the files: types, units, coordinates -- and I strongly urge you (or whomever) not to make the "BUFR mistake" again -- put the metadata into the files! Do not require the end user to have to have an internet connection to simply "read" the data....many people download the files and then "take them along" when traveling, for example. If I simply downloaded the file at <http://schemas.opengis.net/om/1.0.0/examples/weatherObservation.xml> I would not be able to read it. In fact, it looks like even if I also got the "metadata" file at: <http://schemas.opengis.net/om/1.0.0/examples/weatherRecord1.xml> I would still not be able to read it, since it also refers to other servers in the universe to obtain essential metadata. That is my 2 cents worth....and I hope I am wrong about what I saw in the examples.... tom -- Tom Whittaker University of Wisconsin-Madison Space Science & Engineering Center (SSEC) Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) 1225 W. Dayton Street Madison, WI 53706 USA ph: +1 608 262 2759 _______________________________________________ galeon mailing list galeon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx For list information, to unsubscribe, visit: http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/mailing_lists/
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